Former Police Chief Katherine Sullivan has been called brilliant, brave, compassionate, and quirky, but after decades of crime fighting, this resilient grandmother with an artist's soul is discovering that retirement can be just as deadly as being on the job. When Katherine returned to her hometown, her only thought was to comfort her recently divorced daughter. That was before a young woman was found murdered on the estate of the town's richest family. Now, in order to track down the killer, Katherine must uncover the generations of secrets that at least one person as already killed to protect in this charming and smart series debut, The Fine Art of Murder.

Special Agent Jason West is seconded from the FBI Art Crime Team to temporarily partner with disgraced, legendary “manhunter” Sam Kennedy when it appears Kennedy’s most famous case, the capture and conviction of a serial killer known as the Huntsman, may actually have been a disastrous failure. The Huntsman is still out there…and the killing has begun again.

The last thing Jason West, an ambitious young FBI special agent with the Art Crime Team, wants—or needs—is his uncertain and unacknowledged romantic relationship with irascible legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy. And it’s starting to feel like Sam is not thrilled with the idea either. But personal feelings must be put aside when Sam requests Jason’s help to catch a deranged killer targeting wealthy, upscale art collectors. A killer whose calling card is a series of grotesque paintings depicting the murders.

THE STORY: In a remote estate in the countryside of Connecticut, Jack Brooks, one of the most accomplished and eccentric painters of his generation, awaits the imminent arrival of his art dealer. But the visit is not a standard one, for Jack feels

Nothing up his sleeves. Nothing but murder… Jason West, hot-shot special agent with the FBI’s Art Crime Team, is at the Wyoming home of Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy, recuperating from a recent hit-and-run accident, when he’s asked to consult on the theft of a priceless collection of vintage magic posters. But before Jason can say “presto change-o,” the owner of the art collection turns up murdered in a National Forest. When the dead man is revealed to be the Kubla Khanjurer, a much-hated part-time magician accused of revealing the highly guarded secrets of professional illusionists, it seems clear this is a simple revenge killing—until Jason realizes an earlier suspicious death at the trendy magic club Top Hat White Rabbit might be part of the same larger and more sinister pattern.

One hundred and twenty years after Jack the Ripper, he has an apprentice to continue his work... In all his years on the force, Detective Chief Inspector Pendragon has never seen a murder quite like this one. It isn't the bizarre arrangement of the body, found in a London art gallery, that has Pendragon and his team reeling; it's the meticulous arrangement of an apple in the hole where the corpse's face used to be. The reference to surrealist painter Magritte is horrifyingly clear. Twenty-four hours later, the police have a second grotesque killing on their hands. This time, the crime scene emulates a famous Dali painting, The Persistence of Memory. Someone is turning murder into an art form... And it's not for the first time. More than a century earlier, the citizens of Whitechapel in London's East End were living in fear of another artist with a knife. Though Jack the Ripper was never caught, his teaching lives on. Now, in the twenty-first century, Jack has a gifted and bloodthirsty apprentice...

FRAMED? Jessica’s art-viewing Italian vacation is interrupted by a pair of gunmen who steal a painting and kill a retired police officer in the process. Agreeing to help identify the crooks should they be caught, Jessica returns to Cabot Cove and puts the shocking experience behind her. Months later, Wayne Simsbury, the stepson of an old friend, comes to her for help. Wayne’s father has been shot to death. Not only has Wayne’s stepmother, Marlise, been charged with the murder, but Wayne himself claims to have witnessed the crime. Unsure what to do, he has sought out Jessica—the one person his stepmother had always claimed could help with any problem. Now, on top of a seemingly open-and-shut murder case to crack in Chicago, Jessica finds herself back in Italy helping the police make their case against the art thieves—and she faces a looming danger that may connect the Italian killers to the fate of her old friend....