Look Her in the Eye and Lie

Can a yellow throat toucan, and lyrics from Alan Jackson songs, help Joy solve yet another murder of a member of the local band Loco-Motion?

It’s the Grand Opening of the Down ’n Dirty Brigade. The atmosphere is festive, the music loud, the crowd boisterous, and the April weather perfect. The joyful time seems too good to be true. The thought no sooner makes its way into Joy’s brain when Diablo flies in with a clue: a package of guitar picks. This isn’t unusual; he brings clues all the time, except they’re to murders that have already happened. Panicked, the girls realize something’s about to go down.

They race blindly in search of Philip Newsome—the band’s guitarist, the only one who’d use picks. Too late. He topples out of a porta-potty, dead of cyanide gas poisoning.

Meanwhile, the Brigade’s benefactor, Lars, shows off his new painting, by none other than Adolph Hitler. Curious about the unexpected painter, the girls learn it was stolen from a local resident forty-nine years ago. After hospitalization during the last case, Joy and her roommates swore off solving crimes. But they can’t say no to two people begging for help. Can they solve at least one of the crimes without being harmed?