Sorcery on the Sunset Express

In 1913, fifty years after a cabal of wizards stalemates the Civil War and reorganizes nine states of the Confederacy into the Southern Alliance Monarchy, Brandi Mueller, a feisty physicist who doesn't believe in magic, and Jerry Guidry, her ex-Ranger detective partner in the New Republic of Texas, confront murder, mystery, and New Orleans magic when they search for a missing girl in the Big Bend wilderness and then get sidetracked by her connection with multiple train robberies in which cash payrolls disappear from inside a locked safe. To unravel the mystery of the payroll thefts, Brandi and Jerry must unmask imposters, navigate the intrigues of the DeMoivre family of wizards, unravel two murders, and survive a fireball attack by a powerful wizard during a raucous ride aboard the Sunset Express. (PG13)