Fairy Mystery

After being fired from her latest variety hall engagement, Ophelia acts her way into a lady's maid position for a crass American millionaire. But when her new job whisks her off to a foreboding castle straight out of a Grimm tale, she begins to wonder if her fast-talking ways might have been too hasty. The vast grounds contain the suspected remains of Snow White's cottage, along with a disturbing dwarf skeleton. And when her millionaire boss turns up dead - poisoned by an apple - the fantastic setting turns into a once upon a crime scene.

Variety hall actress Ophelia Flax knows how to win over an audience. That's why she's accepted the marriage proposal of the brutish Comte de Griffe to nettle her occasional investigative partner - and romantic sparring partner - the pompous if dashing Professor Penrose. But with his boorish table manners, wild mane of hair, and habit of prowling away the wee hours, the comte has shredded Ophelia's last nerve. She intends to disengage from her feral fiancé at his winter hunting party.

Phoebe McFarland has just lost her job as a rural home health care nurse in White Oak, Tennessee, a sleepy rural community nestled in the mist-shrouded Smoky Mountains. But then she's unexpectedly offered a ritzy-sounding position as a private duty nurse to an enigmatic scholar. Unfortunately before she can start her upscale new life, Phoebe is unwittingly caught up in a medical emergency with Nick, a total stranger. The mismatched couple is forced to cooperate as they flee professional killers who now have Phoebe in their crosshairs, as well.

Variety hall actress Ophelia Flax's plan to reunite her friend, Prue, with her estranged - and allegedly wealthy - mother, Henrietta, is met with a grim surprise. Not only is the marquise's Paris mansion a mouse-infested ruin, but Henrietta has inexplicably vanished, leaving behind an evasive husband, two sinister stepsisters, and a bullet-riddled corpse in the pumpkin patch decked out in a ball gown and one glass slipper - a corpse that also happens to be a dead ringer for Prue.

Bree Butler shelved her dream of becoming an investigative journalist long ago. But when she finds a young biotech executive dead on his office floor, she begins to think she might have another shot at it - even though she's a suspect in the homicide investigation. Bree and her old college friend, Detective Gen Delacourt (who we first met in Mark of the Loon), begin a danger-filled quest to unravel the puzzle. The deeper they dig, the more truth about their own personal lives is revealed along with the dead man's.

Fate made Trixie a hunter of devilish demons, except demons aren't devilish, and Trixie's not hunting them. She gave that future the boot. But by denying her destiny, she inherits a problem. Furred, feathered, and scaled, the creatures have invaded her life. She's being pranked by furry fairies, stalked by mini-devils, and harassed by the scourge of dragons roosting in her yard. Trixie's had enough. She's moving to Boise and hoping to leave the magical critters behind. But what happens when moving isn't enough?

Fairies abound in the realms of myth and folklore. They have enchanted humans for centuries—but are these mischievous, ethereal creatures more than just myth? One could ask for no better guide to the fairy realm than Ralph Harvey, one of England's foremost modern-day witches. In Fairy Lore he intersperses his own intriguing fairy encounters (among them, a mysterious musical interlude in an Irish valley) with succinct yet interesting introductions to the folktales of the fae.