I Read What You Write

Owner of the White Magic Five and Dime Shop, Alanis is just trying to get by, set a good example for her younger sister and make up for the wrongs of her con artist mother. Things get bumpy when a mysterious stranger gets a tarot reading from her, that seems to be threatening and then ends up dead on the same night that her long dead step father  shows up out of the blue. The adventure will see her life threatened by an old lady with a less than firm grasp on an uzi, have her investigating an old art theft and willing to deal with maybe even the devil himself to see that her loved ones are safe from harm.

Though not necessarily a bad thing, this is is not a typical cozy. The heroine is not a classic good girl, there is loads of profanity and plot just can’t seem to decide which direction it wants to go in. There is this great magic shop with a tarot spin, and there is a con a minute theme running a long game with Biddle at one end and GW at the other conning the money guy, looking for one last score, etc. Finally, there is the private eye vibe with Alanis being undercover along with her teen cyber detection team and the obvious mob connections. It does all tie together, but it makes for a very busy un-cozy like story line.

That said there are many great things about the book to recommend it, including a cast of clever and surprising characters. The main characters are fabulous, but they are nothing compared to the color characters; a  stodgy lawyer with a billing fetish who knows more than he is willing to tell, an investigative reporter with an unexpected ax to grind, an art collector who isn’t what he seems, among others. I also felt that that the tarot cards were a fabulous way to introduce the chapters. I enjoyed seeing what the cards looked like as I have zero experience with tarot in general. This was was a good enough story to make me curious about the first books in the series and I certainly am willing to come back and visit these characters again someday.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.