Only two years have passed since the Merriweather sisters moved to Salem, Massachusetts, but their worlds have completely been changed. Not only did they discover their heritage as witches able to cast spells, they also learned about an entire magical community within the Enchanted Village.
Darci Merriweather may be a practicing Wishcrafter in Salem, Massachusetts, but it’s not the upcoming Halloween season that has her on edge. What has her aflutter is moving out of her beloved Aunt Ve’s home into the newly remodeled and renovated home—one that she hopes to one day share with Police Chief Nick Sawyer and his daughter, Mia. It’s a change that inspires Aunt Ve to clear out her own garage, where she finds more than just old Christmas ornaments. Ve also finds the skeletonized corpse of her ex-husband Miles Babbage, whom she last saw on their wedding day, thirty years ago.
We start off this month with two new series.
Death of a Toy Solider is the first in the Vintage Toy Shop mysteries by Barbara Early.
This week we have some more Penguin mysteries for your May reading--Gone with the Witch: A Wishcraft Mystery by Heather Blake, Berry the Hatchet: A Cranberry Cove Mystery by Peg Cochran, Mrs. Malory and Death is a Word by Hazel Holt, and Hearse and Gardens: A Hamptons Home and Garden Mystery by Kathleen Bridge.
It’s Halloween in Hitching Post, Alabama, and despite what one would assume, it’s a holiday that white magic witch and empath Carly Bell Hartwell wishes didn’t exist. For on All Hallow’s Eve a portal between the worlds opens, and ghosts needing an empath’s help come calling before the door closes on All Soul’s Day, two days later.
There's magic in the air, as well as mystical felines, tarot cards, psychic mirrors, magic potions, retired witches—and murder. Read on if you dare!
It's been less than a year since Wishcrafter Darcy Merriweather moved from Ohio to Salem, Massachusetts, but in that time she’s come to trust her magical instincts. Things aren’t too fortuitous for the residents of the Enchanted Village: Darcy's instincts have her ominously quoting Macbeth as she senses a coming darkness. What Darcy doesn't believe are rumors that the Tavistock house is hexed—which is fortunate, since she’s checking out the empty mansion for her Aunt Ve's As Your Wish concierge service’s latest client.
When an elegant blonde steps into Hitching Post, Alabama's Little Shop of Potions, it's not surprising that owner Carly Bell Hartwell is caught off guard. Dr. Kathryn Perry bears little resemblance to her past persona, Katie Sue Perrywinkle. Carly's friend from the wrong side of the tracks, had struggled to leave her disreputable and greedy family behind. While Katie Sue hopes to reunite with her little sister, the real reason for her return is the much anticipated wedding of country music star Landry Calhoun and orphaned heiress Gabi Greenleigh. The union of a U.S. senator’s son and a Miss Alabama beauty queen is as close to royal wedding as The Wedding Capital of The South will ever see.
When Starla Sullivan asks her best friend if she thinks Starla could get away with murder, Darcy Merriweather's first response is to ask, "Why? Who do we need to kill?" Darcy is THAT loyal of a friend that she would immediately offer to help, even if her wish-crafting abilities prevent Darcy from granting her own wishes. It seems that Starla has spotted her ex-husband Kyle Chadwick in town, and considering that he is an escaped fugitive for assault charges from his attempted strangulation of Starla two years ago, she is in a state of panic. Even hysteria though, can't quite explain why no one else seems to have spotted Kyle or why the pictures Starla took as proof all turn out blank.
Near the Appalachian foothills lies Hitching Post, wedding capital of the South, where Southerners embrace crazy and cellphones are useless. It is also where Carly Bell Hartwell happens to be a practicing hoodoo healing witch and is the owner of the Little Shop of Potions. When her neighbor Mr. Dunwoody, makes one of his never-wrong predictions of divorce the townspeople hunt down Carly, not to burn the witch at the stake, but to request preventative love potions to save their marriages.
