Murder Outside the Lines Book Review

 

Murder Outside The Lines

By: Krista Davis

Kensington Books

Kensington

Publish Date 28 September 2021

#MurderOutsidetheLines#NetGalley

I would like to first thank Kensington and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity for reading and reviewing this book.

I gave this book 4 stars. It is the third book in the Pen & Ink Mystery. For the most part I was able to catch on for not having read the first two books in the series. I actually read this book fairly quickly and enjoyed myself while reading. The book is barely over 300 pages.

The main character is a manager, Florrie at a bookstore called Color Me Read. This story takes place in Washington DC during October. The owner of the store, Professor Maxwell receives an odd package in the mail. This package has a human skull and a mirror. The package came from a friend, Ellis Willoughby the Fourth.

The store has a reading one night and the author, Hilda Rattenborst is known for physic abilities. She sees something just before her reading and is a little weirded out. She is able to go on with her reading and then something else happens during this time that she actually faints. She tells everyone that there is evil in the room. And she also tells them that she saw a foot rolled up in a rug. Florrie is wondering if this is just a roost to sale more of her books.

Fat forward a few days and Florrie does find a foot rolled up in a rug in a neighbor's yard. It ends up being the employee of the bakery shop where she buys things for the bookstore. Who killed him and why is he buried the front yard of the neighbors? There also ends up being another murder and this one is Ellis who sent the skull to Maxwell. Again, why is he killed? Do the two murders connect or are they separate? What is happening to their small town?

There are a lot of characters in this story, and it was hard to figure out if they have any reason for being in the story. Some did even if they had a small part. Everyone seems to know everyone. The setting of Halloween really made this story because it gave it a spooky vibe.

I will be reading more about these characters and will back track to the first book for more background on the characters.