Death by Deception Reading Kit

Death By Deception

Death by Deception is the first book in the Shepherd Sisters Mystery Series by Tracy Gardner. The amateur sleuth is Savanna Shepherd, a former art authenticator turned elementary art teacher who returns to her small hometown on Lake Michigan after a romance gone wrong. Savanna is helped in her investigations by her supportive sisters, Sydney and Skylar. See a spoiler-free description, reader reviews, and a book excerpt for Death by Deception.

Death By Deception Reader Questions

Use these questions for a book club discussion or a chat with a friend after reading Death by Deception. If you aren’t in a book club, you can still use these questions to reflect on the books after you read them.

What three words would you use to describe Death by Deception?
Who was your favorite character?
What makes Savanna a good amateur sleuth?
Have you ever met an art authenticator?
Have you ever painted a picture or a mural?
What did you think of the setting? Have you ever seen Lake Michigan?
What did you think about the relationship between the Shepherd Sisters?
What did you think about Aidan? Is he a good match for Savanna?
Did you have a favorite scene in the book? What did you like about this scene?
What did you think of the ending?
Were you able to guess the culprit?
Would you like to see Death by Deception turned into a movie? Who would you cast to play Savanna, Sydney, Skylar, and Aidan?
Do you have any predictions for future books in this series?
Will you read the other books in the Shepherd Sisters Mystery series?

Death By Deception Book Club Activities

Get together to discuss Death by Deception. Use the reader questions in the previous section or create your own.
Play Artle, the popular art puzzle game from the National Gallery of Art.
Treat yourselves to a day of art appreciation. Take a field trip to a local art gallery or museum. Or, take a virtual tour of a museum in another city, state, or country. (Check out this list of famous museums with virtual tours from TravelandLeisure.com.)
Attend a sip-and-paint event or host a sip-and-paint at home. A sip-and-paint is an art experience where participants create a painting while enjoying wine, cocktails, or other beverages. You can use acrylic paints, watercolors, or another medium.
Have a rock painting party. Use acrylic paint to paint positive messages onto smooth rocks. Then, place these “Kindness Rocks” around your community. (Find out How to Hold a Zoom Rock Painting Party on the KindnessRocksProject.com)
Have a cafe party. Serve coffee and make Savanna’s Cinnamon Crunch Coffee Cake using the recipe in the back of Death by Deception.
Tracy Gardner welcomes questions and messages from readers via her website’s contact page, including limited availability for book club drop-ins and Q&As. She loves chatting with readers and doing book club discussions.

Death By Deception Activity Pages

Let your creative side out with these activity pages inspired by Death by Deception. Use a colored pencil to fill in the color wheel, study color theory, and find your favorite color combinations. Use your artist’s eye to color the seashell coloring page. Find the words hidden in plain sight in the word search. Click on any of the images to get free printable PDF pages.

Shepherd Sisters Recipe From Tracy Gardner

The Shepherds are a tight-knit family. They try their best to get together every Sunday and even take turns choosing and preparing the meal.

In the third Shepherd Sisters Mystery, Still Life and Death, the youngest Shepherd sister, Sydney, makes Banana Split Cake for her little nephew Nolan, who has a major sweet tooth. This light and sweet summery “cake” is one of his favorites!

Author Tracy Gardner was kind enough to share this recipe with us so that we can make and indulge our sweet tooth, too! Get the Banana Split Cake recipe.

Banana Split Cake

Shepherd Sisters Mysteries in Order

There are five books in the Shepherd Sisters Mysteries by Tracy Gardner. All of the books can be read as stand-alone novels, but are best read in order to enjoy the character development. The books in the Shepherd Sisters Mysteries in order are:

Interview with Tracy Gardner

Read this Cozy Crime Reads interview with author Tracy Gardner to get a behind-the-scenes peek at the creation of Death By Deception. You'll discover why Tracy chose to write cozy mysteries and how she creates the cozy elements in her Shepherd Sisters Mystery Books.

Tracy Gardner Cozy Mystery Bookshelf

Use the arrows on either side of the image below to see book covers from all of Tracy Gardner’s cozy mysteries. Click on the image to read a book description, excerpt, and reader reviews on Amazon.