Includes A Front and Back Cover for You to Color! Life is looking rosy for Florrie Fox, manager of the Color Me Read bookstore in Georgetown, Washington D.C. She’s working on an adult coloring book of gardens, her romance with Sergeant Eric Jonquille has entered a new chapter, and the bookstore’s weekly coloring club is a source of friendship and entertainment. No member is more vibrant than … member is more vibrant than Dolly Cavanaugh. Dolly likes to say she was blessed with beauty and cursed with lousy husbands, but at least she has a grown daughter and a stunning brownstone to show for it!
When Dolly’s love of garage sales results in her showing up at Color Me Read with a rare book in hand, Florrie is astounded. The Florist, the earliest known coloring book, was first published in 1760. An original copy would be worth a fortune—and someone else knows it. That same evening, Florrie finds Dolly dead on the floor of her apartment, a corner of a coloring book page clutched in her hand. As Florrie delves into Dolly’s past and her personal effects, she discovers a skeleton in the closet—literally—and a whole lot of shady suspects. One of them is an expert in the fine art of murder, but can Florrie draw the right conclusion?
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The Georgetown bookstore Florrie Fox manages has added a weekly coloring group, and Florrie has enjoyed getting to know the regulars. One of them, Dolly Cavanaugh, also enjoys bargain hunting at estate sales, and one week she comes in excited about her latest find, a copy of The Florist, a rare adult coloring book from the 1700’s. However, later that night, Florrie finds Dolly dead with a corner of a piece of paper in her hand. That’s all that can be found of book Dolly just bought. As secrets begin to come to light, Florrie is left to wonder how well she really knew Dolly. Was the book the motive for Dolly’s murder? Or did a secret from her past catch up with her?
I was charmed by the first in the series, and I enjoyed this one just as much. The setting may be a neighborhood in the Washington DC area, but by sticking to the neighborhood, it still feels like a traditional cozy setting. And what a setting! I’d love to spend hours browsing in this bookstore. Florrie is a great lead character, and she heads up a cast of equally fun characters. It’s hard to picture most of them as killers, in fact. The plot is filled with twists and complications. I began to suspect a few things, but I still had huge gaps I hadn’t figured out before I got to the end. I do feel the ending was a bit rushed, and a few things got glossed over as a result, but that’s my only issue with the book. As with the first, the cover can be colored, and there are five recipes at the end.
The Coloring Crook is the second book in the Pen and Ink Mysteries series.
Florrie Fox is still enjoying the home that her boss, Professor John Maxwell is renting her at a very affordable price and managing his bookstore, Color Me Read.
Florrie has recently started a coloring group called Hues, Brews, and Clues. One morning, Dolly Cavanaugh, a member of the group, comes into Color Me Read all excited. She had just come from an estate sale where she had purchased a coloring book that appeared to be very old. Florrie examined the book and was sure that it was the first known coloring book called The Florist published in the 1700’s, and could be priceless. Later, as Florrie is closing Color Me Read, she notices that Dolly had left her purse and decides to drop it off at Dolly’s home. When she arrives, instead of finding a very happy Dolly, she finds a very dead Dolly and clutched in her fingertips is a small piece of paper that Florrie feels was torn from The Florist. A day or two later Dolly’s estranged daughter, Maisie, arrives and wants to get her mother’s estate settled as soon as possible. Florrie offers to come back and help Maisie clear out her mother’s effects and to hopefully find some clues as to who the killer might be. What she doesn’t expect to find is another dead body. She was clearing some bookshelves in the attic when she finds the skeletal remains of a human behind the bookcase. Florrie with help of her police detective, Eric Jonquille, and some of her friends from the bookstore set off to find the killer of Dolly and find out, if possible, who the skeleton was.
This is a great follow-up to the first book in the series, Color Me Murder. The book is well-plotted written and has an interesting cast of characters. Delicious recipes are also included with the book.
I will be watching for the next book in this interesting series.
This was a very good read and a good second book in this new series by Krista Davis.
I really enjoyed the first one of this series and was very excited to get this one as well from NetGalley to read. The characters are a lot of fun and this mystery was very good and also very sad in many aspects. I did guess who the killer was, but only because they were truly very suspicious. There are plenty of red herrings which makes it fun and a second mystery that was a little harder to uncover. And even though the killer is revealed, there truly was no happy ending in this one; well, there is a little happy ending, but not like other cozies that I have read. I cannot go into details as I don’t believe in spoilers, but there was a definite undercurrent of sadness throughout this whole book.
