A colorful scheme

At the start of Davis's lively fourth Pen and Ink mystery (after 2021's Murder Outside the Lines), coloring book designer Florrie Fox, who lives in the carriage house behind the mansion of wealthy John Maxwell in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., is alarmed when Mr. DuBois, Maxwell's butler, bangs on her door. Mr. DuBois is looking for Jacqueline Liebhaber, an internationally known romance author who's due to wed his master that day. Florrie discovers the bride-to-be, dazed and disoriented, lying behind a nearby garden hedge. Jacqueline recovers quickly and begs Florrie not to call an ambulance or involve the police. The 500-guest wedding goes on as planned, and the reception is a hotbed of enjoyable snarkiness as the authors, book reviewers, and agents in attendance share their views on success and, of course, money. The following morning one of them is found dead, floating in the Maxwell swimming pool. Davis juggles several intriguing mysteries that keep readers eagerly turning pages while, perhaps, munching a strawberry cupcake or sipping on a Lemon Drop Martini, for which recipes are included. Cozy fans will be well satisfied. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds. (Sept.)

The wedding of a couple of people who know each other very well indeed forms the backdrop to Davis' fourth Pen and Ink mystery. All the 500 guests gathered for the Georgetown nuptials wish the best for the happy couple even though romance novelist Jacqueline Liebhaber has already been married twice, professor John Maxwell three times, and each of them once to the other, in a marriage that was shattered years ago by the kidnapping of their young daughter, Caroline, who was never found. Now that they're getting back together, book reviewer Margarite Herbert-Grant joins a crowd of authors who know her rapier tongue all too well--debut government-intrigue storyteller Buzz Powers; literary novelist Arthur Bedlingham; his assistant, unpublished novelist Evan McDowell; and romance novelist Gabriella Archambeau (though not her husband; reclusive bestselling thriller writer Griffin Corbyn's sent his excuses)--to celebrate, and waitress and aspiring reporter Cara Melton, who's somehow crashed the party, demands to know just how John and Jacquie feel about Caroline's loss. Florrie Fox, the adult-coloring-book creator who manages Color Me Read, the bookstore John owns, does her best to protect the couple from Cara's intrusive questions. Despite her earlier brushes with homicide, Florrie can't stop one of the wedding guests from feeding Evan enough THC--laced brownies to make him a perfect candidate for drowning in John's swimming pool. But every cloud has a silver lining, and the horrid Cara's stabbed to death as well. The mystery is perfunctory, the assembled authors drawn with a cartoonist's brush, and the killer forgettable, but veteran Davis keeps a particularly deft surprise, along with half a dozen recipes, in reserve. Despite the title, the by-the-numbers dishing and scheming are anything but colorful. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.