"'Book Magic' adds intriguing element to cozy mystery debut..."
Murder in Devil's Cove
By: Melissa Bourbon
Genres: Mystery Paranormal | Mystery
Posted: September 15, 2020
Just the idea of ‘book magic’ ignites the imagination and curiosity of any cozy mystery reader. The good news is that Melissa Bourbon delivers with a series debut that introduces a family gifted with bibliomancy, a divination ability that uses books to foretell the future and unravel the past.
Pippin and Grey Hawthorne inherit their parents’ house in Devil’s Cove after being gone for twenty-five years. After their mother died in childbirth, their father, Leo, disappeared, leaving the twins to be raised by their grandparents. It is only when their grandparents die that Pippin and Grey discover their home in Devil’s Cove is theirs.
As vague memories of Devil’s Cove begin to emerge, Pippin and Grey want to know more about what happened 20 years ago. They decide to renovate the large house, a combination Cape Cod and old Southern Coastal architecture, and turn it into the Sea Captain’s Inn, a bed & breakfast. As the twins split the responsibilities for the project to transform the house, Pippin begins trying to find out what happened to her father, Leo. References to a special family ability remind Pippin of a conversation with her cousins long ago about their ‘gift’ relating to books.
Meanwhile, Pippin decides to explore what to do with their father’s boat, Cassandra, drydocked behind the house. She recruits Old Salty, a local sailor, to evaluate the ship’s condition and he finds Leo’s body hidden in one of the hatches. Now that Pippin and Grey understand their father did not abandon them but was murdered instead, Pippin wants to try using the family ‘gift’ of bibliomancy to discover who killed Leo and why.
Melissa Bourbon and Wendy Lyn Watson collaborate on the creation of The Book Magic Mystery series in a somewhat unusual way. Ms. Bourbon writes the first, MURDER IN DEVIL’S COVE, Ms. Watson writes the second, MURDER AT CAPE MISERY, and Ms. Bourbon writes the third. In this first book, Ms. Bourbon skillfully establishes the back story of Pippin and Grey along with setting up the community of characters inhabiting Devil’s Cove today. The author also crafts a fascinating tale combing the elements of a complex mystery with an uncommon form of divination, bibliomancy, a somewhat different adventure for cozy readers.
Book Summary
Two best-selling authors, one magical universe.
In the Book Magic Mystery Series, best-selling authors Melissa Bourbon and Wendy Lyn Watson bring you the story of cousins Pippin Lane Hawthorne and Cora Lane. The cousins live on opposite coasts (Pippin in Devil’s Cove, North Carolina, and Cora in Laurel Point, Oregon), but they share the family gift of bibliomancy: the ability to foresee the future and unravel the past with the help of the books we love. Join Pippin and Cora as they use their otherworldly power to solve mysteries in their respective worlds.
Every book tells two stories—one written on the pages with pen and ink, and one woven into the paper, a story of the soul. The Lane women have the gift of bibliomancy. They can read them both.
Almost everyone in the Lane family line dies young. The gift of bibliomancy tells their story before the deaths happen. But Cassie Lane doesn’t see it as a gift. For her, it is a curse. As soon as she’s able, she leaves Laurel Point, Oregon, running from her past and her fate, ending up in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There she meets Leo Hawthorne and lives a perfect life with him in an old Sea Captain’s house.
Perfect, that is, until Leo vanishes at sea.
After an old copy of Moby Dick foretells Leo’s death, Cassie forbids all books from the lives of her children with Leo. But when twins Pippin and Gray discover a secret room where their father hid away books that were special to him, long forgotten secrets surface, an old crime comes to light, and everything Pippin thought she knew is turned upside down.
Now twenty-five years later, Pippin must learn how to be a bibliomancer if she is to figure out what happened to her father and stop another murder from happening in Devil’s Cove.
Read an Excerpt
by: Melissa Bourbon
Lake House Press
September 1, 2020
On Sale: September 22, 2020
Featuring:
ISBN:
Kindle: B088J48JY8
e-Book