I really like Florrie a lot. She is a unique main character – she is happy to be mostly single [she and Eric have only been dating a month and I think she still is unsure about why he is even with her], she is independent and she loves her life. She is a talented artist and a good manager, and even though her younger sister doesn’t think so at times, she IS a good sister. It is her independence that I really enjoy and that fact that she doesn’t need to rely on a man or her new boyfriend to get things done. It is becoming rare in the cozy world to have a main character like that and so I adore Krista Davis for giving us a great character like Florrie.
I only have one complaint about this book – the reveal was…odd? It didn’t even really feel like a reveal and I have to wonder if something was left out because this was an ARC? It was very uneven and choppy and when I got done I was still unsure if I had really read the reveal or not. I knew I had gotten the right person pegged, but it still was very uneven and choppy and I was a bit confused at the end. And after sleeping on it, I am still a bit confused. At least the killer was caught; I guess that is all that matters!
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Florrie Fox is happy. She is working a Color Me Read where she has started a coloring book club. She looks over and sees coloring books she has created on the shelves. She is working on one now featuring beautiful gardens. Her relationship with Sergeant Eric Jonquille is entering a new phase, and she has settled in nicely to her boss John Maxwell’s guest house.
In The Coloring Crook, Dolly Cavanaugh, a member of the coloring book group, takes Florrie to an estate sale. Later Dolly comes into the bookstore showing off one of her purchases. A very rare coloring book, which Florrie does her best to authenticate. This book could be worth a fortune. Dolly makes a HUGE mistake by touting her amazing purchase on social media. People start coming out of the woodwork wanting to buy this book, including the woman who sold the book at the estate sale.
Florrie stops by Dolly’s home after work and finds poor Dolly on the floor dead with a piece of a page of the 1760 coloring book in her hand. The rest of the book is missing. The police believe she died of natural causes but Florrie believes it was clearly murder. She feels responsible for not warning Dolly to keep her prize safe and secret until it could be sold through a reputable party. She decides to do a little sleuthing on her own and she makes some surprising discoveries. She also has compiled a good list of suspects. When the police finally get on board she thinks their suspect is being set up. She must be right because now she has a target on her back.
Because we share a name, this Dolly immediately had a soft spot for Dolly Cavanaugh. We have a few things in common but I am very close to my children and have one wonderful husband. I do like a good garage sale find and am enjoying the adult coloring book craze. I was sorry she had to be the victim but I loved that story the evolved from her death.
The book had a perfect pace and was well-written. The characters were very engaging and developed. The author has taken the core characters in a very pleasing direction. The story was complex with more than one mystery to solve. Ms. Davis did take a few legal sidesteps with no will being produced or read while Dolly’s daughter started disposing of her mother’s belongings and was giving tenants notice because she was selling the house very quickly. The case was still open and one new discovery should have stopped her actions in their tracks. That aside I truly enjoyed the story and am looking forward to the next book.
The author informs readers that the coloring book referenced in her story, The Florist is real and that one of the copies is at the Peter F. Raven Library/Missouri Botanical Gardens. So short of a lengthy road trip I just had to look the book up online and found several pages. You can check out pictures here. I love reading fiction stories where I can learn something too.
This book can be read on its own but I recommend starting with Color Me Murder. Both books have covers ready for you to color.
I adore this series of an adult coloring book creator at night, who works at a book shop during the day. Author Krista Davis has really created a world that I can envision and would like to visit. Fun!
The Coloring Crook is the second book in the Pen & Ink Mystery series and I loved it just as much as the first one. Florrie is such a friendly and down to earth character that it makes me feel calm, relaxed and happy to solve the mystery with her.
It follows a common theme with the setting being a book store but there is so much more to it that it is a lot different than other book store mysteries and feels fresh and interesting.
A great plot with twists and some fun family secrets make for great entertainment. I highly recommend this excellent story and series to any cozy mystery lover.
I requested this book from NetGalley and am thankful that Kensington and the author provided me with an advance copy.
Book 2 in a series that I’m starting out of order because – I missed book 1. I didn’t catch any spoilers from the first book.
The Good: Krista Davis writes amazing characters that you can’t help but get attached to and she’s not afraid to kill them off. You feel the loss, the devastation, and the confusion right along with the rest of the characters. I didn’t put all the pieces together very early and there was an abundance of misdirects to keep you guessing. There were actually two mysteries in the book. The secondary mystery, I thought was pretty open and shut but I was pleasantly surprised. It was so in-your-face obvious that you almost groaned only to find out you had the smallest piece of the puzzle figured out and there was a lot more to it than you thought. The primary mystery, I was positive I had figured out. I was wrong though. I like being wrong when it comes to guessing “whodunnit” and realizing later the various misdirects.
The Bad: If you have a priceless book or a book worth a significant sum of money, you explain to the police that it is a rare book and the value. Then, police look at things differently and take a theft seriously. The whole “oh, it’s just a book, whatever” attitude was highly overdone and that bothered me. Granted, there are those who value books a great deal and those who don’t see the value in them at all. I feel that both were represented but there is a character throughout the book that was portrayed as such a bumbling idiot I couldn’t see how they stayed in business.
