Tillie shares a name with the famous “Tillie the Terrible Swede”. She also shares an ambition with that woman from Chicago. She longs to break all the records on her bike. But her home deep in the farmlands of northwest Minnesota offers few opportunities to test her. Then a car full of city folks blows into her town. City folks in a fancy city car, carrying very city weapons. Their target? Her town’s bank. But when their getaway puts her grandfather in danger, Tillie and her bike ride to the rescue. “Tillie’s Big Race”, a short story featuring gangsters, Tommy guns, and a lone young woman on a bike.
Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933. But just because alcohol is legal doesn’t mean it’s easy to find. Anna Olsen wants her sister to have all the best for her engagement party. And the best means champagne. Only scarcity thwarts her every attempt to find any. She knows where to find all she could ever want. But getting it? Not so easy. George Andrews appreciates his mentor trying to find him a bride. But none of the candidates at his mentor’s New Year’s Eve party intrigue him half as much as the woman he catches sneaking around the back corridors, looking for the wine cellar. But what links her to the man like a father to him? “Long Night’s Moon”, a short story of romance with a little crime, set in post-Prohibition Minnesota.
Tabitha Greene loves her new life. Working at her uncles’ bookstore, hanging with her friends, cuddling with her dog Houdini. When he allows it. Everything would be perfect. If only she could control her magic. But her bad luck with spells plagues her, setting off random sparks and triggering too many accidents. Her friends support her in her attempts to get it all under control. But her other neighbors around the Square display much less patience with having an actual jinx around. Especially as they plan the biggest party of the year. When Tabitha’s bitterest nemesis turns up dead, no one thinks she did it. At least not intentionally. But not even Tabitha is sure she didn’t cause it by mistake. The only way to be sure? She and her friends have to get to the bottom of what really happened the night of the party. Even if it means that Tabitha’s worst fears come true.
In the 1920s, at the height of Prohibition, Sarah Eckhart holds no illusions about how her father earns his money. She knows he runs a dangerous, illegal empire. Her wedding at their palatial summer home on the shores of White Bear Lake is the event of the summer. But the man her father hand-picked as her groom, his chief lieutenant, turns her stomach. She only has one last chance for escape, if she dares to take it. “The Elopement”, a short story of crime and tough choices, set during the height of Prohibition in Minnesota.
Ingrid Torfudottir juggled two separate lives for the longest time. In one life she struggled at aspiring to be a professional book illustrator, living with her grandmother in a Minnesotan fishing town on the North Shore of Lake Superior. In the other, she answered an ancestral calling to serve a village founded in the Viking age by Norse fishermen escaping some terrible enemy whose identity was lost to time. Now she lives in the Norse village of Villmark full-time. Her house lies in the middle of town where anyone can find her. But loneliness is her companion now that her boyfriend Thorbjorn has gone far to the north to accompany her friend Loke on a mysterious quest. But lonely doesn’t mean bored, because life as a volva, a Norse witch, is never boring. And when a storm blows through, destroying all the crops and leaving too many signs of ill omen, Ingrid definitely has her hands full. Then Loke’s sister Esja starts to behave very strangely. Something is going on, and it’s up to Ingrid to figure out what, before it’s too late.
Tabitha Greene feels blessed by so many things she lacked before. Friends, including a new boyfriend. Family, including a brother she never even knew about. And now she knows her job in the Weal & Woe Bookshop remains hers even when her uncles return from their trip abroad. She learns more every day about her innate chaos magic, training with her brother and his magic of order. Even Houdini, her little black dog that is secretly a dragon, learns more about his own ancestry when the perfect book finally turns up. But all of that happiness ends when one of her closest friends is found comatose in his apartment. And beside him lies his equally comatose black Siamese cat, Miss Snooty Cat. Tabitha refuses to rest until she learns just who would harm her friend. Perhaps someone who knew the secret of Miss Snooty Cat?
During the Great Depression, the cash prizes offered for dance competitions lured hundreds of young people to literally dance until they dropped. Alice and Henry traveled to Fargo determined to outlast all the other couples, dancing for days without more than momentary rest breaks. Alice’s old nemesis Dorothy strives for the same goal. But that many people killing themselves to get that much money? Guaranteed to draw cheats and con artists with their eyes on the prize too. “Dance Til You Drop”, a story of endurance and pluck set in the Great Depression.
Winter has come to the lost Norse village of Villmark, the wind and snow separating cozy house from cozy house like a knife breaks apart shortbread.And for the first time in her life, Ingrid Torfa lives alone. No mother, no grandmother, no roommate. Just a big, empty house and a cat who loves to disappear. Magical studies fill her every waking hour, and yet those hours stretch out in unbroken silence.Until a scream rents the night, drawing every neighbor out into the cold streets. A woman lies dead at the bottom of the well. It looks like an accident to the villagers, but to Ingrid it feels like a murder.Luckily, Ingrid knows just the friends to help her solve the mystery. Not even the bite of winter can stop them from uncovering the truth.
