Spirit Canyon’s annual Spirit Spooktacular weekend is on, and for local amateur sleuth Zo Jones, it’s boomtime for business at her Happy Camper gift shop . . . until a murderer drops in for a browse. To celebrate Halloween at the Happy Camper, Zo schedules a talk by successful author and self-proclaimed witch Marianne Morgan. Although Marianne’s benign brand of witchcraft is more about feminine empowerment than black magic, her presence is still not welcomed by everyone. Then on a midnight stroll home, Zo spots what seems to be a new Halloween decoration propped up outside the Happy Camper. What she finds is not a mannequin but a dead Marianne, her lifeless body dressed in traditional witch’s garb. But why would someone send this good witch back to the spirit world permanently? Soon Zo realizes that plenty of folks have motives for murdering Marianne. What’s worse, nosy TV newsman Justin Castle plans to broadcast a report associating Marianne’s murder with the Happy Camper. Zo calls on her partner in sleuthing, local forest ranger Max Harrington, to help her find the culprit before Justin’s report airs. Otherwise Zo’s business just might go bust. But to catch this killer, Zo will have to risk much more than just her reputation . . .
In Lee Kelly’s “electric” (Publishers Weekly) fantasy novel, two young sorcerers experiment with magic and mobsters in 1920s Prohibition when a new elixir is created that turns their lives upside down. Washington, DC, 1926. Sorcery opponents have succeeded in passing the 18th Amendment, but the Prohibition of magic has only invigorated the city’s underworld. Smuggling rings carry magic contraband in from the coast. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters’ crime sprees. Gangs have even established “magic havens,” secret venues where the public can lose themselves in immersive magic and consume a mind-bending, highly addictive elixir known as “the sorcerer’s shine.” Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from the backwoods of Norfolk County, accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious crime syndicate, The Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws. When Joan meets Alex at the Shaws’ magic haven, she discovers a confidante in her fellow partner and he begins to fall under her spell. But when a new breed of the addictive sorcerer’s shine is created within the walls of the magic haven, Joan and Alex are forced to question their allegiances as they become pitted against one another in a dangerous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.
Gwendolyn MacGowan escaped her dysfunctional parents and their Atlanta social whirl years ago, entering college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then forging an independent life with her framing shop and huge Victorian castle in neighboring Jamaica Plain. Finally at peace, she has no idea that her comfortable world will be shattered. The moment her father dies, Gwendolyns headstrong mother, Elinor, moves to Boston to live with my beloved Gwennie. Gwendolyn refuses, insisting Elinor move into a nearby senior residence. There, Elinor is brutally murdered at the hands of an unknown assailant. Still reeling from her mothers death, Gwendolyn is astonished to learn that Monica Colwell, her fathers former mistress, has arrived in town from England with her teenage son, Eric. Eric disappears and Monicas throat is slashed as she sits on Gwendolyns patio. The safe castle has been breached, and Gwendolyn realizes that unless she discovers the secrets buried deep in Elinors past, she will be the next to die. A gem of a first novelBoatners characters seethe with life. -Ellen Hart E. B. Boatner writes with clarity of lives warped by secrets and surprising obsessions. -Elizabeth Sims A spellbinder. I read it in one sitting. -Jonathan Odell
Nell Ingram faces a dark magic with no known origin in the newest pulse-pounding paranormal procedural in the New York Times bestselling Soulwood series. Nell is a rookie PsyLED agent, using the powers she can channel from deep within the earth to solve paranormal crimes. Together with her team, she's taken on the direst magic and the most twisted foes. But she'll need to tap into every ounce of power she has for her newest case. Nell is called to the Tennessee mansion of a country music star and finds a disturbing scene—dead bodies rapidly decaying before everyone's eyes. The witch on her team, T. Laine, has never seen magic that can steal life forces like this. PsyLED needs to find this lethal killer fast. But when a paranormal-hating FBI agent tries to derail the investigation, and the dark magics begin to spiral out of control, they find themselves under attack from all sides.
The Secrets in Shadow Lake Run Deep... Nobody but a chosen few know the real history of the town, or what lies beneath the still surface of the lake... As members of the Kilorian Coven, Addie and her two sisters, Kiera and Willow, were born to the use of magic. Together the three are the sworn protectors of Shadow Lake, tasked with keeping evil at bay and the townsfolk safe. When a dead body is found on Luna Moth Trail Addie is forced to get involved after a strange woman begs her for help. The first officer on scene is the enigmatic Detective Lucian Knight who seems to be more than he appears. He reveals to her that the murder isn't the only incident that has occurred in town recently. With the mysteries piling up, could there be something greater at work in Shadow Lake? Will Addie and her sisters be able to solve the murder and keep the town safe?
Holiday cheer turns to holiday fear when a Salem, MA, tour guide is murdered in this cozy mystery featuring a local reporter with psychic abilities. Former TV psychic Lee Barrett is back on the air at Salem’s WICH-TV as the new field reporter. Next on her holiday checklist is an interview with the beloved chairman of a popular walking tour through Salem’s historic districts. But it may be his ghost walking this snowy season after Lee finds him murdered in his stately offices, bloody Santa hat askew. With her police detective boyfriend working the case and a witch’s brew of suspects—including some bell-ringing Santas—Lee chases down leads aided and abetted by her wise cat O’Ryan and some unsettling psychic visions of her own. When a revealing clue leads to another dead body, not even a monster blizzard can stop Lee from getting a scoop—even one that could spell her own demise.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Lush with secrets, magic, and a past that won’t stay where it belongs, this novel is (quite fittingly) spellbinding.”—JODI PICOULT, author of Wish You Were Here A deeply atmospheric story about ancestral magic, an unsolved murder, and a second chance at true love ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: She Reads Emery Blackwood’s life changed forever the night her best friend was found dead and the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her. Years later, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence on the misty, remote shores of Saoirse Island and running the family’s business, Blackwood’s Tea Shoppe Herbal Tonics & Tea Leaf Readings. But when the island, rooted in folklore and magic, begins to show signs of strange happenings, Emery knows that something is coming. The morning she wakes to find that every single tree on Saoirse has turned color in a single night, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past that the town has tried desperately to forget. August knows he is not welcome on Saiorse, not after the night everything changed. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother’s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from his past that has never healed—Emery. But the town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises spanning generations threaten to reveal the truth behind Lily’s mysterious death once and for all.
Magic. Knitting. Love. A new series and a delightful departure by the USA Today bestselling author of Just Desserts. Sugar Maple looks like any Vermont town, but it?s inhabited with warlocks, sprites, vampires, witches?and an ancient secret. And Chloe Hobbs, owner of Sticks & String, a popular knitting shop, has a big secret too. She?s a sorcerer?s daughter in search of Mr. Right?and she?s found him in Luke MacKenzie, a cop investigating Sugar Maple?s very first murder. Bad news is he?s 100% human, which could spell disaster for a normal future with a paranormal woman like her.