The Literate Kitty

You can find a Grim Reaper costume in any costume shop, because everyone agrees on what it is—long cape, hood, no face, and a big ole scythe, right?   But... what if everyone is wrong?   What if sometime between the reaper’s first appearance—in the Middle Ages, when the Black Death was the COVID of its day—and now, the whole concept of the grim reaper was... updated?   The black-hood-of-death-and-harvesting-tool getup would have to go.   Maybe the Grim Reaper 2.0 would look like a regular Joe (or Jane!). Like your neighbor. Your aunt. The muscle-y dude pumping iron at the gym.   Debuting author Maxie Dara makes hay* with this idea in her delightfully-creative new mystery,  A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer .      You probably wouldn’t look twice at Kathy Valence, if you passed her on the street. Just another frumpy, middle-aged, nearly-divorced—and very pregnant—woman... nothing to see here, just move along.   But the badge she carefully pins to the collar of her practical bla