Angel Killer

July 21, 2014
Mayne, the star of the A&E show Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, combines magic and mayhem in this delightful beginning to a new series starring Jessica Blackwood, a talented fourth-generation magician, who has left the family business to work for the FBI. When a hacker dubbing himself Warlock leads agents to a Michigan cemetery, they find a newly dead body that appears to be identical to a girl murdered two years earlier. Faced with a seemingly impossible crime, a high-ranking FBI consultant has Jessica assigned to the case, hoping her expertise in magic can help unmask a killer who seems determined to build his own cult through “miracles.” Initially reluctant to draw on her past, Jessica quickly becomes engrossed in debunking the Warlock’s increasingly flamboyant demonstrations and anticipating his next moves. Readers will look forward to Jessica’s future adventures. Agent: Erica Spellman-Silverman, Trident Media Group.

October 15, 2014
A killer determined to bring miracles to life-and death-is hunted by a former magician determined to show that the culprit has nothing more than tricks up his sleeve.Though she's usually more the paper-pusher type, FBI Agent Jessica Blackwood is called into the office over the weekend by Dr. Jeffrey Ailes, better known as the Witchfinder. Ailes, who specializes in cases that require intricate knowledge of coding, is hot on the trail of someone who's hacked into the FBI's system with GPS coordinates, presumably of a dead body. When the team arrives at the murder scene, the victim appears to be crawling out of her own grave. Even though she's very recently dead, records show that she was killed two years before. Now Jessica knows how she'll be used in the case. The perp, nicknamed "Warlock" by the Bureau, is using some kind of illusion to stage elaborate crime scenes. Jessica's been brought in as an expert in the art of illusion. As a fourth-generation magician, she'll be the one who's expected to understand the logic behind the elaborate staging of Warlock's crimes. She's helped not only by her expertise, but by the love-or at least the obsession-of Damian, an expert human chameleon and sometime stalker whose clues in the case help Jessica understand that Warlock may be only the beginning.A magical debut that mixes charismatic characters, an intriguing premise and a dash of illusionists' secrets to entertain readers and leave them eager for the next act.

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September 1, 2014
Professional illusionist Mayne introduces a fresh angle to serial-killer hunting through FBI Special Agent Jessica Blackwood, a former professional magician who abandoned the stage for a career in law enforcement. These days, she's usually found crunching numbers for the bureau, in pursuit of white-collar criminals. But when the body of a woman who was autopsied and buried years earlier is found freshly expired after clawing out of her grave, FBI consultant (and genius mathematician) Dr. Jeffrey Ailes suspects the killer has used some sort of magic trick to simulate waking the dead. He brings Jessica in to provide insight into the killer's techniques, and she becomes the bureau's secret weapon, facing down a serial killer in a magician's duel. Despite the focus on magic and showmanship, Mayne forgoes gimmicks, instead dissecting illusions with human behavior, math, and science without losing sight of the story's big picture. The self-published e-book version of this novel earned positive reader reviews, prompting this mainstream re-release, which will no doubt be popular among fans of procedural thrillers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)