The Summary: I highly recommend this book. I’ll be going back to read Book 1 at some point and certainly look forward to more in the series.
Thank you to Krista Davis, NetGalley, and Kensington Books for giving me the chance to read this book and share my honest thoughts and opinions with others.
This is such a fun series! I love how the main character, Florrie, creates her own adult coloring books. In this book, one of Florrie’s coloring club members, Dolly, finds a very rare coloring book at an estate sale. Later that day, she is found murdered and all sorts of people are trying to get their hands on the coloring book, which has gone missing. Along the way, another member of the club, Edgar, keeps getting attacked. Secrets and crazy incidents throughout the book. I love the characters and the setting for the book. I can’t wait to see what’s next and see Florrie and Eric’s relationship develop more!
Continuing adventures of Florrie Fox, though each mystery is a self-contained story. We catch back up with Florrie, still managing Color Me Read and living in the carriage house. Estate sales are the name of the game in this installment and a CMR regular brings a particularly rare find to Florrie for identification. Then things get complicated when people come out of the woodwork to buy the item and the owner winds up dead and the item goes missing.
This is another delightful tour through Georgetown, Washington DC with fun characters who feel like they could be friends in real life and I very much enjoyed this book and look forward eagerly to the next book in the series.
Florrie Fox manages a bookstore in Washington, D.C. and is an adult coloring book artist. When her friend Dolly shows her a rare first edition coloring book she found at an estate sale, Florrie unwittingly becomes a target when the estate wants the valuable book back plus international buyers seek to find the book, also. Dolly hid her precious find before someone killed her.
More than one mystery is skillfully blended into this plot and the pace is steady and absorbing. The author has outdone herself inserting mysterious characters into the storyline at different points making you wonder ‘who on earth is this person’ before nicely connecting all the dots at the end. The cast of characters, whether good ones or not-so-good ones, are each enjoyable in their given roles. Delicious recipes to try at end of book.
I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and Kensington Publishing. Thank you.
Intriguing Mystery
The Coloring Crook is the second book in Krista Davis’ Pen & Ink Mysteries series. The storyline is well plotted and fast-paced, the delightful characters are well developed, the twists and turns, and red herrings, kept me turning the pages. Ms. Davis’ writing style is very descriptive and makes the reader feel as if they are experiencing everything first hand. There are plenty of suspects, multiple mysteries, and reveal was surprising.
Florrie Fox is the manager of the Color Me Read bookstore in Washington, DC and enjoys creating adult coloring books. She lives in the carriage house on her boss, Professor John Maxwell’s, estate, has an adorable tabby cat named Peaches who often accompanies her to the bookstore, and is dating Sergeant Eric Jonquille. While attending an estate sale, Dolly Cavanaugh, a member of the bookstore’s weekly coloring club, Hues, Brews, and Clues, comes across a rare coloring book, The Florist, the earliest known coloring book, was published circa 1760. Percy McAllister, the estate sale manager, priced the book incorrectly and Lucianne Dumont says it was sold by mistake and wants it back. Florrie and her sister, Veronica, find Dolly dead on the floor of her home, with what Florrie suspects is a corner of one of the coloring book pages clutched in her hand. The authorities originally believe Dolly suffered a heart attack, but it’s soon determined that she was poisoned. Everyone loved Dolly, who had been married four times, is survived by her estranged daughter, Maisie. At Maisie’s request, Florrie is going through Dolly’s book collection to determine if any were valuable and help her decide what to do with them. While sorting the books in the attic, Florrie discovers a skeleton hidden behind a walled-in bookcase. Florrie is drawn into multiple mysteries and wants to find out who killed her friend, stole the book, and, if possible, the identity of the skeleton was, as well solve a couple of other mysteries.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
I love this series. The protagonist, owner of a bookstore and a coloring book designer at night, is charming as well as clever. It’s an added bonus to learn about the history of the coloring book. I love how this author fleshes out her characters and makes reading a mystery fun.
The Coloring Crook by Krista Davis is the second book in the Pen & Ink series and was a entertaining addition to this series.
Florrie attends an estate sale with her sister and friends/patrons of the bookstore. Although she finds nothing of interest to her she does meet a sleazy young man who maligns books. However, one of the patrons does find a rare book at the sale but before she can do little than celebrate her great find she is killed. With Ms. Davis writing I felt like I was with Florrie every step of the way as she attempted to find out who had killed her friend and stolen the book. The pace of the plot was quick, plenty of suspects and a reveal that was shocking. I did feel that the ending was rushed as it seemed like everything was brought to light within the last couple of chapters. All in all it was an enjoyable read and I definitely want to read the next one.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All of the above opinions are my own.
