Story By Cate Martin
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Cate Martin

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The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries
Updated at May 3, 2023, 23:40
When her mother died after a long illness, Ingrid Torfa sold the family home to cover the medical bills. Her career as a book illustrator not yet exactly launched, Ingrid moved back to her mother's small hometown in northern Minnesota and the grandmother she scarcely remembered. Then she learned the truth she had forgotten since her early childhood: that Vikings still exist, and her grandmother serves as their spiritual leader and protector. Now Ingrid must leave the modern world behind for a time and immerse herself in this forgotten world. She must know if she has what it takes to serve the people of Villmark as her grandmother serves them. Or if her destiny lies instead among her friends in the modern world of Runde, Minnesota. No easy decision. But at least her magical cat Mjolner remains always by her side. Together, they can face anything either world can throw at them. Even if it’s murder. This box set includes the second three novels in THE VIKING WITCH COZY MYSTERIES KILLING IN THE VILLAGE COMMONS BLOODSHED IN THE FOREST CORPSE IN THE MEAD HALL
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Bubbly, Bicycles and Brides
Updated at Apr 6, 2023, 19:25
BUBBLY, BICYCLES AND BRIDES showcases a collection of mystery and crime stories set in Minnesota in days past. “Long Night’s Moon” features romance and crime both, set on the first New Year’s Eve after the repeal of Prohibition. In “Tillie’s Big Race”, a young woman training for the big time gets caught up in a bank robbery when gangsters blow through her town. “The Elopement” tells the story of a gangster’s daughter on the eve of her dreaded wedding. “Dance Til You Drop” explores the world of marathon dance competitions and the poor souls willing to endure anything just for a chance at the cash prize.  And “On a Cold Winter’s Night” goes further into the past for a darker kind of Christmas story. Five tales of bubbly, bicycles and brides, all guaranteed to delight you.
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The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries
Updated at Apr 6, 2023, 18:50
Ingrid Torfudottir lives a double life. Half she spends in Runde, a normal town on the North Shore of Lake Superior in modern day Minnesota. The other half she spends in Villmark, a village that exists outside of time, where descendants of Vikings still live following the old ways. On top of all that, she personally descends from a long line of volvas, women trained in the magical arts. Only she missed out on everything when she grew up away from Villmark. Now she still struggles to catch up. After months of hard work, she speaks the language of Villmark. Her mastery of the runes sits at nearly a third complete. But now she must face her greatest challenge yet: the woman she narrowly defeated once before, who waits for their face-to-face confrontation deep inside the caves behind the waterfall that separates Runde from Villmark. No one thinks she is ready for this rematch. Not her friends. Not her mentor. Not even her own grandmother. No one but Ingrid. Sacrifice Behind the Falls is book 9 in the ongoing Viking Witch Cozy Mystery series!
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The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries Books 1-3
Updated at Jan 14, 2023, 00:32
When her mother dies after a long illness, Ingrid Torfa must sell the family home to cover the medical bills. Her career as a book illustrator not yet exactly launched, Ingrid faces two options: live in her battered old Volkswagen, or go back to her mother's small town in northern Minnesota.The small town that still haunts her dreams more than a decade since she last visited it. Or rather, not the town but the grandmother.All of the drawings she fills notebooks with witches and the trolls that do their bidding? Not as whimsical in her nightmares as she sketches them in the bright light of day.If not for her beloved cat Mjolner, living in the Volkswagen just might tempt her.But the cat wants four walls and a door, so north she goes.And that's where her adventures begin.This box set includes the first three novels in THE VIKING WITCH COZY MYSTERIESBODY AT THE CROSSROADSDEATH UNDER THE BRIDGEMURDER ON THE LAKE
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Murder on the Lake
Updated at Jan 14, 2023, 00:28
Ingrid Torfa juggles two very different lives. In one she lives as an aspiring book illustrator in a quiet old fishing village on the North Shore of Lake Superior.But in the other she lives as an apprentice volva, a Viking Witch, in a lost Norse village that exists half in and half out of the real world.Balancing those two lives is trouble enough. But then a murder forces her to work in both worlds at once. She needs all her friends to help her solve this case.But first, they all have to meet. And half of them are about to get their minds blown.Murder on the Lake, book 3 in the Viking Witch Cozy Mystery series.
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The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries
Updated at Dec 13, 2022, 00:26
Ingrid Torfa finds herself on the road with two of her closest friends, Kara and Nilda Mikkelsen. Not a hiking and camping trip for pleasure, but a mission of the utmost importance. The Thors disappeared months ago along with their mentor Frór. On a mission to protect Villmark, the village on the North Shore of Lake Superior where they still live like Vikings, hidden from the modern world, the Thors traveled far into the north of this magical realm. Dangers lurk there, things not seen in the modern world in centuries, if ever. Now Ingrid and her friends are desperate to find out what happened to the Thors. Strange folk haunt the northern roads. The three seek an old ally, but find instead another murder, one with ties to Villmark itself. And if Ingrid doesn’t find the killer first, all of Villmark stands in jeopardy.
