In the Wick of Time (Magic Candle Shop Mystery)
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Savannah, Georgia
Crooked Lane Books (October 17, 2023)
Hardcover : 288 pages
Synopsis
Tabby Winslow will help her twin sister Sage with anything and everything—and that includes putting out the flames of suspicion when Sage’s boss is found murdered in this magical mystery, perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Sofie Kelly.
December in Savannah, Georgia, is a sight to behold. With all the festivities—including the traditional riverfront luminary display during the boat parade—twin sisters Tabby and Sage Winslow are busier than ever setting up for the big celebration. But that isn’t the only thing on the sisters’ minds. Both Sage and her fellow employee Mary Nicole are vying for the sought-after assistant manager job at the plant nursery. But when Loren Lee, their boss, is found dead, and Sage becomes the police’s favorite suspect, both Winslow girls know that they’ll need more than a flicker of magic and their sisterhood to solve the murder and clear Sage’s name.
Soon, Tabby realizes that this is just one of the many problems they have. If being a suspect for murder wasn’t enough, there are more magical problems that they have to fix: Sage’s boyfriend is having a paranormal experience of his own he can’t control, there’s an energy vampire searching for his supposedly lost cousin, her cat suddenly dislikes her, and oh—every time Tabby hiccups, she turns completely invisible. The suspect list grows with each day and it seems everyone has a reason or a connection to Loren Lee.
Tabby and Sage are burning the candle at both ends—but will it be enough to keep their friends safe and find this killer? Or will they be burned by their efforts?
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Guest Post
Stillrooms and Apothecary Shops
By Valona Jones
In every book of A Magic Candle Shop Mystery Series, I share a bit about the room behind the candle shop . It’s where the magic happens, literally. Tabby Winslow is the family’s resident candle and soap maker, and she instills her good energy in the products she creates.
The label for candles and soaps with heavy-duty energy infusions is “aromatherapy.” Technically, all of the shop’s candles fit the description of aromatherapy since they are created using essential oils and natural ingredients, but most of the shop’s candles are diffused with the ambient current Tabby radiates. The aromatherapy ones get a walloping dose of goodness.
Through time, candles have earned the reputation of creating a calm and relaxing atmosphere. Some essential oils used in candlemaking, such as eucalyptus, lemon grass, patchouli, and lavender, to name a few, have therapeutic qualities and are known to relieve stress and anxiety. The candles and soaps Tabby makes continue her family traditions.
Tabby is very protective of her workspace. She won’t let just anybody in there, and especially not cops. When the wrong person enters her stillroom, she must smudge it with sage sticks to get rid of bad vibes.
Historically, a stillroom was one part science lab, one part infirmary, one part kitchen, and another part work room. It has typically been a female’s domain, but in contemporary times gender lines are blurred. Items created in a stillroom include medicines, cosmetics, household products, and homebrewed ale. Even further back in time, a stillroom wasn’t attached to the main house. It was an out-building.
The Book and Candle Shop caters to customers who prefer products made with natural bases and herbal products. If you added crystals to the inventory, the shop would be considered a metaphysical shop, but there are no crystals. Thus, the Winslows hold fast to the claim that this proves they aren’t witches.
Tabby’s stillroom is painted in a robin egg blue color. The dark counters contrast with the radiant windows across the alley side of the building. Above the industrial sink drying herbs hang n clumps. Electric green ferns line the windowsill, and the room itself radiates good energy.
As an author, I made these choices to give my amateur sleuth, Tabby, a respite from the world, a safe haven where she can let her hair down and create at will. She’s already conditioned not to be forthcoming in public because she’s got a boatload of family secrets to hide. The stillroom isn’t just the hub of the shop, it’s the lifeblood of her family. It’s the key to their success, especially those old recipe crafting books that go back generations.
Here’s something few people know. With its painted concrete floor, the stillroom is essentially a slab atop one of the three mass graves from Savannah’s three epidemics of Yellow Fever. So many people died each day that they couldn’t dig graves fast enough. (Note that the mass graves and Yellow Fever epidemics really happened, but the location of a mass grave under the candle shop is artistic license.)
The upshot of the shop being perched atop a mass grave is the constant emission of energy that revitalizes all but one of the Winslows every night. The character with the recharging issue is Sage. No wonder she’s often grumpy and a bit spiteful. Poor thing! As the family’s resident herbalist and plant grinder, she quickly becomes the target of a homicide investigation in this book.
