Murder Outside the Lines

August 30, 2021
It’s almost Halloween in Davis’s enjoyable third Pen and Ink mystery (after 2018’s The Coloring Crook), and coloring book designer Florrie Fox, the manager of the Color Me Read bookshop in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, arranges for psychic Hilda Rattenhorst, the author of Spooktacular Ghost Stories, to sign her books at the shop. Hilda staggers into the event and announces that she has seen a murder. When pressed for details, she says that she saw a foot protruding from a rolled-up carpet. The police believe Hilda was the victim of a Halloween prank. A few hours later, as Florrie is walking home, she hears a commotion coming from the house of Cyril Oldfield, a loyal Color Me Read customer. She rushes in and finds Cyril lying on the floor, his throat slashed, barely alive. Other strange occurrences lead her to believe that a murderer is stalking the streets of Georgetown. Florrie makes a charming sleuth, and the well-paced plot is just complicated enough to keep readers guessing. Hopefully, Florrie will be back soon. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds.