Faces. It’s kind of my thing. If I meet you, I might forget your name, but never your face. Like a party trick, my instant recall comes in handy given my profession. I’m a portrait artist and while the world is frantically capturing smiles digitally, I’m content sticking with my old school canvas and brushes.

Old school – it seems to be a theme with me. My friends and I are Freegans, eco-friendly enthusiasts, repurposing what others discard. I love all things vintage which is why I was more than happy to take my teenage daughter on a tour of my mother’s basement. It seemed like a good idea until I spotted someone sneaking across the lawn of my family’s home at the exact moment the lights went out. And as if my day couldn’t get any worse, by the time I’d found my way up the basement stairs in the dark, my dinner date had cancelled.

Woe is me. Right? Wrong. While I was crawling across the basement floor, praying for the electricity to kick in, one of my neighbors was murdered. And not just any neighbor. Simon Fletcher, world-renowned environmentalist, guru of all things green, and a personal idol of mine, met his demise only a few hundred yards from my family’s home.

Let’s get back to me and faces. As I mentioned, I’m good. Really good which is why the police have engaged my services as a sketch artist on the Fletcher case. The problem is that the first suspect’s face is one I’ve kissed a million times – my former boyfriend and fellow Freegan, Charlie Knudsen. It looks like my pencil is going to get a workout.

THE DRAWING GAME is the third book in the Sketch in Crime mystery series published by Gatekeeper Press, December 2016.

A lover of all things green, CeCe Prentice is uncharacteristically perturbed when a fully-sustainable development, Green Acres, pops up next to her family’s homestead. It’s not so much the ridiculous price tag of the million dollar homes built entirely from re-usable materials and powered by the sun, but rather the new neighbors who think they can simply buy a green lifestyle. To make matters worse, one homeowner turns out to be CeCe’s high school nemesis, Phoebe Purcell, a hair-tossing vamp who tried to break up CeCe and her long-time boyfriend, Charlie.

Already disillusioned by the so-called eco-friendly development, CeCe’s family home is threatened when a series of power-outages at Green Acres kicks off a rash of home invasions. When neighbors start showing up dead, the mood at Green Acres turns south. But when Charlie, CeCe’s on-again, off-again love interest is implicated in the murders, CeCe springs into action when the only clue to the crimes is a portrait CeCe painted years ago.

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About the author
Deirdre Verne is the author of Drawing Conclusions (2015), Drawing Blood (Feb 2016) and The Drawing Game (Dec 2016). Deirdre’s interest in green living inspired her to create an off-the-grid character, CeCe Prentice, who Dumpster dives her way through the Sketch in Crime mystery series. “Verne’s mystery is a winner…” Kirkus Reviews. A member of Sisters in Crime, Deirdre’s stories appear in all three NY chapter anthologies – Murder New York Style, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices and Family Matters.

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