Hoard It All Before

Like any traveling circus, Zin's has hair-raising acts and fried food on sticks. But it's also got an aura-spotting centaur, a chain-smoking unicorn, and an omelet-addicted dragon.

Oh, and a body in the center ring.

Duncan — aka "Brutus Fangwrath, Deadliest Dragon in the West" — wakes one morning to find his best friend isn't just sleeping off a hangover. He's been murdered.

Suspicion for the crime quickly turns to the circus's new hire, Cordelia Quinn. After all, she's got motive, she got means, and she's got loads of circumstantial evidence stacked against her.

When it looks like no one else is going to step in to help Cordelia, it's up to Duncan to unravel the case, prove Cordelia's innocence, and uncover a troubling secret along the way.

As soon as he's done with his omelet, that is.

Set in a 1930s that's just a tad different than what you're used to, Hoard it all Before is the start of a delightfully humorous mystery series with plenty of tantalizing twists, a troupe of quirky characters, and death-defying feats both in and beyond the big top.

If you like paranormal mysteries like those by Kim M. Watt and C.K. McDonnell that mix laughs in with the murderous mayhem, you'll love Hoard it all Before.

Note: While this cozy mystery is mostly clean, it does have a lusty, chain-smoking unicorn who makes more than a few naughty innuendos, a dragon that drinks heavily, a tiny bit of swearing, and (obviously) there's a murder along the way.