The Coloring Crook is the second book in Krista Davis’ Pen & Ink Mysteries series. Again set in Georgetown at the bookstore and carriage house, Florrie Fox and her sister are with a friend ,Dolly, at an estate sale. As the story evolves, Dolly finds a treasure—a coloring book from the 1700’s. What ensues is a murder, a cheat, a lost father, a skeleton, and an ungrateful daughter—all are involved in the hunt for a missing treasure worth thousands. I enjoy Florrie and her relationship with her cop, they are so cute together. This cozy is quick and easy, a joy to read .
The cover of this book was intricate just like the mystery inside. Florrie Fox, Color Me Read book store manager and coloring book artist is the main character and she is delightful. She is a talented artist and has a curious nature. She is also kind and compassionate to those she knows and those that she doesn’t. I love the book store setting and the descriptions of the carriage house where she lives. There are also descriptions of food that will make you wish for a snack while you are reading. The story took several unexpected turns and the side story of Flossie and her new love interest kept the story moving at a good pace. I am so glad that there will be more books in this series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kensington through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
I loved both books in this series! This series has eerything I love about cozy mysteries – likable interesting.characters, intriguing mystery, and a little romance.
Excellent cozy mystery. Good characters and plot.
The Coloring Crook has all of my favorite cozy mystery ingredients: characters I care about, an interesting location, a plot that kept me guessing, a solution that I didn’t see coming, and recipes I want to try on my own! After Dolly Cavanaugh discovers a priceless coloring book at an estate sale, Georgetown bookstore manager Florrie Fox must investigate when she finds Dolly dead and the coloring book missing. Several mysteries are intertwined in this story, and twists and turns abound, but in the end author Krista Davis ties everything up nicely (except for a little side mystery that has carried over from the first book in the series – Color Me Murder – which I suspect may be recurring throughout the series). This second Pen & Ink Mystery is quite cozy indeed! A+++
“The Coloring Crook” earns 5/5 Packs of Crayons…Clever and Entertaining!
Coloring is not just for kids anymore! Krista Davis has penned a delightful cozy centered around the friendship and foibles of a group of coloring enthusiasts who just happen upon…murder mysteries. Florrie Fox manages the Color Me Read bookshop, designs coloring books, and leads a weekly club in the very rewarding hobby of “coloring.” Dolly Cavanaugh, a member of the coloring group, is also keen on yard sales and thrilled during one of her searches to get an extraordinaire deal on the find of the century: a copy of “The Florist,” a coloring book published in 1760, worth more than a lifetime supply of crayons for sure! But Florrie finds Dolly dead and the coloring book missing putting Florrie in conflict with law enforcement and on the trail of a thief and a killer. The mystery is very engaging with several lines of questioning and twists and turns in the murder investigation, but it’s the discovery of issues in Dolly’s past, including the mystery behind the bookcase, that adds to the drama. Krista’s writing style compliments the first-person narrative sharing Florrie’s “I” perspective, inner thought, vivid descriptions, and entertaining banter. Print book lovers will enjoy the real coloring opportunities, but us eBookers can enjoy the delicious easy-to-follow recipes: Salted Chocolate Brownies, Coconut Cupcakes, Blueberry Cake with Pecan Streusel, Mini Cheesecakes, and Killer Cocktail! Don’t overlook reading the “Acknowledgements” and “Epigraph” offering a few tidbits, background, and quote from “The Compleat Gentleman” (1622).
Florrie is living a life of happiness. She has a job as a manager at the local bookstore, she creates and publishes adult coloring books, has her own apartment and a new romance with a local police sergeant. What more could she ask for? Definitely not the murder of a vibrant member of the weekly coloring club. Is her murder over the recently surfaced oldest known coloring book or did Dolly have a sordid past? Florrie finds herself in the middle of the chaos that ensues from Dolly’s death. Join Florrie and friends as skeletons in and outside the closet are discovered.
This is the second Pen and Ink mystery and each one keeps getting better. I am not an adult coloring book fan but if I keep reading this series I may become one. There is something as you read that makes the back of your mind wiggle with a “maybe you should try it”. If you are an adult coloring fan, you need to buy the print format of the books as the cover is able to be colored by the reader.
The mystery is great in The Coloring Crook as the red herrings kept me guessing until the end. I had no idea who the killer was until revealed.
I am enjoying the budding romance between Florrie and Eric. The hiccup in this book was very entertaining. I cannot wait to see how it progresses in book three.
I am not a huge fan of Florrie’s whiny little sister who seems to not be able to survive without her big sister’s help and direction in her life. I hope Veronica “grows up” in the next book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kensington through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.