Book Recommendation: Murder Like Magic by Trisha Blanchet
Murder Like Magic (Scheduled publication date: August 25, 2026, Crooked Lane Books, Penguin Random House) is the new novel by Massachusetts author Trisha Blanchet. Click on the link to reach the website to learn more about the author and this book.
Being able to read minds should make it pretty easy to solve crimes, right? Right?
A sort-of-telepathic witch-slash-PI takes on a murder case in this light urban fantasy mystery, perfect for fans of A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer.
Tess Tulley is the proud proprietor of Mill City Investigations—the premier (if you ask her) private investigation business in her small Massachusetts city. Business is slow, especially after she blew up her credibility among her fellow Spinners (do not call them witches) by turning in her own uncle for a crime spree three years ago. Loyalty among Spinners is top priority, and Tess’s decision to put the investigation over her coven has left her out in the cold.
So when the local “Officer Handsome” comes knocking with a bizarre murder investigation involving a dead Spinner, Tess is reluctant to take the case. Even more so when she learns the details: The victim was stabbed postmortem, there’s no sign of who or what actually killed her, and the body was found in a pool of someone else’s blood.
Left with few other options, Tess dusts off her investigative skills, revs up her so-so telepathy, and dives headfirst back into her old community of Spinners. If she’s lucky, she’ll be able to unmask a killer and figure out whose blood had been left behind at the crime scene—and why. If she’s not lucky (and let’s face it, she rarely is), Tess might just become the next casualty on a slab in the Mill City morgue. Goodreads
Trisha (T.M.) Blanchet is the internationally tolerated, New York Times best-reading author of the forthcoming Murder Like Magic (Fall, 2026) and The Neath Trilogy: Herrick's End, Herrick's Lie, and Herrick's Key. She's also a former reporter, magazine editor, and award-winning humor columnist. In 2013, she founded the nonprofit organization Operation Delta Dog: Service Dogs for Veterans.
Trisha works as a producer at A Mighty Blaze, an initiative created in 2020 to help authors and indie bookstores reach readers during the Covid-19 crisis, and as the producer and host of A Mighty Blaze Podcast. A graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she's also a proud member of the Tall Poppy Writers, Sisters in Crime, and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA). She writes a sometimes-embarassing TMI Substack column called "And Sometimes Why."
Trisha is currently filling her empty nest with healthy heapings of sorrow, disillusionment, and Cadbury Mini Eggs somewhere deep in the wilds of Massachusetts, where she lives with her better half. And a mostly insane mystery mutt. And, finally, a "room of her own to write fiction," per Virginia Woolf's instructions.
Poppy Flowered Amemone, Longwood Gardens,
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania USA IMG 4417
Canon PowerShot G11 Camera
Photograph by Roy Kelley
Roy and Dolores Kelley Photographs
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