How Do Mystery Fantasy Books Handle Unreliable Magic As Evidence?

With her enemies in pre-civil war Virginia still seeking her death, Esmerelda is forced to return to the future only days after wedding Lance. Because it was necessary to fake her death in order to stop her enemies from following her to the future, her new husband, Lance, was forced to stay behind. He’d placed a magic box for them to communicate until he found a way to safely be with her beneath the floorboards of the house. Now, she must find it. A task that is easier said than done! “The Magic Box” is book two of the exciting paranormal-romance-mystery-thriller Esmerelda Sleuth Series

When Deidre Carey inherits her grandmother’s woodland cottage, she returns to Moonhollow Village for the first time in years for a fresh start. When she learns that her first crush is still living in the village, she finds herself drawn to him, regardless of his tempestuous moods. When she begins to unearth the web of secrets her grandma left behind, Deidre finds herself caught up in more than she ever could have imagined when she returned to the sleepy little mountain town. Grant Hawthorne was always going to be the town disappointment, but something has changed in all those years since Deidre’s been gone. In an accident that took his older brother’s life, Grant’s world was changed forever when he became not just the sole guardian to his young niece, but a werewolf. Grant does everything in his power to keep the curse subdued and secret, but all his walls come crashing down around him when his world collides with the force of nature that is Deidre Carey. “Of Wolves and Magic” explores the tumultuous relationship between a newly realized witch and a troubled man suffering from a lycanthropic curse as they navigate the complex secrets of the supernatural world lurking just beneath Moonhollow’s deceptively cozy surface.

Many years ago, dragons discovered the supreme good that the Earth could offer to any of its creatures. A red gem, which the king of dragons named "The Heart of Magic" because of its shape, resembled a heart. The magic gem fulfilled their greatest desires. All the dragons in the world obtained a necklace with a small piece of the red gem that shone. All the dragons born afterward also carried the same necklace. Then, when the gem got stolen, this light went out of every necklace, and the dragons lost these magical abilities that the gem had given them. But before this could happen, after fulfilling these desires, the dragons used them against the humans, enslaving them, but when the gem got stolen, it was all over. Dragons are still looking for it, and humans wish never to be found so that they do not go through the same thing again. Princess Edith, after a family tragedy, she will be forced to go in search of the gem. Through the journey of investigation, she will discover that she possesses special powers that she did not know that she has until that moment. Drake is the Dragon King's son and will be secretly sent to help Edith seek the gem. Carrying his dark and heavy past on his back, he moves forward with his life with no regrets about his actions back then. Everything is about to change.

Orennox is a wizard who has been around since the world was made. As technology progresses, magic tends to wane and Orennox adapts to the trends. Now called Oren Knox, he is mostly known as a gunfighter, a notoriously cheap gunfighter who will use magic to make one bullet do the work of many so he doesn't have to keep buying ammunition. His quest is to locate the last Earth Nodes, the last strongholds of magic, and harness their power with the goal of bringing back his trapped wife. In order to find these Earth Nodes, he must use the services of the female Diabolists (night witches) who can sense the magic from long distances. Only, Diabolists are extremely rare and there is a psychopathic killer out there who wants them all dead. After losing one Diabolist to fate, Oren must protect his new asset from those who would hunt her down and kill her so he can find enough magic to complete his quest. However, he is not the only wizard left looking for Diabolists, Diabolists have minds of their own, and, according to him, everyone Oren comes in contact with is a sidewinding, low down, scoundrel.

Meet Esmerelda Sleuth. Sleuth is her name and investigating is her game. (Paranormal Investigating, that is.) Esmerelda makes a good living as an investigator in a rather progressive firm. She lives a stable and sensible life until she meets Lance; an old money "hottie" who works for a real estate firm next to her building. After accepting an invitation for a weekend getaway party, she quickly discovers that Lance has a secret. He is wealthy. That part is true. And, yes, he's procured a job as a realtor in the building next door. His secret is that he belongs to an underground society of humans who didn't abandon their connection to magic centuries ago when religion declared it evil and he has traveled through time specifically to find her and bring her back to his time to marry him. If that isn't enough of a far fetched tale to absorb, he informs her that she was born in his time to a family belonging to that same secret society and was promised in marriage to him as an infant. When enemies who didn't want to see the union of families take place made attempts on her life, her parents sent her into the future and erased her memories of them as a precaution. Possessing virtually no belief in magic, ghosts, psychics, time travel, etc., it takes some doing on Lance's part to convince her to believe his story and go back with him. When she does, the lies, deceit and attempts on her life start all over again. Will she escape emotionally and physically unscathed? "The Other Side Of the Mirror" is a steamy-paranormal-romance- mystery-thriller and book one of the Esmerelda Sleuth series.

“Lily never imagined that her quiet life would change the moment she stepped into a hidden realm of magic. There, danger and desire collide, and every choice could cost her everything. Can she master her new powers and uncover the secrets of her world before it destroys her?”