Fugitive Colors — Margaret Maron

LAVENDER'S BLUE, BLOOD'S RED, AND DEATH IS DEEP, DARK BLACK...

Losing a fellow officer in a shoot-out cracks NYPD Lt. Sigrid Harald's cool professional shell. Discovering that her lover, famous artist Oscar Nauman, has been killed completely shatters it. As Sigrid struggles with her grief, she inherits his paintings and, before she knows it, is swept into New York's fashionable art world. But just as a wash of vermillion produced warm flesh tones on the Madonnas of the early Italian masters--colors that later faded, leaving a deathlike tint behind--a fragile, golden facade veils the back- stabbing, greed, and intrigue of the glitterati. Sigrid is not surprised when a shocking homicide occurs. Now a blue lady is again a red-hot cop...out on the streets, seeing the subtle details, and spotting the shades of feeling that reveal love, guilt, or deadly intent.