Sarcastically Yours, Jen

 

The Vanishing Castle By Marlena Cannon

Genres: Adult, Cozy Mystery, Fantasy

A fantasy mystery with hooves and heart.

Simarron isn’t a detective, he’s just a centaur with a clipboard and a nose for trouble. He left his homeland to get a professional job in the city as a magical safety inspector. However, his new life isn’t quite as he imagined it to be and his fellow housemates at Slant Row Boarding House (which is definitely not haunted) are shadier than an enchanted forest.

When a castle disappears and an alchemist ends up dead, Simarron must choose between the cozy, safe rule-bound life he’s always dreamed of and the principles that won’t let him walk away. He is a safety inspector, after all, and the city isn’t safe with a killer on the loose.

A cozy mystery set in a richly imagined gaslamp fantasy world, The Vanishing Castle delights with magical intrigue, a quirky found family, and a centaur sleuth you won’t soon forget.

Excerpt:

Lilimari sat at one end of the table in
silence, fiddling with her bread knife while
reading from a book. I sat on my haunches on
the floor on the opposite end, savoring my
toast with preserves. Kai and Landlady Lyness
were sipping their tea while conversing in soft
tones. Tia was chewing loudly and reading the
front page of the newspaper.
Despite the cozy scene, my thoughts kept
returning to the haunted painting. . .
My nose twitched at the memory. There
had been a peculiar smell: dark and musty,
like decaying wood, tinged with the sharp
metallic scent of blood, layered with red roses
and garlic.
The smell had filled my senses and
consumed me, until it felt like I was inside the
painting itself, trapped behind her downcast
eyes, my vision tinting red. I’d never felt
anything like it before. But almost as soon as
the fear had flooded me, it ebbed. Was this
the power of the painting? Could it really
cause people to seize in fear?
I was snapped back to the present by the
rattling of a newspaper. Tia’s hands were
quivering.
“What is it?” I asked.
Tia looked up, her face pale as she turned the paper to face me. “BRUSH WITH DOOM: Man’s
Mysterious Death Linked to Exclusive Art Exhibition,” written by someone named Manrik Skrift.
I glanced at Kai, his brow furrowed. The portrait depicted in the engraving could only be . . .
“Lysandros Garbor, alchemist and investor, age 56,” Tia confirmed.
“Simarron and I were there when he suffered from a seizure,” said Kai. “When the physicks arrived I
thought, ‘thank the Goddess.’”
“But it seems he didn’t make it,” I said, feeling ill.
Kai sighed, setting down his teacup with a soft clink. “How did I not hear about this until The Mercury
printed it? What else does it say?” He reached across the table, but Tia sat further back in her chair,
moving the paper out of his reach.
After a few moments of scanning the print, Tia continued reading aloud. “The article doesn’t say
much,” she said. “Just that Alchemist Garbor, with ambitious plans to renovate Château Gorget,
unfortunately met an untimely demise, ostensibly from fright after viewing a mysterious painting. Et
cetera, et cetera . . . However, the City Watch has not ruled out foul play, and the writer is of the opinion
that the possibility of a ghostly intervention is not to be dismissed either. His alleged final words as he
collapsed were, ‘If this is what awaits us in the afterlife, I want no part of it.’” She shook her head and
tossed the paper behind her into a wicker wastebasket.
I opened my mouth, but no words would come out. That wasn’t what Lysandros Garbor said! I was
there, and he’d barely been able to gasp for breath.

 

About the Author

Marlena Cannon grew up reading “The Cat Who…” mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun and writing stories of her own. She kept writing intermittently over the years, eventually pursuing her dream by completing the DIY MFA program in 2023, where she drafted “The Vanishing Castle,” inspired by one of her childhood projects. She also designed the cover using her background in graphic design. Marlena lives with her husband and their rescue rabbits.

Links To The Vanishing Castle

• Goodreads
• Amazon

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