Once again, we visit Cascade Springs N.Y. We'll visit Charming Booker and the Red Inkers.
As part if the Food and Wine Festival there is a reading Edgar Allen Poe in the garden at Charming Books.
During the reading, Violet Waverly finds the body of Anastasia Faber dead at the bottom of the stairs inside Charming Books. She looks for David Rainwater, the police Chief.
She takes David to show him the body. He calls the officers and the coroner.
They tell Grandma Daisy she must close the bookstore for at least a day. They decide to move the reading to the front of the store. She is allowed to move books to the front yard under the agreement that the police watches what she takes out.
The police questions the Red Inkers. Anastasia was not a nice person. She belittled the other members of the writing club.
When the police find the cause of her death, they question Sadie (a member of the club) because she gave Anastasia the dress she wore as part of the Poe reading. They searched bother her home and business.
Anastasia died from liquid nicotine. It as on the dress and went into her system through the skin.
Violet had to help her friend by finding the killer. Chief Rainwater tells her to stay out of police business.
Violet goes looking for who hated Anastasia enough to kill her. Many people come to mind but all have no reason to kill her.
One person Violet was sure was guilty turned out to be the father Violet never knew and understood why he came now. After talking to him, he said goodbye and left.
At the next Red Inkers meeting, Violet uncovered the real killer. Trudy, an old teacher of Violet's, realized she knew and pulled out a gun and aimed it at Violet. The bookstore had two pets; a crow named Faulkner and a cat named Emerson. The two pets attacked Trudy and everyone dove for cover because Trudy was firing her gun.
Once she was free of the animals, Trudy found Violet and was about to shoot when a bookcase fell on her.
The police arrived and arrested Trudy.