THE WHITE MAGIC FIVE & DIME

A reformed con woman discovers she has a talent for tarot card reading (and amateur crime-solving) when she investigates the death of her mother -- an unreformed con woman who scammed the gullible by posing as a psychic.

When thirtysomething Chicago telemarketer ALANIS McLACHLAN is told that her estranged mother, BARBRA, is dead, her knee-jerk response is “Who killed her?” The answer: “We don’t know.”
It’s no joke. Her mother has been murdered. And much to Alanis’s surprise, she left her daughter an inheritance. Alanis is now the not-so-proud and entirely confused owner of the White Magic Five & Dime, an occult shop in tiny Berdache, Arizona. Alanis reluctantly agrees to come to Berdache to straighten out her mother’s affairs. She knows there will much to straighten out: Barbra was a con artist, and the shop, Alanis assumes, was merely a front for her latest scams.

When she gets to Berdache, Alanis gets some grudging help from CLARICE, the black teenager Barbra had apparently taken in some years before. Of course, she’s not the only one trying to solve the murder. There’s also hunky cop JOSH LOGAN. When he drops by to question Alanis, the two hit it off. A cagy courtship begins, with each trying to wheedle information out of the other between quips.

Though she tried to give up crime after running away from her mother years before, Alanis remembers the principles of the con game. It’s exactly those skills she’s going to use now. So she sets out to find her mother’s killer by, in effect, replacing her. She’s going to worm her way into her mother’s clients’ confidence by doing tarot readings.
A funny thing happens, though. The more she fakes her way through bogus readings, the more she finds that what she sees in the cards actually makes sense to her. In the end, Alanis decides to stay in Berdache with Clarice and keep the White Magic Five & Dime open. Life remains full of mysteries, but Alanis finally feels she has a grip on what’s important. She likes it in Berdache and she likes her sister and she likes reading tarot cards and she likes helping people. And best of all: For the first time in her life, she likes herself.

The White Magic Five & Dime should appeal to readers who like mysteries with a dash of humor and heroines with some attitude. It broadens its appeal further by including an element of real-world area of expertise that’s illuminated through the plot. The White Magic Five & Dime gives its audience a basic understanding of tarot card reading. Several readings have been woven into the story, each one described and illustrated so as to provide a how-to for readers. In addition, the 22 most powerful cards of the deck (“the Major Aracana”) are used as an organizational framework for the plot. Each chapter begins with an illustration of one of the cards and a brief introduction. The chapter that follows then reflects that card’s significance. So, in effect, the book is broken into 22 parts, each with a striking visual introduction, from The Fool to The World.
Steve Hockensmith is the New York Times bestselling author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After. His Holmes on the Range mystery series has made him a finalist for the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero and Dilys awards. Lisa Falco is the author of the acclaimed children’s book A Mother’s Promise. She’s also a knowledgeable and experienced tarot card reader. It was Lisa’s readings for Steve that originally piqued his interest in tarot: He describes himself as a skeptic who was won over by the surprising insights Lisa saw in the cards.