A Brushstroke with Death

Book excerpt: Bethany Blake, author of the nationally bestselling Lucky Paws Petsitting Mysteries, launches a charming new spinoff mystery series featuring an artist and art teacher with a magical gift for solving murders. Near the creek that runs behind her Pennsylvania house, Willow Bellamy has converted an old barn into an art school--though the place does still have some animal inhabitants, including Rembrandt, the owl who lives up in the rafters. And while it's important for any artist to have a vision, Willow can sometimes see things others can't, just like her mother and grandmother before her. Not that she would exactly call herself a witch... When some local merchants gather in the studio for a painting party, they focus their attention on a still life with flowers and an assortment of garden tools, including antique pruning shears that disappear--at the same time despised restaurant owner Evangeline Fletcher is murdered. Willow must use all her gifts to find the killer, although it means teaming up with a handsome, mysterious detective whom Willow fears she may have accidentally conjured from a canvas. This investigation is sure to be a hoot...