The White Magic Five & Dime (A Tarot Mystery)
A Brand New Series
Cozy Mystery
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: MIDNIGHT INK (July 8, 2014)

Alanis McLachlan isn’t surprised to learn that her estranged mother, Barbra, has been murdered. Her mom was a con woman who raised her daughter to be one, too. But what does surprise Alanis — who’s been trying to forge an honest, normal life for herself — is that Barbra left her an inheritance: a new-age shop called the White Magic Five & Dime. After traveling to tiny Berdache, Arizona, to claim her new property, Alanis decides to pick up her mother’s tarot-reading business…because she suspects that one of Barbra’s clients is the killer. With help from a hunky cop and her mom’s live-in teenage apprentice, Alanis begins faking her way through bogus tarot readings in order to win the confidence of her suspects. But the more she uses the tarot deck, the more Alanis begins to find real meaning in the cards. There’s one thing they can’t tell her, though: Will she solve the mystery before the murderer comes for her?

Review

Do you believe in White Magic?  After reading this book you might…or might not.  Alanis is notified that her mother has died and she has been left everything.  Yet when she arrives in Berdache AZ, she finds things maybe aren’t as cut and dried as it seems.

For some reason, I thought this book was going to be a cozy mystery.  I don’t think I would put it in that genre.  Mystery?  yes!  Cozy?  hmmm, borderline.  However, that doesn’t matter because this is still a GREAT book!  I have always been fascinated with things like psychics and tarot card readers (and maybe one day I will visit one for a reading!).  This book explained more about tarot cards and what each card means (or could mean) when chosen.

The characters were very real and there were flashbacks to Alanis’ life growing up that filled in the gaps as to why she hadn’t seen her mother in 20 years and what it was like being a part of a con artist’s life as a child.  There are twists and turns that I definitely didn’t expect and the book had an ending that could lead to another book, or could just as easily end here as a stand-alone book.

Worth the read and we give it 5 paws up!

About the Author

Steve Hockensmith is the author of the New York Times bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. He also writes the Holmes on the Range mystery series and (with Science Bob Pflugfelder) a series of science-based middle-grade adventures. The White Magic Five & Dime is his 11^th novel.

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Tour Participants

July 8 – Socrates’ Book Reviews – Review

July 9 – The Bookwyrm’s Hoard – Review, Book Giveaway

July 10 – StoreyBook Reviews – Review, Guest Post, Book Giveaway

July 11 – Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf – Review, Tarot Reading Giveaway

July 12 – Michelle’s Romantic Tangle – Review, Guest Post

July 13 – Cozy Up With Kathy – Review, Interview, Book Giveaway

July 14 –Chloe Gets A Chloe – Guest Post