Maddy Wimsey Series

Detective Madeline Wimsey tends to stand out with her wild red hair, pentacle amulets, and offbeat methods, but she has a tool few other cops use - magic. After a man turns up dead in a grisly satanic rite, her fellow detectives are quick to crack jokes. Since they can't tell a pentacle from a pentagram, Maddy's happy to get the case. She suspects the ritual to be the work of amateurs, a theory that pans out when they track down the pack of clueless high school students who made the shrine in the woods. But then Maddy learns that the Devil's Eye is watching her....

Magical forces don't always play nice. In fact, they can be downright evil. Life is going fairly well for Detective Maddy Wimsey. At 35, she's an accomplished detective, practicing Wiccan, has a wonderful relationship with her long-time boyfriend, and even a much-needed vacation after dealing with a cursed gem. Alas, her break doesn't last long. A creeping darkness interrupts the solace of the woods with a supernatural vendetta against her coven. Maddy had opened a particular can of worms looking into the past, and the entity has decided to make her a target.

Cops sometimes rely on hunches to guide them, but Detective Maddy Wimsey takes it a step further: Magic. August opens with the bad omen of a suicide that she suspects is more than it appears. However, before she can even start to find evidence that won't get her a date with a shrink, an even worse case walks in the door. A local nurse claims she suspects one of her co-workers of murdering patients. Unfortunately, the woman has even less evidence than Maddy's belief that a spirit is throwing people off tall buildings. However, something about the story rings too true to brush aside.

Most brides have some anxiety over their wedding, but not too many have to worry a dead person might spoil it. Detective Maddy Wimsey is looking forward to her handfasting to Caius. Mostly. She’s simultaneously on edge and can’t wait. About the only thing capable of going wrong is her catching a homicide investigation complicated enough to push back the date.