Book Review
of The Alchemical Detective
The Alchemical Detective
By Kirsten Weiss
By Kirsten Weiss
Book Two in the Riga Hayworth Series
Genre:
Paranormal Mystery
Date
of Publication: May 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9855103-1-2
ASIN:
B0085XCDL8
Number
of pages: 289
Word
Count: 75,000
Purchase
Links: Kindle
Book Description
A psychic
has been murdered in an occult ceremony and the police pay a visit to Riga
Hayworth, metaphysical detective. But
this time, she’s not a consultant on the case, she’s a suspect.
There’s a
storm on the horizon. Riga’s lost her
magic, and has come to Lake Tahoe to recover and spend quality time with her
new love. But life for Riga is never
that simple. A psychic’s been murdered,
and the police believe Riga has a connection to the crime. They’re right. And if that’s not enough, Riga is drafted as
the host of a reality TV show about the local lake monster, and her niece is
rejecting her metaphysical abilities.
Juggling demons, daimons, and angry tarot card readers, Riga must catch
a killer before she becomes the next target.
The
Alchemical Detective is a paranormal mystery that explores a world of alchemy
and the imagination.
Author Bio:
Kirsten Weiss is the author of two paranormal
mysteries available on the Kindle: the urban fantasy, The
Metaphysical Detective, and The
Alchemical Detective. She is hard at work on the sequel, The Shamanic Detective.
Kirsten worked overseas for nearly fourteen
years, in the fringes of the former USSR and deep in the Afghan war zone. Her experiences abroad not only gave her
glimpses into the darker side of human nature, but also sparked an interest in
the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily
lives.
Now based in San Mateo, CA, she writes
paranormal mysteries, blending her experiences and imagination to create a
vivid world of magic and mayhem.
Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t
like, and her guilty pleasures are watching True Blood and drinking good
wine.
Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/RigaHayworth,
view her world boards on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/kirstenweiss/or
check out her blog at http://kirstenweiss.com
Author
site/blog: http://kirstenweiss.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/RigaHayworth
Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/kirstenweiss/
Short
Excerpt:
The egg quivered, then rolled, seemingly of its own accord,
to the edge of the counter.
Riga stared at it, her violet-colored eyes narrowed in
concentration. Magic, she reminded
herself, was a matter of will and she had that in spades. However, it was also a matter of focus and in
this area, she was lacking.
The egg trembled, then slowly rose into the air; one inch,
two inches, five.
“Yes,” Brigitte said encouragingly, her voice a
French-accented Lauren Bacall. Her stone
claws tensed, gouging tracks in the linoleum countertop.
The egg exploded, splattering the gargoyle with shell and
yolk.
Brigitte shrieked, the sound of rocks scraping against each
together. “Faugh! Water!
Bring ze water!”
Riga hurried to the sink and turned on the tap, frustration
wrinkling her brow. She grabbed a
dishtowel and soaked it in warm water.
Her hands trembled and Riga swore under her breath. Two months ago, this would have been
easy.
At first she’d thought her magic was gone. Now Riga knew it had gone haywire and her
rehab attempts weren’t working. If
anything, her magic had become more unpredictable, more dangerous. She only dared practice with Brigitte because
the centuries-old gargoyle was made of stone.
But even Brigitte wasn’t indestructible.
Someone beat upon the front door and Riga whipped around,
startled. She should have sensed whoever
was coming up the steps. Another small
failure. More pounding; the cheap wooden
door vibrated beneath the blows.
“Police! Open the
door!”
Gargoyle and woman looked at each other. Woman acted first. Riga tossed the towel in the sink. “Don’t move,” she said to Brigitte.
“But ze egg. It dries
like cement,” Brigitte wailed.
“Later.” Riga hurried
to the door and flung it open. A chilly
blast of pine-scented air swept inside, tossing Riga’s auburn hair and stinging
her skin.
