MURDER AT THE ESTATE SALE

Buck Hubbell wasn’t the most popular book dealer in Atlanta, but it appears that someone disliked him enough to murder him in Charles’ debut mystery tale, which also involves the disappearance of an antique spell book.

The world of book-dealing can be treacherous, it seems. While browsing at an estate sale, Molly O’Donnell and Emma Clarke discover Hubbell’s dead body in a cellar that’s lined with shelves of antiquarian books. A mysterious note found beside the corpse reads, “Whosoever readeth this boke without leave of the Circle, let him BEWARE.” A closer look reveals that the note, which appears to be from the Elizabethan or Jacobean era, is a piece of ephemera that’s fallen from the aforementioned volume, written by someone with the initials “SF.” Intrigued, Molly pockets the note before the police arrive and, with Emma’s help, sets about finding the book, identifying the author, and working out exactly why it was worth killing for. After Emma temporarily steals the rare book Against the Diabolical, by C.S. Lewis, from the private stock of another antique bookseller, a further clue is revealed: In the text, Lewis refers to a small, 17th-century book of spells that had been shown to him by a student who mysteriously died soon after. Further investigation leads Emma to Shirley Parnell, a professor of religion who seems to know more about the spell book than she’s willing to admit. Charlene Ball and Libby Ware, who write together under the pen name Lily Charles, have crafted a charming pastiche of the age-old body-in-the-cellar mystery genre—one that’s full of hidden passageways, occult rituals, and, of course, amateur sleuthing. It treads a fine line between homage and cliché, and the rather bland title probably won’t inspire a great deal of confidence in prospective readers. However, skeptics should take note that this book manages to rise above much of the competition owing to its consistently jovial and easygoing narrative style as well as its informative discussions of Renaissance sorcery.

A fun, lightweight read for mystery fans that will also keep occultists and bibliophiles happy.