By Eileen
Harris, Mystery, 305 pages
Cover art by
Richard Stroud
Magic can't
resist making an appearance when antiques, forgery, murder, and betrayal come
together in a small Pennsylvania town, putting Alicia and her friends in grave
danger.
Excerpt:
We were
nearly halfway up the stairs when I heard Lawrence groan. I turned to see what
had happened. He was deathly white, and while I watched, he sank down on the
closest step. He was sweating heavily and clutching his stomach. He didn't seem
coherent enough to answer any questions, so I ducked into my room and called
for an ambulance. They only took about ten minutes to arrive, but it was
horrible to wait. Lawrence was obviously in great pain, but couldn't tell me
what was wrong.
The ride to
the hospital took an eternity. They wouldn't let me ride in the ambulance, and
I was so afraid of what would happen before he arrived. I was shaking and
behind the wheel of a car was the last place I should have been, but as the
ambulance tore through the streets with the siren blaring, I was right behind
them.
I ran from
the parking lot into the emergency room just in time to see them take Lawrence
through a set of swinging doors where I couldn't follow. I slumped into a
chair, and for the next two hours I sat in a waiting room with dull green walls
and hard metal chairs. I never moved while I waited. My mind was busy begging
Lawrence to hold on.
Since I was
the only one waiting, when I saw an exhausted-looking man dressed in scrubs
walk into the room, I took a deep breath and hurried to his side.
He said, “Are
you the relative who brought Lawrence Hall in tonight?”
Afraid they
wouldn't tell me anything if I confessed to not being a relative, I just
nodded.
“Mr. Hall is
a very sick man. He's been poisoned, and we think he must have eaten poisonous
mushrooms. Our tests indicate they were probably green-spored lepiota.”
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