A TRINKET FOR THE TAKING

A band of mystics sows mayhem in and around the nation’s capital.

Dovey Van Dalen hoped to spend her 200th birthday sipping cocktails with her bestie, Ursula Göransdotter, in Georgetown. But when Elric Ostergaard summons Dovey to his headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, she literally can’t say no. She’s been bound to Elric by a magic spell ever since her father lost her to him in a card game in Copenhagen when she was 18. Her binding does have its upsides. She ages slowly enough so that, even at 200, she looks like a model. And she has access to magical items known to mystics as “trinkets” that provide all sorts of benefits, like rendering their holder invisible or curing mortal wounds. The downside is that she must always do Elric’s bidding, even though he has no corresponding duty to honor her or even to refrain from wooing other women. When Elric says he needs to recover the Promise—one of seven uniquely powerful trinkets known as the Pandoras—she hurries back to D.C., where victims of the mystical Promise are dropping like flies. Dovey teams up with Special Agent Grant Barlow of the FBI, who thinks he’s investigating a string of suicides, though Dovey knows better. Since the Promise has the power to force those who see it to kill themselves in the most fearsome way imaginable, she knows those suicides are actually the work of whoever stole the mystical trinket. Laurie’s series debut packs quite a punch. In addition to murders, there’s a juicy romance between Dovey and the handsome special agent, a bunch of gory fight scenes, and heaps of mystic-on-mystic malevolence—enough to satisfy readers who like their puzzles with more than a hint of the supernatural.

A magical mystery tour coming to take you away.