title: Murder by Magic: Twenty Tales of Crime and the Supernatural
author:  Rosemary Edghill 
description: Although authors such as Randall Garrett in his acclaimed Lord Darcy series successfully melded whodunit plots with alternate universes where magic is real, few of the 20 supernatural mystery short stories in Edghill's all-original anthology rise above the mundane. Inspired contributions include Teresa Edgerton's "Captured in Silver," a nice ghostly locked-room murder tale, and Lillian Stewart Carl's "The Necromancer's Apprentice," which presents an interesting solution to the actual mystery surrounding the death of Amy Robsart, wife of Elizabeth I's favorite lord, balancing wizardry with astute deductions about the political motives of those who stood to benefit. The standout, James D. Macdonald's "A Tremble in the Air," introduces a psychic detective, Orville Nesbit, who's clearly heir to the tradition of such sleuths as Algernon Blackwood's John Silence and who deserves to live on in further tales. Unfortunately, most of the other stories rely on catchy gimmicks (e.g., a husband-and-wife sorcerer team based on Nick and Nora Charles in Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's "A Night at the Opera") rather than well-crafted puzzles. The jacket artshowing a white-bearded wizard gazing at a body outline on the flagstones of a foggy, gas-lit streetamusingly evokes the fantasy-crime blend. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  **By Denise Grover Swank**
  
  
  _The Curse Keepers_  
  (Urban fantasy)  
  THE CURSE KEEPERS
  
  
  _Rose Gardner Mysteries_  
  (Humorous southern mysteries)  
  TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES  
  TWENTY-NINE AND A HALF REASONS  
  THIRTY AND A HALF EXCUSES  
  FALLING TO PIECES (Between the Numbers novella)  
  THIRTY-ONE AND A HALF REGRETS
  
  
  _Chosen Series_  
  (Urban fantasy)  
  CHOSEN  
  HUNTED  
  SACRIFICE  
  REDEMPTION  
  A CHANGE IN THE WIND (short story collection)
  
  
  _On the Otherside Series_  
  (Young adult science fiction/romance)  
  HERE  
  THERE
  
  
  _Off the Subject Series_  
  (New adult contemporary romance)  
  AFTER MATH  
  REDESIGNED
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/00004.gif)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any
  similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended
  by the author.
  
  
  Text copyright © 2014 by Denise Grover Swank
  
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  
  No part of this book may be reproduced, or st