Two sheriffs stood before her in wide brimmed hats and heavy
dark brown parkas. Riga might have taken
them for rangers had it not been for their belts, strapped with weapons, slung
low on their hips. The older one had his
fist raised for another round of door pummeling. He lowered it with what looked like
regret. He was bulky, bearlike, with
steel blue eyes, and she imagined he enjoyed making the door shiver beneath his
fist. The tag under his badge read:
Sheriff John King. The badge itself: El
Dorado County.
“I heard a woman scream,” King said.
“I banged my shin on the coffee table,” Riga said.
“Are you alone?” He
peered over Riga’s shoulder. It wasn’t
hard – Riga was five foot six, and he stood well over six feet tall, imposing
in every direction.
“Yes. Can I help
you?” Riga didn’t budge, unwilling to
let them in. It wasn’t that Riga didn’t
like cops; she was friends with plenty of them, when they were out of uniform.
“It was quite a scream,” he said.
She quirked her lips.
“Now you’re just embarrassing me.”
The Sheriff looked at her.
She returned his gaze. The
silence stretched between them.
The Deputy coughed.
“Are you Ms. Hayworth?” he asked.
Riga figured him for his early thirties, which meant she had a decade on
him. He was well built, and between the
startling pale blue of his eyes and the chiseled planes of his face, would have
looked at home on a magazine cover. But
Riga’s gaze was drawn to the Sheriff.
The Deputy had youth, the Sheriff had presence.
“I’m Riga Hayworth.”
“My name is Night, Deputy Night. May we come in? Please?”
He smiled ruefully, exposing dimples and gleaming white teeth. “It’s kind of cold out here.”
Riga hesitated. But she
wasn’t wearing a coat and was freezing in the doorway. She could feel the heat from the cabin oozing
past her, out the door. “Okay.” Reluctantly, she stepped back, and allowed
them past her.
Hands resting on the butts of their guns, they prowled the
room as if they owned the place. They
could have it, for all Riga cared. It
was one of the lower-end tourist cabins, crammed with a mis-matched jumble of
seventies era furniture. A giant picture
window looked out upon a forest scene:
pines, and patches of snow wetting the ground. The afternoon sun slanted low in the sky,
sending beams of light glittering through damp tree branches.
Brigitte, still
covered in egg, had shifted to face the cabin’s small living room. The deputy stared at the gargoyle, walked to
Brigitte, and ran his hands across her stony feathers as if in a caress. Brigitte would love that, Riga thought.
“Cool harpy,” he said.
“Where’d you find it?”
“Garage sale.”
Night tucked his hat under one arm, and ruffled his blond
hair with his free hand. “Do you know
it’s got egg on it?”
“Forget the statue,” the Sheriff barked. Turning, he stumbled over a cheap
American-Indian themed rug. “Miss
Hayworth, may we sit down?”
She indicated the lumpy sofa, a cruel gesture given the state of its
springs, but she didn’t want them to linger.
Further reviews scheduled
July 27 Interview
On the Broomstick
July 27 Review
Books, Books, and
More Books
July 28 Interview
Read 2 Review
July 28 Guest blog
July 29 promo
Fall Into Books –
July 30 Interview
Fang-tastic Books
July 31 Promo
A Dream Within A
Dream
August 1 Promo
Roxanne’s Realm
Aug 2 Promo
Mama Knows Books
Aug 2 Promo
whoopeeyoo :D
Aug 3 Guest blog
Bookgirl Knitting
Book Review:
I want
my own gargoyle. How cool would that
be? Riga, heroine in this book, has
one. She is a metaphysical detective who
has lost her magic and is a suspect in a murder investigation. Okay, so it would suck to have all those
other issues, but having your own living, breathing, walking around gargoyle
would still be cool.
This
book combines some of my favorite paranormal concepts. It is definitely worth reading. I give this book 4 out of 5 clouds.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
I want my own gargoyle too! Thanks for taking the time to review the book.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Kirsten
Brigette, the gargoyle, is awesome! This second book sounds fantastic (I really enjoyed the first one). Can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to give each book a different magical theme (Archetypes for book 1, Alchemy for book 2), though I may be boxing myself in and I will NOT be continuing in alphabetical order.
ReplyDelete