When the main sponsor of a regional potions competition is found dead in her hotel suite, the evidence is almost too neat: a rare allergy, a suspicious vial, and Lena Knox’s best friend standing over the body.Faye didn’t do it. But someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like she did.
Lena – green witch and reluctant amateur sleuth – isn’t about to let her best friend take the fall. Not when the killer is still in the hotel, the suspect list includes half the potions industry, and the motive turns out to be tangled up in a family secret Faye didn’t even know she had.
With her familiar, Thorn, offering opinions she didn’t ask for, and her ex-boyfriend inconveniently working the case, Lena is going to need more than potions to untangle this one.
When I started writing this series, I wasn’t sure of anything. I’d never written a mystery before, let alone one involving magical plants. But I’d already built the Hawthorne world for Charlotte Knox (Lena’s older sister). So that made it feel slightly less daunting.
Then there was the whole green witch thing. When Lena started asking for her own series, I protested. I am not a gardener. Ask my husband. The closest I’ve ever come to herbology is my tea cabinet. I won’t say I have a black thumb, but it is true that I’m unlikely to keep a single mint plant alive, let alone an entire herbarium as Lena does. I admire people who can grow their own herbs. People who can turn those herbs into healing tinctures and salves absolutely amaze me.
During the research phase, I learned an even greater appreciation for those who understand plants and their uses, both magical, medicinal, and mundane. Discovering that some plants have evil twins (see Hemlock and Lace) that are actually poisonous was a fascinating trip into herbology.
I also enjoyed the gentler (albeit still murderous on occasion) world of the cozy. Charlotte Knox is a heroine who tends to kick ass first and ask questions later, maybe. Lena Knox is a different sort of heroine. She wants to solve the mystery just as much, but chooses the more subtle path of clues and magic to achieve her results. Not that she can’t throw a punch when pressed, but she usually finds other methods that are equally successful and not as violent.
All in all, this has been a wonderful adventure. I already have at least two more books planned for the series, and I’m pretty sure Thorn has his own ideas that he will share with me in due time. Meanwhile, I think a cup of peppermint tea is in order. It always perks up the brain cells.
"Before you go, I wanted to ask a favor." Zel held up a pair of small, glass globes clouded with purple and black swirls of color. "This is an item I'm considering carrying, but I want to test it out first."
"What is it?" I asked as I accepted the sample and held it up to the light. The way the color clung to the interior intrigued me. It moved slowly, almost deliberately, around the inside. I shivered lightly. I could have sworn it was looking for a way out.
"It's a self-defense orb. Smash it in front of an attacker, and it is supposed to incapacitate them."
I stiffened. "Incapacitate? It isn't lethal, is it?" The idea of carrying something dangerous made me nervous.
"No, no, just—" She frowned. "Actually, I'm not sure how it does it, but I trust the maker. She said it 'neutralizes them without direct harm,' whatever that means. I'll call and get clarification. Could you give this one to Faye for testing? I don't want you to have to use it, of course, but I want to know how well it holds up to being carried about."
Tucking the orb into my backpack, I hefted the box of vials. Behind me, the bell chimed again, and as I turned, my stomach clenched. It was Marcus.
C.L. Roman (aka Cheri) writes fantasy across multiple subgenres — this cozy paranormal mystery marks her first foray into crime-solving witches. She lives in Northeast Florida with her ever-patient husband and their spirited mini-menagerie: Jack E. Boy, the super Chihuahua; Bennie the Jet; Pyewacket (Pye), the frequently invisible cat and possible space alien; and Lilly, all grown up now and every bit as imperious as she always intended to be. Find Cheri online at clroman.com and on Facebook under C.L.’s Novel Bunch.
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Start a new paranormal mystery series featuring green witch Lena Knox and her enigmatic Maine Coon familiar.Lena Knox thought the worst part of her week was running into the man who broke her heart.
She was wrong.
When a murder accusation pulls her into Hawthorne’s hidden magical world, Lena finds herself caught between suspicious law enforcement, a town on edge, and a supernatural threat hiding in plain sight.
With her reputation on the line and her freedom at stake, Lena must rely on her training, her instincts, and an unexpectedly opinionated Maine Coon who seems to know far more than he should.
Because in Hawthorne, nothing is ever quite what it seems.
And this time, the truth may be lethal.
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