Sloane West is an ex-New York City cop turned private investigator, Irish whiskey aficionado, and untrained witch in an emotional slump. Her mother just died, and her ex-best friend and ex-lover have sent her an invitation to their upcoming nuptials. Thankfully, a solicitor arrives and distracts her faster than a night of drinking Jameson neat with news that Sloane has inherited her late grandparents’—who she didn’t know existed—island estate.
When Sloane refuses, the solicitor encourages her to at least visit her mother’s birthplace. Eager to discover her magical roots and a birthright her mother hid, Sloane agrees. As she’s finalizing travel plans, a man kicks in her door and turns a gun on her, but Sloane kills him with her unchecked magical strength. Now she has to figure out who wants her dead.
On the island, she first discovers family and friends who stand with her in her investigation. And as the attacks on Sloane and her newly found coven intensify, Sloane must choose whether to embraces her power as a protector, or flee from her birthright.

C. Jean Downer spent her childhood in the rural Midwest relying on her vivid imagination to entertain family and friends. She earned a Master of Arts in literature and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and taught many years in both English and Women Studies departments, which spurred her to achieve her life’s dream—to write and live creatively. Downer is a published poet and the author of Lies are Forever, the first book in the Sloane West mystery series. Formerly from the US southwest, she now lives in British Columbia, Canada, with her wife of twenty years, their two fabulous teenage daughters, two lazy dogs, and three chill cats.

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