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Slaying on the Lake Shore
Updated at Mar 17, 2022, 02:50
Spring, the season of renewal, finally arrives on the North Shore of Lake Superior, and Ingrid Torfa finds herself in a strange new situation. On vacation. She and her grandmother spend their days resting and recuperating in an old cabin overlooking the shores of Lake Superior. She can see modern ships pass by along the shipping lanes on the horizon. But everything around her? Strictly from the Viking Age. Not even the lost Norse village of Villmark lies so far in the past as this lonely cabin. But her restful vacation comes to a sudden end when a stranger knocks on their door. His presence disrupts their quiet lakeside lives even before he turns up dead. Now Ingrid must figure out who wanted the strange old man dead. Because the next target just might be her.
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Corpse in the Mead Hall
Updated at Sep 15, 2021, 05:37
By day, a drab pole barn used as general store, post office and meeting place all-in-one by the people of Runde, Minnesota, a fishing village on the North Shore of Lake Superior.By night, a Viking-style long house filled with tales and singing, roasting meat and flowing beer, and of course mead.Ingrid Torfa can imagine no better place for a much-needed night of R&R.The mead hall run by her grandmother lies where modern small town life brushes up against the old world lifestyle of the people of Villmark, proud descendants of a lost tribe of Northmen. All of her friends mingle there from the server who works in the restaurant on the side of the highway to the guardians charged with protecting the sacred flame of their ancestors.The spells that her grandmother casts over her mead hall nightly keep everyone within safe and harmonious.Or so everyone always believed. But when a murder interrupts Ingrid's night off, she finds herself questioning everything. Because her chief suspect is her own grandmother.Corpse in the Mead Hall, Book 6 in the Viking Witch Mystery Series!
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Bloodshed in the Forest
Updated at Jun 10, 2021, 23:42
By day, a drab pole barn used as general store, post office and meeting place all-in-one by the people of Runde, Minnesota, a fishing village on the North Shore of Lake Superior. By night, a Viking-style long house filled with tales and singing, roasting meat and flowing beer, and of course mead. Ingrid Torfa can imagine no better place for a much-needed night of R&R. The mead hall run by her grandmother lies where modern small town life brushes up against the old world lifestyle of the people of Villmark, proud descendants of a lost tribe of Northmen. All of her friends mingle there from the server who works in the restaurant on the side of the highway to the guardians charged with protecting the sacred flame of their ancestors. The spells that her grandmother casts over her mead hall nightly keep everyone within safe and harmonious. Or so everyone always believed. But when a murder interrupts Ingrid's night off, she finds herself questioning everything. Because her chief suspect is her own grandmother. Corpse in the Mead Hall, Book 6 in the Viking Witch Mystery Series!
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Killing in the Village Commons
Updated at Feb 18, 2021, 17:32
Winter has come to the lost Norse village of Villmark, the wind and snow separating cozy house from cozy house like a knife breaks apart shortbread.And for the first time in her life, Ingrid Torfa lives alone. No mother, no grandmother, no roommate. Just a big, empty house and a cat who loves to disappear. Magical studies fill her every waking hour, and yet those hours stretch out in unbroken silence.Until a scream rents the night, drawing every neighbor out into the cold streets. A woman lies dead at the bottom of the well. It looks like an accident to the villagers, but to Ingrid it feels like a murder.Luckily, Ingrid knows just the friends to help her solve the mystery. Not even the bite of winter can stop them from uncovering the truth.
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Death Under the Bridge
Updated at May 9, 2020, 01:43
Ingrid Torfa lives between two worlds. In her life on the shore of Lake Superior she mingles with fishermen and farmers, quiet folk who keep to themselves. But her other life on a hilltop overlooking the lake she lives among the descendants of Vikings. On top of all that, she trains day and night to master magic, to one day take her grandmother’s place maintaining the spells that hide the Viking village from modern eyes. But life as a witch requires more than casting spells. As resident peacemaker and unofficial impartial judge, her grandmother arbitrates disputes. The residents of both worlds hold her in high regard. Then a long simmering property dispute between two farming families comes to full boil: a murder. Now Ingrid must find the real culprit before the feuding families decide to mete out their own justice. Her grandmother needs her. But what if she fails?
