Blurb: Can the team untangle a feud between covens, both drug lords of mysterious elixirs,
before a supernatural war explodes?
Celestine is the lead investigator when the team takes on a third case. The elegant and secretive Tavia Floras, known by her coven as the Queen of Savage Flowers creates and manufactures unusual elixirs in her underground caves that promise to heal, even extend life. She claims a rival coven, Argentum Verde, is stealing her formulas, damaging her crops, poisoning the gators and cave dragons whose tendrils and oils are used in the elixirs, and possibly even “disappearing” coven members.
The more Celestine and Luna delve into the queen’s backstory, the more questions they have. Rival coven, Argentum Verde’s non-GMO, purity claims on their compounds seem suss as well. The Shadow Salon team enlists the expertise of a halfling geneticist, Dr. Wise, who also knows his way around the supe dark web, Thorned Fortress. Celestine travels to New Orleans to track down Tavia’s estranged brother Renzo and find out just what happened to turn him against his sister, Tavia.
As Celestine and Luna drill deeper, the case grows incredibly dangerous. A confidential informant turns up dead, dark spells rocket back and forth. Celestine astral-projects to the heavily-guarded Argentum-Verde warehouse, an act that could paralyze her. Shocking twists and revelations explode, rapid-fire. If Celestine and Luna can’t act fast enough, the Queen of Savage Flowers, her coven and business, even Luna and Celestine’s Shadow Salon will perish.
Review: The Sleuths of Shadow Salon are called upon by the Queen of Savage Flowers to investigate break-ins and missing coven members. The Queen creates wonderful and magical potions from her flora and fauna in her gardens all with the hope of helping people, but someone wants her out of business. Celestine and Luna are dedicated to their jobs and leave no stone unturned, or flower unspoken to. They discover the Queen isn't all she seems and neither is her rival coven. They more the sleuths dig, the deeper and darker the hole becomes. Celestine and Luna must find out who wants the Queen dead before they end up fertilizer themselves.
I love this series. This is the third fantastic book in the paranormal fantasy series, Sleuths of Shadow Salon. This story has all the fast-paced action and awesome magic as the previous ones. Except this time, things are taken to a whole new level with the Savage Flowers coven gardens. Such unique magically altered creatures and plants. Like giant lilies that sign dirges at funerals and gators that have magic tendrils on their heads. All designed with properties to help folks. It's a marvelous piece of world building in that small ecosystem. I could have read an entire book about just exploring the various gardens and discovering all the surprises found there.
Tavia Floras is the Queen, and right away she comes off as very intense. She's a mysterious witch with a lot of secrets. I was right with Celestine as she was interviewing Tavia and digging in to all the leads. The whole cast of characters was whimsical and unique. I especially liked the halfling wizard, Dr. Wise, and his obsession with surfing the dark supe web. That would be a lot of fun to explore more too! I had several theories about Tavia, her rival coven/company, Argentum Verde, and even Tavia's estranged brother. Yet with all the twists and turns, I didn't see the reveal coming. I love it when a book can surprise me like that.
Cult of the Covens will be released on November 18th. Pre-order HERE!
You can find Catherine Stine on her website.
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