psychics

Vikki VanSickle: The Mystic and the Missing Girl

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Vikki VanSickle has had a long career as a children’s author (and bookseller), and this is her first foray into the world of adult mystery writing.  As I read the book I was thinking “this is kind of like a grown up version of Nancy Drew,” and after reading VanSickle’s biography, it makes sense. The main character, Drew Benson, has inherited her Aunt Hannah’s metaphysical shop, as well as the building it was housed in, which includes an apartment.  Like many another cozy heroine, Drew has returned back home to find herself after a mainly unsatisfying job in the city. read more

Carolyn Marie Wilkins: Let the Murderer Say Amen

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Psychics & Soul Food #2

This lively and compelling mystery is set in a small town in Illinois in the 20’s.  While author Wilkins names her fictional town Agate, if you’d like to orient yourself it’s fairly close to Joliet, outside of Chicago. The central character is the charming Nola Ann Jackson, who is working for a caterer and lives with her Aunt Sarah.  Both women are psychics though Aunt Sarah has far more experience, and is known as a conjure woman.  Both can see auras.  I loved this aspect of their characters – it made them both more specific and more interesting. read more

Lauren Elliott: Steeped in Secrets

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Anyone looking for a new cozy series that has a strong protagonist, multiple levels of enigmas, and a supernatural flair, need look no further than Lauren Elliott’s Steeped in Secrets. The main character, Shayleigh Myers, finds herself back in her hometown of California’s Monterey Peninsula due to her life falling apart. This is thanks to her ex-husband Brad’s scheming and cheating, both in love and in business. Shayleigh is left destitute and discredited from her chosen profession of gemologist and has nowhere to go but back to her hometown and crashing on her sister’s couch.  Just as everything seems hopeless, however, she receives unusual news from the estate of Bridget Early. read more