Miss Seeton Paints the Town by Hamilton Crane

Someone is setting fires.  The fires were enough to worry about without it turning into murder.  Reluctantly, the police chief asks if Miss Seeton can help...

Farrago and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published today.

Miss Seeton paints what she sees in her mind's eye but she doesn't like sharing them.  They're almost like a caricature and they embarrass her.  The police find them informative though.  It does take some time before it makes sense but it always seems to show the crux of the matter.

The local folk are trying to win the competition for the prettiest village so they have George take present day photos and have Miss Seeton paint pictures that show the improvements they would like to have made to inspire people to dress up their houses a bit.  The only picture that is a bit odd is the one that depicts Miss Seeton's home.  It appears there's a fire there...

There are three different forms of skullduggery in this story.  The neighboring town is trying to ruin the lawns and plants so they will win.  A tavern owner isn't who he says he is.  And the town's mole killer is doing a side business in the woods selling badgers to men who wager on dog fights.

When Miss Seeton finds a body in the woods on a nature walk with students, she is upset and determined to help find out who is burning things and why the woman died.  As is usual, it does get solved but mostly by accident and only because so many emergency vehicles converged on her home they couldn't get away.  

At this point, you'd think those on the wrong side of the law would avoid her village.  They do tend to keep her name out of the paper but still...