Betty Erlanger's murder was dramatic-shot through heart by an arrow in a public park on Valentine's Day-but the solution was prosaic. She'd been killed by her spurned lover, Troy Braggs, and everybody in the small town of Erin, Ohio knew it. This wasn't a case for the unique mystery-solving talents of Sebastian McCabe, mystery writer and amateur sleuth.

But when an alibi emerges for Bragg, Mac and his best friend and brother-in-law Jeff Cody are dragged into the matter by the desperate police chief, Oscar Hummel, who hopes they can prove the obvious. But it doesn't go well.

Despite the mystery writer's special skills in strange cases, all seems hopeless until an eyewitness to the murder comes forward and will only speak to Mac. Her evidence is convincing-except for the fact that she's a witch. And then come new murders with a not-so-obvious solution, one that will stun both long-time McCabe & Cody fans and newcomers to the series. Only Sebastian McCabe could solve this, ably assisted by Jeff Cody.

This 16^th volume in the series (including two books of shorter tales in addition to the novels) also includes a bonus novelette with a new kind of McCabe & Cody mystery. The Puzzle of the Purple Beret is narrated by Jeff's wife, Lynda Teal Cody, as she tells the tale of a tantalizing mystery solved by her and by Jeff's sister, Kathleen Cody McCabe, with no help from their spouses.