The Charm Stone
Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron Mysteries
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
First print-published by Five Star/Gale in 2009
Beneath the hanging tree…
Witches weren’t burned in colonial Virginia. They were hanged. But in the twenty-first century no one should be hanged from the trees of historic Williamsburg. Not even batty conspiracy theorists, however much Jean Fairbairn’s significant other, ex-Scottish cop Alasdair Cameron, might sometimes wish he could pass judgement. Especially when said dingbats may be involved in the theft of a Williamsburg-crafted replica of a sixteenth-century Witch Box, stolen from a Scottish castle for which Alasdair has been supervising security—even though the original Witch Box is safe in a Williamsburg museum.
The Charm Stone went missing from the original Witch Box three hundred years ago. Perhaps it
was not a traditional healing stone at all but a cursing stone. Perhaps it was lost somewhere in
the colony of Virginia. Perhaps someone will kill to find it.
Can Jean maintain her resolve to abandon the academic battlefield forever, or will she be
tempted back into combat by an appealing former colleague, Matthew Frost? And what about
Alasdair, who is supposedly retired from the rigors of law enforcement, but who is now
confronted not only by a theft but two murder cases—and by Stephanie Venegas, the detective in
charge.
Amid the falling leaves and autumn shadows, Jean and Alasdair must deal again with murder most grotesque, its roots deep in history and myth. With ghosts only they can see. With things going bump in the night of their own relationship.
It’s All Hallows Eve in historic Williamsburg, Virginia
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Carl's well-crafted fourth Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mystery (after 2007's The Burning Glass) takes Jean, a journalist for travel magazine Great Scot, and Alasdair, a former detective, from Edinburgh to historic Williamsburg, Va. While attending a reception at a local museum, Jean spies the Witch Box, a 16th-century chest curiously missing its charm stone. The mystery behind the origin of the box heightens with the theft of a replica and the death of the replica's Williamsburg designer in a tragic accident. A myriad cast of characters adds plenty of suspects to the list of possible murderers after a body is discovered hanging from a tree on All Hallows Eve. Could the killer be a female professor who specializes in the arts of witchcraft or an eccentric man bent on proving that witchcraft and the supernatural don't exist? While detailed descriptions of various historical artifacts tend to slow the action, cozy fans should be satisfied.