Tabitha Greene knows more about magic than most. She might not be able to cast a workable spell to save her life, but she has read every magical tome and text in existence. Or so she thought. But then she hears of another book. A rare volume delineating an even rarer type of magic. A type of magic that just might be Tabitha’s real calling. But when she tracks down the magical bookseller who owns the only known copy, she finds only a dead shop owner and no sign of the book. Maybe a random robbery gone wrong, but Tabitha doubts it. But either way, if she wants that book, she has to find the murderer first. With the help of her friends, she intends to do just that. But if the thief who stole the book killed the bookseller in order to hide the truth the text contained, Tabitha and all her friends face a dangerous threat.
Ingrid Torfa lives two lives. In one she struggles to get by as a book illustrator in the tiny town of Runde on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. But in the other, she serves as a Norse witch, a volva, in the town of Villmark, where the descendants of a lost colony of Vikings hides inside a pocket dimension far from the reach of the modern world. Usually, balancing the needs of those two worlds dominate her time and energy. But this time, Villmark offers her trouble enough to consume her. Young men keep disappearing in the fields south of Villmark, a place of no danger in the past. The council tells her to leave it to the guardians known as the Thors. Then one of the Thors turns up with mixed up memories. And a missing brother. Now not even the council can stop Ingrid from getting to the bottom of this latest mystery. Because her own Thorbjorn just might be next.
Tabitha Greene grew up all alone, shuttled from magical academy to magical academy with no rhyme or reason. She never stayed in the same place for more than a matter of weeks. Ever. That all changed when she moved in with her uncles to help them run the Weal & Woe Bookshop in the Square, a hidden magical neighborhood in Minneapolis. Now her uncles make her breakfast to start every day, her neighbors greet her whenever she passes them, and she has friends who mean the world to her, and she to them. She even found a brother she never knew she had. All that, and a little dog too. What’s not to love about that life? But all of that is threatened when the father she’s never met moves into the Square and opens a business of his own. The Shop of Wonders, where the proprietor knows just what item every customer never knew they always needed. People flock to shop in his store. But when one customer turns up dead after leaving the store, Tabitha can’t help suspecting the last man to see her alive. Even if implicates her father. No, scratch that. Especially if it implicates her father.
When nothing and no one holds you to the present, why not celebrate the new year 91 years ago?So think Amanda Clarke and the rest of the Witches Three. They head back in time to ring in 1928, drinking bootleg champagne with the wealthiest members of St. Paul society, honest businessmen and gangsters and those who dwell where those categories overlap.But when a surprise wedding engagement announcement becomes an even more surprising murder of the bride-to-be, the Witches Three find themselves wrapped up in yet another mystery.Because even if it's not your time era, when the chief suspect is your close friend, you don't opt out. Or so says Amanda Clarke."Old World Charm", Book 4 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.
BUBBLY, BICYCLES AND BRIDES showcases a collection of mystery and crime stories set in Minnesota in days past. “Long Night’s Moon” features romance and crime both, set on the first New Year’s Eve after the repeal of Prohibition. In “Tillie’s Big Race”, a young woman training for the big time gets caught up in a bank robbery when gangsters blow through her town. “The Elopement” tells the story of a gangster’s daughter on the eve of her dreaded wedding. “Dance Til You Drop” explores the world of marathon dance competitions and the poor souls willing to endure anything just for a chance at the cash prize. And “On a Cold Winter’s Night” goes further into the past for a darker kind of Christmas story. Five tales of bubbly, bicycles and brides, all guaranteed to delight you.
Amanda Clarke knows she's a witch. She unleashed unstoppable magic to save her friends and catch a murderer. But she only did it the one time. And now? Back to powerlessness.Her friends insist that all she needs is proper training. Sophie wakes her before dawn for meditation and workouts designed to channel magic. Brianna buries her under books, so many books.Amanda longs for a distraction. But when the woman who lives next door to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies turns up dead, and the murder weapon dates back to Prohibition, she gets more of a distraction than she bargained for.But who in 1927 would want her neighbor dead in 2018?
By day, a drab pole barn used as general store, post office and meeting place all-in-one by the people of Runde, Minnesota, a fishing village on the North Shore of Lake Superior. By night, a Viking-style long house filled with tales and singing, roasting meat and flowing beer, and of course mead. Ingrid Torfa can imagine no better place for a much-needed night of R&R. The mead hall run by her grandmother lies where modern small town life brushes up against the old world lifestyle of the people of Villmark, proud descendants of a lost tribe of Northmen. All of her friends mingle there from the server who works in the restaurant on the side of the highway to the guardians charged with protecting the sacred flame of their ancestors. The spells that her grandmother casts over her mead hall nightly keep everyone within safe and harmonious. Or so everyone always believed. But when a murder interrupts Ingrid's night off, she finds herself questioning everything. Because her chief suspect is her own grandmother. Corpse in the Mead Hall, Book 6 in the Viking Witch Mystery Series!
