After Madeline Maclin, former beauty queen and fledgling private investigator, married her best friend, Jerry Fairweather, and settled into his old house in the small town of Celosia, North Carolina, she becomes involved in a mysterious death. Amelia Lever, an unpopular teacher at Celosia Elementary School, went on a cigarette break that turned out to be fatal. Grumpy, uncooperative Amelia was despised by the faculty, and Maddy suspects it was no natural death.

Then there’s her latest case: Nathan Fenton has hired Madeline to help solve a riddle left to him by his uncle, a man who loved to play games. Madeline has a hunch that the teacher’s death and this mysterious riddle are somehow related.

Murder by witchcraft? Private investigator and former beauty queen Madeline Maclin thought she’d seen it all in her small North Carolina town of Celosia. Yet Evil Turns, fifth in the lively series by Jane Tesh, opens with a young man’s body covered in strange occult symbols found in a local vineyard, putting Mac on notice that there is more than one witch in the neighborhood.

Years ago, a group of women in town formed Darkrose Coven, a practice now taken up by younger residents who insist that their dark rose tattoos only honor their favorite character from the popular Pagan Desires books and movies. Has the old coven reappeared? Is the new coven responsible for the ritualistic murder? Intrigue unfolds as Celosia prepares for its centennial.

The Women’s Improvement Society, led by wealthy, obnoxious Amanda Price, plans to create an outdoor musical drama, Flower of the South, extolling Emmaline Ross, one of the state’s first vintners. Amanda steamrolls past City Councilmember Harold Stover, who fears Celosia cannot afford this costly venture, and Nathan Fenton, who refuses to let her use his Camp Lakenwood land for the production. When Harold is murdered, Amanda is the prime suspect and she hires Mac to prove her innocence. Are the two murders connected? What about Megan Underwood, a local Wiccan from the defunct Peaceful Meadow commune, which had ties to the Darkrose Coven?

Megan complicates Mac’s inquiries, drifting in and out of town claiming she is Emmaline reborn. What is the secret the Darkrose Coven is so desperate to hide? Mac is stretched to the limit. Not only is she juggling her time investigating murder suspects, feuding locals, and a long-ago missing infant, she also has to fend off threats by a disreputable goon from her husband’s past. Her talented and charming spouse, Jerry Fairweather, had once been a con artist, and now their current life together, committed to the straight and narrow, could be totally wrecked. Madeline needs magic of her own to unravel the twists and turns of tangled relationships and to find one singular lost soul.

It’s Christmas in Parkland, North Carolina, and Private Investigator David Randall is looking forward to his mother’s visit to 302 Grace Street, even though he knows she’ll want to talk about his daughter, who died in a car accident. But then David and his friend Camden come upon the body of one of Cam’s friends, Jared Hunter, who was brutally stabbed. Cam has violent flashbacks to the crime, making him fear he is somehow linked to the killing.

One of the suspects is Boyd Taylor, who hires David Randall to investigate. David soon discovers that Jared had once served time for his involvement in a break-in at the Parkland Museum of History. Also involved in that crime was Bert Galvin, the son of the editor of Parkland’s Herald newspaper.

Another suspect is the so-called Parkland Avenger. David believes that this inept superhero is just a set up by award-hungry Herald reporter Brooke Verner. The SuperHero Society of Parkland also insists that the Avenger is not one of their members.

Meanwhile, Kary, the love of David’s life, wants a more active role in his cases and, to his dismay, joins the SuperHero Society.

David gets a new lead from Brooke Verner, who tells him that she saw a letter from Bert Galvin promising not to tell about the “museum funds.” By comparing museum records and newsletters, David discovers an important discrepancy. A collector of valuable letters was never paid the full amount owed him and died in a car crash suspiciously soon after the sale. Could Jared Hunter or Bert Galvin have used the museum break-in to cover up an embezzlement scheme? And did the embezzlement scheme lead to a murder?

Jared had a collection of comics, and in them David finds a map, which leads him and Cam to a series of tunnels underneath several stores that recently had been robbed. Kary, in her superhero guise, comes on the scene to help them set a trap that will, once and for all, put an end to Cam’s troubling visions.

Private investigator David Randall, still struggling with guilt over his daughter Lindsey’s death, can’t bring himself to look at the DVD of her dance recitals. Fortunately, he’s distracted by two cases: socialite Sandy Olaf’s missing diamond bracelet, and a missing box that magicians Taft and Lucas Finch say belonged to Houdini.

When Taft is found dead in a trunk at the Magic Club, Randall’s suspects include the owner, Rahnee Nevis, who was in love with Taft; punk magician, WizBoy, who wants to run the club; the bartender, Jilly, who was also in love with Taft; and Jolly Bob, a washed-up illusionist.

Meanwhile, Randall’s friend Camden is concerned with losing his voice, his girlfriend Kary insists on being a magician’s assistant, and Cam’s girlfriend, Ellin, has to deal with overbearing Sheila Kirk, the wife of a potential sponsor who insists on hosting the PSN’s programs.

Can Randall uncover the truth and tackle his own demons?

David Randall is a lively, carefree fellow with a talent for finding things. His perfect family life is derailed when he loses his little daughter, Lindsey, in a car accident. He is haunted by her in his dreams, fearful that she blames him. Randall, thrown out by his second wife and wanting to leave a dead-end detective agency to start his own, reluctantly accepts an invitation from Camden, his psychic friend, to stay in his boarding house. Here he meets a variety of people, including Kary Ingram, the lovely young woman who, he hopes, could become the love of his life; Ellin Belton, Camden’s intensely ambitious girlfriend; and an ever-changing assortment of tenants, all searching for a home and family.

When Albert Bennett, an elderly music professor, is found dead in his home, there are hints that the death was not from natural causes, but the only clue to Bennett’s murder is a notebook filled with odd musical notation. Randall wants in on the case but is warned off by the police. When Randall’s client, Melanie Gentry, hires him to prove her great-grandmother was murdered by her lover, John Burrows Ashford, over authorship of the songs in Patchwork Melodies, Randall sets out on the investigation, also angling to find a connection to Bennett’s murder, as well as to a third death, the murder of a Smithsonian director who was preparing a new PBS documentary on early American music.

When Randall’s investigations lead him to another notebook, he finds not only “Two Hearts Singing,” John Ashford’s most famous song, but also, hidden within the cover, a valuable early copy of Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna.”

Then things begin to get supernaturally complicated when John Ashford’s spirit parks itself in Camden and refuses to leave until Randall proves Ashford’s innocence.