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The Witches Three Cozy Mysteries 4-6
Updated at Apr 27, 2020, 19:41
Amanda Clarke thinks of herself as perfectly ordinary in every way. Just a small-town girl who serves breakfast all day in a little diner nestled next to the highway, nothing but dairy farms for miles around. She fits in there.But then an old woman she never met dies, and Amanda was named in her will. Now Amanda packs a bag and heads to the big city, to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies. And it's not in just any neighborhood. No, she finds herself on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, a street lined with gorgeous old houses, the former homes of lumber barons, railroad millionaires, even the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. This box set collects the first three in the WITCHES THREE COZY MYSTERIES:OLD WORLD CHARMCHARM HIS PANTS OFFCHARM OFFENSIVE
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Charm Offensive
Updated at Apr 13, 2020, 18:00
The Witches Three agreed to split up to better investigate their mother’s pasts. Brianna lurks deep in the witchiest parts of Boston, researching in secret libraries and questioning covens that date back further than the English colonies. Sophie stalks mysterious wielders of magic through parts of the French Quarter of New Orleans that tourists never see. And Amanda, alone in Miss Zenobia Weekes’ Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies, breaks all the rules. She juggles her time between 2019, coordinating the investigation with the other two, and 1928, where Edward awaits her. She knows she can’t go on living two lives forever. Always she expects the 1928 coven to ambush her. To her surprise, the attack comes in 2019, when her good friend Nick disappears. Not like a missing person, but like he never existed. His own grandfather doesn’t recognize his name or photo. Investigating murders? Old hat for the Witches Three. But investigating a person who never existed? Could be tricky. "Charm Offensive", Book 6 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.
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Third Time is a Charm
Updated at Apr 13, 2020, 18:00
Amanda Clarke possesses the rarest, most powerful form of magic: the ability to see and manipulate time itself.If only she knew how to use it. All she gets are vague impressions, little intuitions that compel her to act.When she pays a visit to her friend Nick's apartment, one of her witchy feelings is warning her about the apartment across the hall. The empty apartment. The apartment no one has gone in or out of in years. She promises Nick to follow the rules this time. But the feeling won't be ignored. She gathers the Witches Three and they magic their way inside.And find a body dressed for 1928 but still warm and only recently dead in 2018. Yet another case beyond the local police department, but perfect for the Witches Three."Third Time is a Charm", Book 3 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.
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The Witches Three Cozy Mysteries 1-3
Updated at Apr 13, 2020, 18:00
Amanda Clarke thinks of herself as perfectly ordinary in every way. Just a small-town girl who serves breakfast all day in a little diner nestled next to the highway, nothing but dairy farms for miles around. She fits in there.But then an old woman she never met dies, and Amanda was named in her will. Now Amanda packs a bag and heads to the big city, to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies. And it's not in just any neighborhood. No, she finds herself on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, a street lined with gorgeous old houses, the former homes of lumber barons, railroad millionaires, even the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. This box set collects the first three in the WITCHES THREE COZY MYSTERIES:CHARM SCHOOLWORK LIKE A CHARMTHIRD TIME IS A CHARM
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Old World Charm
Updated at Apr 13, 2020, 18:00
When nothing and no one holds you to the present, why not celebrate the new year 91 years ago? So think Amanda Clarke and the rest of the Witches Three. They head back in time to ring in 1928, drinking bootleg champagne with the wealthiest members of St. Paul society, honest businessmen and gangsters and those who dwell where those categories overlap. But when a surprise wedding engagement announcement becomes an even more surprising murder of the bride-to-be, the Witches Three find themselves wrapped up in yet another mystery. Because even if it's not your time era, when the chief suspect is your close friend, you don't opt out. Or so says Amanda Clarke. "Old World Charm", Book 4 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.
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Work Like a Charm
Updated at Apr 13, 2020, 18:00
Amanda Clarke knows she's a witch. She unleashed unstoppable magic to save her friends and catch a murderer. But she only did it the one time. And now? Back to powerlessness. Her friends insist that all she needs is proper training. Sophie wakes her before dawn for meditation and workouts designed to channel magic. Brianna buries her under books, so many books. Amanda longs for a distraction. But when the woman who lives next door to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies turns up dead, and the murder weapon dates back to Prohibition, she gets more of a distraction than she bargained for. But who in 1927 would want her neighbor dead in 2018? "Work Like a Charm", Book 2 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.
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Body at the Crossroads
Updated at Apr 13, 2020, 18:00
When her mother dies after a long illness, Ingrid Torfa must sell the family home to cover the medical bills. Her career as a book illustrator not yet exactly launched, Ingrid faces two options: live in her battered old Volkswagen, or go back to her mother's small town in northern Minnesota. The small town that still haunts her dreams more than a decade since she last visited it. Or rather, not the town but the grandmother. All of the drawings she fills notebooks with witches and the trolls that do their bidding? Not as whimsical in her nightmares as she sketches them in the bright light of day. If not for her beloved cat Mjollnir, living in the Volkswagen just might tempt her. But the cat wants four walls and a door, so north she goes. And finds trouble in the form of a dead body before she even finds her grandmother's little town. How much can a town of stoic fishermen possibly be hiding? As Ingrid is about to find out, quite a lot.
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Charm His Pants Off
Updated at Apr 13, 2020, 18:00
A surprise ring at the doorbell on Valentine's Day confirms Amanda Clarke's suspicions. Her friend Sophie DuBois left someone behind when she came to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies. But the happy reunion grinds to a confusing halt when he asks about Sophie's quest to find her mother. And Amanda remembers she too came in search of answers about her own mother. Brianna Collins as well. All of them forgetting their mothers the moment they showed up at the charm school? Someone, somehow, put a spell on them. But why? Unless they find the witch who stole their memories, they may never know. "Charm His Pants Off", Book 5 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.
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