Amanda Clarke thinks of herself as perfectly ordinary in every way. Just a small-town girl who serves breakfast all day in a little diner nestled next to the highway, nothing but dairy farms for miles around. She fits in there. But then an old woman she never met dies, and Amanda was named in her will. Now Amanda packs a bag and heads to the big city, to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies. And it's not in just any neighborhood. No, she finds herself on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, a street lined with gorgeous old houses, the former homes of lumber barons, railroad millionaires, even the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Why, Amanda can practically hear the jazz music still playing across the decades. Scratch that. The music really, literally, still plays in the backyard of the charm school. Because the house stretches across time itself. Without a witch to protect this tear in the fabric of the world, anything can spill over. Like music. Or like murder. "Charm School", Book 1 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.
Spring, the season of renewal, finally arrives on the North Shore of Lake Superior, and Ingrid Torfa finds herself in a strange new situation. On vacation. She and her grandmother spend their days resting and recuperating in an old cabin overlooking the shores of Lake Superior. She can see modern ships pass by along the shipping lanes on the horizon. But everything around her? Strictly from the Viking Age. Not even the lost Norse village of Villmark lies so far in the past as this lonely cabin. But her restful vacation comes to a sudden end when a stranger knocks on their door. His presence disrupts their quiet lakeside lives even before he turns up dead. Now Ingrid must figure out who wanted the strange old man dead. Because the next target just might be her.
When her mother dies after a long illness, Ingrid Torfa must sell the family home to cover the medical bills. Her career as a book illustrator not yet exactly launched, Ingrid faces two options: live in her battered old Volkswagen, or go back to her mother's small town in northern Minnesota. The small town that still haunts her dreams more than a decade since she last visited it. Or rather, not the town but the grandmother. All of the drawings she fills notebooks with witches and the trolls that do their bidding? Not as whimsical in her nightmares as she sketches them in the bright light of day. If not for her beloved cat Mjolner, living in the Volkswagen just might tempt her. But the cat wants four walls and a door, so north she goes. And that's where her adventures begin. This box set includes the first three novels in THE VIKING WITCH COZY MYSTERIES BODY AT THE CROSSROADS DEATH UNDER THE BRIDGE MURDER ON THE LAKE
Winter out on the Minnesotan prairie in the 1880s tests the very souls of those who attempt to live and farm there. Christmastime usually means a celebration of light and warmth. But for some families, Christmastime means darkness and too much togetherness. As a blizzard rages, forcing one family to stay indoors, that togetherness pushes them all to the breaking point. How will the return of light find them? “On a Cold Winter’s Night”, a darker kind of Christmas story.
When her mother dies after a long illness, Ingrid Torfa must sell the family home to cover the medical bills. Her career as a book illustrator not yet exactly launched, Ingrid faces two options: live in her battered old Volkswagen, or go back to her mother's small town in northern Minnesota.The small town that still haunts her dreams more than a decade since she last visited it. Or rather, not the town but the grandmother.All of the drawings she fills notebooks with witches and the trolls that do their bidding? Not as whimsical in her nightmares as she sketches them in the bright light of day.If not for her beloved cat Mjollnir, living in the Volkswagen just might tempt her.But the cat wants four walls and a door, so north she goes. And finds trouble in the form of a dead body before she even finds her grandmother's little town. How much can a town of stoic fishermen possibly be hiding?As Ingrid is about to find out, quite a lot.
Ingrid Torfa finds herself on the road with two of her closest friends, Kara and Nilda Mikkelsen. Not a hiking and camping trip for pleasure, but a mission of the utmost importance. The Thors disappeared months ago along with their mentor Frór. On a mission to protect Villmark, the village on the North Shore of Lake Superior where they still live like Vikings, hidden from the modern world, the Thors traveled far into the north of this magical realm. Dangers lurk there, things not seen in the modern world in centuries, if ever. Now Ingrid and her friends are desperate to find out what happened to the Thors. Strange folk haunt the northern roads. The three seek an old ally, but find instead another murder, one with ties to Villmark itself. And if Ingrid doesn’t find the killer first, all of Villmark stands in jeopardy.
