A brew for chaos

Addison's third mystery featuring telepathic apothecary worker Alex Daniels (after A Hex for Danger) is a sparkling supernatural cozy. After announcing that the case of the Fisherman--a serial killer who stalked Bellamy Bay, N.C., in the 1980s--will be reopened, Bellamy Bay Bugler editor Jonah Fox is found dead. Horrified, Bugler reporter Pepper Bellamy tells Alex that she believes Fox had figured out the Fisherman's identity and was killed before he could go public with his accusation. Alex--who learned she was descended from a Polish mermaid after moving to Bellamy Bay, lending her telepathic abilities--has sworn off mystery solving but soon fears that the stakes of the case are too high for her to sit on the sidelines. Reluctantly, she plunges back into the sleuthing game with help from her boyfriend, police detective Jack Frazier, and unearths a host of secrets seething beneath Bellamy Bay's placid surface. Addison seamlessly folds fantasy lore into her well-oiled whodunit plot, sprinkling the reversals and red herrings with an extra bit of magic. Fans of Cindy Stark's Crystal Cove series should check this out. Agent: Nikki Terpilowski, Holloway Literary. (Sept.)

The lovely seaside town of Bellamy Bay, North Carolina, is beset with problems both magical and diabolical. Aleksandra Daniels belongs to the Sobieski family, whose members trace their lineage to a famous mermaid, carry the Mer gene, and have special abilities relating to water. After Alex's mother drowned, though, her father, a police detective, kept her far away from the clan. Now that he's died, she's been reunited with her Aunt Lidia and cousins Minka and Kamila. Kamila is a police officer with little interest in Botanika, the family's herbal healing business, while Minka was Lidia's helper until they had a falling out over the younger woman's work for Leviathan Industries, which is owned by the powerful Montgomery Blue, who has dragon blood. Alex's friend Pepper works for Jonah Fox, editor of theBellamy Bay Bugler, who's writing a story about the serial killer dubbed the Fisherman and is also known for his winning home-brew beer recipe, which tavern owner Spencer Francis is desperate to obtain before Oktoberfest. Although Alex's boyfriend, Jack Frazier, is a police detective who's against anything with even a hint of woo-woo, he asks her to meet his mother, whose fascination with mermaids and mental vagueness troubles him; she tells Alex that Jack's in the military, which doesn't seem right. When a woman is attacked on the beach and left with amnesia right next to the body of Jonah Fox, all hell breaks loose. Nasty, dangerous secrets that have been hidden for years bubble up, placing Alex and her family in great danger. Since Jack thinks Mer people aren't even human, Alex, who's solved several murders using her special abilities, must fight for her family and all magical people against dark forces that include the government. A long, complex mystery that spotlights humans' inhumanity to living creatures and offers a spark of hope. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.