About the Author
Valona Jones, also known as Maggie Toussaint, writes paranormal cozy mysteries set in coastal Georgia. A former scientist, she’s drawn to the study of personal energy. She sharpened her people-watching skills as a lifelong introvert and had a bank vault of personal observations when she began to write fiction. Her newest release is In The Wick of Time, book 2 in the A Magic Candle Shop Mystery, preceded by Snuffed Out, which released Jan. 2023. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime with more than twenty-five published works of fiction. She lives in coastal Georgia, where she’s seen time and tide wait for no one.
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Giveaway
Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manager Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes. In the 9th book of the series, A Parfait Crime, Val and Granddad rehearse an Agatha Christie play with a cast that includes murder suspects. A Virginia resident, Maya has taught college courses in writing, detective fiction, and literature. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords. Visit her website for book news, easy recipes, and mystery history and trivia.
Bob Rogers is the author of the historical novels First Dark and The Laced Chameleon, which earned critical acclaim from Kirkus Reviews, San Francisco Review, and Baltimore Examiner. Bob is a meticulous researcher, known to spend extra time, magnifying glass in hand, deciphering 18th and 19th-century handwriting for “just the facts, ma’am.” Bob, a former U.S. Army captain and combat leader during the Vietnam War in Troop A, 1/10 Cavalry, finds his topographic experiences useful in field research. If not closeted in libraries or museums, you are likely to find him walking centuries-old rice fields, battlefields, or in a canoe following the river trails of his characters.
Bonnie Vanak is a multi-published author of paranormal and historical romance novels. After a career in journalism, she became a writer for an international charity, traveling to poor countries like Haiti to write about issues affecting the poor. When the strain of her job demanded a diversion, she turned to her childhood dream of writing books. Bonnie lives in Florida with her husband and rescue dogs.
Tara Lush is a Florida-based author and journalist. She’s an RWA Rita finalist, an Amtrak writing fellow, and the winner of the George C. Polk Award for environmental journalism.
To combat Napoleon’s increasing interest in the Caribbean and help pressure France to sell New Orleans to America, Vice-President Thomas Jefferson enlists the aid of friend and naval hero Captain Jacob May. He asks Captain May to wage a clandestine war against the French in the Caribbean not as part of the US Navy, but as pirates.
David Nichols has published three books and a number of articles on building small wooden boats and traditional sails. He also taught wooden boat building at WoodenBoat School and Great Lakes Boatbuilding School. In addition, he wrote and directed an hour-long “how-to” video on wooden boat building and has written many scripts for industrial and commercial films. This background allows him to accurately portray the boats and ships of the late 18th century and weave a cohesive and compelling story. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas, Austin.
Samara Yew is a cozy mystery author who writes about adorable bookshops and dead bodies. A full-time mom, full-time dog servant, and part-time writer, Samara lives in British Columbia, Canada, where she can often be found watching Psych reruns. Samara loves to travel, especially visiting her husband’s home country of Singapore or donning Mickey ears in Disneyland. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.
Lover of books, Kristen spends her time overly caffeinated in front of her computer in the Tampa Bay area with her husband and four children.
Move over Tinker Bell. There’s a new fairy in town!
Multi-award-winning author Michael Scott Clifton lives in Mount Pleasant, Texas, with his wife, Melanie. An avid gardener, rapacious reader, and movie junkie, his books contain facets of all the genres he enjoys—action, adventure, magic, fantasy, and romance. His fantasy novels, The Janus Witch, and the Conquest of the Veil series, (The Open Portal, Escape from Wheel, A Witch’s Brew, and Cavern of the Veil Queen) all received 5-Stars from the prestigious Readers Favorite Book Reviews. The Open Portal has been honored with a Feathered Quill Book Finalist Award. In addition, his YA novel Edison Jones and The Anti-Grav Elevator received a Feathered Quill Book Award Bronze Medal. Two of his short stories have earned Gold Medals, with “Edges of Gray” winning the Texas Authors Contest, and “The End Game” winning the Northeast Texas Writer’s Organization Contest. Professional credits include published articles in the Texas Study of Secondary Education Magazine.
Among other things, Kevin Patrick McCarthy has been a geothermal geologist, a technical writer, a critic, and a screenwriter. His humor, essays, poetry, and fiction have been widely recognized. “Enough Sky,” the epigraph for Mortal Weather, was Commended by The Poetry Society (UK) in 2014. He is a fourth-generation Coloradoan who now lives in the Pacific with his wife Tricia, and their dog, Nani.
