A Trinket for the Taking

Laurie (the Cat & Gilley Life Coach Mysteries) blends fantasy, mystery, and romance in this wobbly series launch set in an alternate universe where mystics (or “bounds”) live among ordinary humans (or “unbounds”). Beautiful bound Dovey Van Dalen’s 200th birthday celebration is interrupted by her boss, bound Elric Ostergaard, for whom she tracks down lost “trinkets” imbued with magical powers. He tells Dovey that the dangerous Promise Trinket, which compels those exposed to it to die by suicide, has gone missing. When wealthy Washington, D.C., gallery owner Augustus Ariti dies in a fire and, a short time later, his sister leaps from her penthouse balcony, Dovey fears the Promise Trinket is responsible. Elric sends Dovey to investigate, and she soon meets hunky unbound model–turned–FBI agent Grant Barlow, who’s been assigned to the case. Sparks fly, making Dovey wonder whether it’s worth pursuing a taboo romance between a bound and an unbound. Laurie squanders the promising setup with inconsistent magic rules and overwrought prose (“Watching him was like starting at the aurora borealis, inviting a certain marvel and wonder all its own”). It’s a misfire. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Dec.)