When her mother died after a long illness, Ingrid Torfa sold the family home to cover the medical bills. Her career as a book illustrator not yet exactly launched, Ingrid moved back to her mother's small hometown in northern Minnesota and the grandmother she scarcely remembered. Then she learned the truth she had forgotten since her early childhood: that Vikings still exist, and her grandmother serves as their spiritual leader and protector. Now Ingrid must leave the modern world behind for a time and immerse herself in this forgotten world. She must know if she has what it takes to serve the people of Villmark as her grandmother serves them. Or if her destiny lies instead among her friends in the modern world of Runde, Minnesota. No easy decision. But at least her magical cat Mjolner remains always by her side. Together, they can face anything either world can throw at them. Even if it’s murder. This box set includes the second three novels in THE VIKING WITCH COZY MYSTERIES KILLING IN THE VILLAGE COMMONS BLOODSHED IN THE FOREST CORPSE IN THE MEAD HALL
Ingrid Torfa lives between two worlds. In her life on the shore of Lake Superior she mingles with fishermen and farmers, quiet folk who keep to themselves. But her other life on a hilltop overlooking the lake she lives among the descendants of Vikings.On top of all that, she trains day and night to master magic, to one day take her grandmother's place maintaining the spells that hide the Viking village from modern eyes.But life as a witch requires more than casting spells. As resident peacemaker and unofficial impartial judge, her grandmother arbitrates disputes. The residents of both worlds hold her in high regard.Then a long simmering property dispute between two farming families comes to full boil: a murder. Now Ingrid must find the real culprit before the feuding families decide to mete out their own justice.Her grandmother needs her. But what if she fails?
No one knows more about every branch of magic than Tabitha Greene. She devoted years to studying the most esoteric texts, hunting down the most obscure source materials, and deciphering the most cryptic ancient scrolls. But her career in academia hits a dead end when no wizard will take her on as an apprentice. Just because, despite being descended from two long and prestigious lines of witches, her attempts to actually perform any magic always fail. Often spectacularly. But no more college means no more dorm life. And no magical skills means no real job skills, at least, not in the witchy world. And a life spent moving from school to school every few months was a life without real friendships. She finds herself alone with nowhere to go. Then an uncle she barely remembers offers her a summer job, running his bookstore over the summer. The Weal and Woe Bookstore, located in a magical pocket world within a block of buildings just north of the old Mill District of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Not exactly the pinnacle of all her hopes and dreams. But it's just for one summer, right? Or so Tabitha tells herself. But unbeknownst to her, the Weal and Woe Bookstore is about to change her life.
By day, a drab pole barn used as general store, post office and meeting place all-in-one by the people of Runde, Minnesota, a fishing village on the North Shore of Lake Superior. By night, a Viking-style long house filled with tales and singing, roasting meat and flowing beer, and of course mead. Ingrid Torfa can imagine no better place for a much-needed night of R&R. The mead hall run by her grandmother lies where modern small town life brushes up against the old world lifestyle of the people of Villmark, proud descendants of a lost tribe of Northmen. All of her friends mingle there from the server who works in the restaurant on the side of the highway to the guardians charged with protecting the sacred flame of their ancestors. The spells that her grandmother casts over her mead hall nightly keep everyone within safe and harmonious. Or so everyone always believed. But when a murder interrupts Ingrid's night off, she finds herself questioning everything. Because her chief suspect is her own grandmother. Corpse in the Mead Hall, Book 6 in the Viking Witch Mystery Series!
Ingrid Torfudottir lives a double life. Half she spends in Runde, a normal town on the North Shore of Lake Superior in modern day Minnesota. The other half she spends in Villmark, a village that exists outside of time, where descendants of Vikings still live following the old ways. On top of all that, she personally descends from a long line of volvas, women trained in the magical arts. Only she missed out on everything when she grew up away from Villmark. Now she still struggles to catch up. After months of hard work, she speaks the language of Villmark. Her mastery of the runes sits at nearly a third complete. But now she must face her greatest challenge yet: the woman she narrowly defeated once before, who waits for their face-to-face confrontation deep inside the caves behind the waterfall that separates Runde from Villmark. No one thinks she is ready for this rematch. Not her friends. Not her mentor. Not even her own grandmother. No one but Ingrid. Sacrifice Behind the Falls is book 9 in the ongoing Viking Witch Cozy Mystery series!
Ingrid Torfudottir lives in two worlds at once. The first, Runde, lies on the banks of Lake Superior, a town of northern Minnesotans who descend from Scandinavian immigrants, fishermen and farmers both. In that world she barely exists, just an unknown aspiring book illustrator who occasionally sells a little art at the local café.The other, Villmark, lies hidden from the rest of the world by ancient, strong magic. The people of the village descend from colonists who fled their homeland in Norway centuries before. In that world she bears great responsibilities. As a volva, a Viking witch, the protection of her people always comes first in her life.These two worlds overlap in just one place: her grandmother's mead hall. After sitting abandoned for months, Ingrid and her grandmother open it again to much celebration in both communities.But then everything goes wrong. The illusions and protections remain despite their efforts at the end of the night. And Ingrid can't get back to Villmark.Then someone dies, a murder. As if Ingrid didn't have enough on her plate.
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