Monique von Underbeak doesnât arrive quietly. She rolls into town in a nightmare-black coach pulled by creatures straight out of a bad dreamâdriven by a cloaked specter only I can see. Apparently discovering Iâm a witch wasnât enough. Now Iâm on the radar of one of the most dangerous figures in the Fae Court. And one of the oldest.
As the mayor scrambles to impress her with plans for a Grand Prix race, a towering new troll is hired to repair the valleyâs bridges overnight. Pixies begin vanishing without a trace. And when hikers uncover a body buried under a rockslideâonly for it to disappear before the authorities arriveâit becomes clear something is very wrong in Misty Valley.
Someone is hunting pixies.
Someone is moving bodies.
And someone is watching me far too closely.
With search parties forming, tempers rising, and my own cafĂ© staff shaken when one of ours goes missing, Iâm forced deeper into an investigation thatâs spiraling fastâespecially when the elderly von Underbeak pulls me inside a time-bubble for reasons she refuses to explain.
Then the High Minister is found dead.
Her estranged grandson arrives just in time to discover the body⊠and his pixie fiancĂ©e vanishes the next morning. Suddenly every suspect has a motive, every secret feels lethal, and the truth behind the disappearances is darkerâand olderâthan anyone suspects.
If I canât unravel the mystery before the valley tears itself apart, Misty Valley may lose more than pixies and politics. It might lose its future.
Tall, Dark and Troll blends high-stakes urban fantasy intrigue with a cozy paranormal mysteryâfeaturing fae politics, missing pixies, spectral secrets, and a fledgling witch learning that some evaluations are more than bureaucratic.
Alyn Troy is American from the Midwest (Indiana) who writes The Mystic Brews and Pixie Twist series of Cozy Mysteries. In addition to Indiana, he's lived in Southern California, where the Pixie Twist series is set, and has served as a history docent on notable pier in SoCal. In his past lives, he's been a journalist, a wedding photographer, and an adjunct professor. Alyn gets daily assistance from his fuzzy familiar (AKA "Lord Fuzzbutt"). When not helping his human with the writing of paranormal cozy mysteries, Lord Fuzzbutt likes to sit out outside and watch the hummingbirds dart about like pixies. He often yowls at the door, waiting to head to the patio for chipmunk duty. Fortunately, the little rodents are craftier than Fuzzbutt is. Alyn's beverage of choice is dark roast coffee with a dash of honey, and a splash of half-n-half. In addition to being half-way competent with his home espresso machine, Alyn makes a mean Mai Tai.