Author: DeAnna Drake
Genre: Mystery/Paranormal
Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781964703336
Tule Publishing
224 Pages
$11.99; $4.99 Amazon
August 12, 2024
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What's worse than finding a murder victim on your doorstep?
For Rebecca Cuthbert, it's finding a cursed Egyptian charm tucked into the dead woman's pocket. The ominous discovery propels the fearless shopkeeper and her immortal, chatty cat on a perilous hunt for the killer and another piece of the missing magical collection.
Unfortunately, Citrus Grove's annual summer festival is tying up police department resources -- including Rebecca's new beau, Detective Nick Devon -- which leaves Rebecca, her grandfather's wisdom, and Aneksi's mystical powers to crack the case.
As her investigation delves into the amulet's eerie peculiarities and the deceased's shocking connections with a menacing foe, as well as an unwelcome old flame from Rebecca's past. Rebecca doesn't know who to trust. Can she rely on her newfound friends in her adopted hometown, or will deadly revelations turn her into the killer's next target?
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
After the unexpected death of her parents in a car accident, Rebecca Cuthbert learned she had a grandfather she never knew about. She moved from Montana to Citrus Grove to meet him, and decided to stay and help him with his antiquities shop. But since then, she's learned why her father left and never contacted him again: in a vault her grandfather, Stirling Cuthbert, has been keeping ancient Egyptian artifacts that his grandfather brought back to the states -- without knowing they were cursed. Unfortunately, someone stole some of them, and now both of them are trying to retrieve the items, one at a time.
What they did find among the missing items was a burial urn for a cat. When broken, the urn left them with an immortal kitten named Aneksi -- and they've been fond of her and love her, even knowing she can speak to them and has powers they may not know yet. Or ever.
But when Rebecca is taking trash to a dumpster one night, she sees someone on the shop's doorstep, and when she approaches finds the woman dead. Aneksi leads her to an artifact stolen from them -- the dark ankh -- and that will be the cause of all the trouble that lies ahead.
And no one can even decipher what lies ahead, including the appearance of Rebecca's ex-fiancé, Mason Moretti; the last person she ever wants to see again. He says he's bringing her a message, but she knows there's more.
Still, a murderer is out there, and could be anyone in town. Will Rebecca find the killer? Or will someone land in prison for a crime they didn't commit?
This is the third book in the series, and I have to say that I am hooked on this. This being a big deal because I don't normally read fantasy books. But I'm a sucker for Egyptian history and cats, so I should have known beforehand, ha!
I loved the storyline, and I am becoming fond of the characters as well. They are given more depth in each book, and who cannot like Aneksi? Rebecca is finding her way in her new town, and you can see that she and Stirling are growing closer to each other, which is a wonderful thing. Neither interferes with the other's life, but they cling to each other as only newfound family can.
Finding the killer is proving to be a bit more difficult though, as Rebecca thinks everyone could be the murderer. She uses her friend Luna as a sounding board, but she still has doubts and goes about trying to find the truth. Will it make her enemies? That I don't know, but I do know that when she ferrets out the killer, it's an interesting climax to the book. And speaking of teasers -- there's a whopper that makes me want to read the next in the series right away. Get cracking, Ms. Drake! We're waiting! Highly recommended.
I was given a copy of this book from the author and BookSprout but this in no way influenced my review.
More on DeAnna Drake's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/deanna-drake/
No comments:
Post a Comment