"How in the name of the goddess’s favorite sports bra am I going to do this Magical Librarian job? I have no idea what I’m doing. And the woman who’s supposed to be training me is…well, let’s just say she’s distracted and leave it at that. I guess I’ll bumble through. It’s become something of a trademark move for me.
My name is Naida Griffith and I’m a sorceress. I actually found that out not too long ago. I’ve lived with an undefined something burning in my belly for a while, feeling as if something wasn’t quite right under my skin. Then, on my eighteenth birthday I started getting headaches. Bad ones. And random stuff started following me around.
Recently I was approached by a group called the Société of Dire Magic to become Keeper of the Artifacts. A magical librarian. Given that magical artifacts have taken to following me around, I decided I might have an aptitude for the job. So I said yes.
But in the first few days, I’ve been flogged by flip flops, bludgeoned by gnomes, and discovered a corpse in a suitcase. Then there’s the woman who’s supposed to be training me. She’s…interesting.
Will I survive the training long enough to get the job as artifact librarian? You might as well ask me if a caterpillar gets manis or pedis. Who knows? But I know one thing for sure. This gig is hard.
I’m going to do my best to succeed. Or die trying. "
"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but wrinkles might actually kill me!
Just when I think I understand life, the Universe flings a magic booger at me. It just doesn’t pay to think you’ve got a handle on things.
For example, my favorite customer, Mrs. Foxladle, got into a simple disagreement with her book club friends over their obsession with youth and beauty. The next thing you know, they’re all dead.
Did Mrs. Foxladle kill them?
It certainly seems like a possibility. But I’m still holding on to the hope that I’m dealing with a rogue magical artifact in the hands of someone with diabolical intent. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out what it is and who’s wielding it with deadly results.
I was counting on Detective Grym, a real rock of a guy, to help me find the culprits. But Grym’s lifespan just turned unpredictable. (You could say things are a bit rocky for him right now.) Which leaves solving the mystery up to me and my friends.
It's just a really good thing I have a cat and a frog and… Yeah, about that… I’m really no closer to figuring out how to use them either.
Holy goblin phlegm!
This magic wrangling stuff is hard!"
"I wish my job as a magical librarian was just about shuffling books and shushing people from behind a desk. Alas, the magic I wrangle requires a bit more than shuffling and shushing. And to make things worse, I have a frog and a cat, and I have no idea how to use them!
Sure, I understand, we all have bills to pay. Personally, I could use a bit of extra cash too. But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t kill for it. At least…not without dark magic influence. And that’s exactly the problem.
Dark. Magic. Influence.
My first challenge for the day is finding that artifact and putting it under lock and key before it kills anybody else.
My second challenge is figuring out how to deal with a bossy frog and a pushy cat.
Which of the two do you suppose will give me the bigger headache?
Yeah. That’s what I think too. The frog and cat are going to be the death of my sanity.
Maybe I should put them under lock and key too. "
"This is no boring librarian shushing people from behind a desk. This librarian corrals rogue magic. But more importantly, she has a frog and a cat, and she’s not afraid to use them!
I knew when I woke up with a migraine that things were going to get interesting. As a magical artifact wrangler, it’s not an unusual way to start my day. But I had no idea how bad it was going to get.
Until I found a frog sitting in my teacup.
Even that, I could explain to myself if I had to. After all, I have a creative mind. But when the frog started talking to me, yeah, I was pretty sure I’d taken the wrong kind of pill that morning for my headache.
If only I’d realized then what I know now. The talking frog was just the beginning of my problems. And quite a beginning it was!"
"Come to Silver Hills. Where petting a cat can be a death sentence and yoga is all about survival.
Silver Hills Senior and Singles Residence isn’t exactly a boring place. Home to a death predicting cat named Tolstoy, a night manager who may or may not suck blood and float above the floor, a cook with mad voodoo and pie baking powers, and a trio of nosy sleuths who are determined to get to the bottom of the corpse in the library (maybe literally)…some might say things couldn’t get any weirder.
Some would be wrong."
"An old house…a shadowy night…a tortured spirit...two lives irretrievably changed...
Pratt Davies is a police detective with the Saint Louis PD. He’s comfortable in his role…confident that he’s seen just about everything there is to see.
Until he and his partner answer a call to enter a home where blood curdling screams speak of horrific violence.
Inside the disturbing house, he encounters a strange, icy mist and something malevolent waiting just beyond view. Pratt’s confidence is shaken, his worldview smashed into tiny pieces…like shards of glass from a broken mirror.
His partner comes out of that house damaged, both physically and mentally, unable to even form a coherent response.
Pratt is so shaken he can barely function.
And he still has a murder to solve.
Who killed the couple living in that terrible house? What haunted the mist obscuring the scene? How did Pratt’s partner end up bleeding and babbling on the floor, something evil oozing through her gaze?
And how is Pratt…broken and terrified himself…ever going to solve a murder that has every indication of having been born in the ether?"
"Come to Silver Hills. Where new friends are made and a grim reaper is born.
Agnes Willard is moving into Silver Hills. She’s worried about the change and concerned about fitting in. Luckily for her, Florence Bee has decided to take Agnes under her wing.
When Agnes’ cat Tolstoy escapes as they’re getting Agnes settled into her new apartment, they quickly find him across the hall, perched on a dying woman’s chest.
The new friends soon learn three things from the experience:
1. The cat definitely has an instinct for and proclivity toward people who are on death’s doorstep. 2. Finding and avoiding a killer is a really tough way to spend your first days in a new place. And 3. Agnes truly does have a unique talent for debauching a crime scene."
"Antiques can be a dangerous business. Especially when you’re dealing with a desperate politician, a sexy ex-cop, and a couple of “spirited” companions.
Anna Yesterday owns Yesterday's Antiques in small town USA. When she finds an old newspaper clipping lining the drawer of an antique dresser, she realizes she's never heard the heart wrenching story of abuse and suicide detailed on the yellowed newsprint. So she starts to dig, and her sleuthing exposes an ugly cover-up that casts the residents of Crocker, Indiana into danger and intrigue, and leaves them with a corpse."
