Beauty and the Alchemist (The Alchemical Tales Book 1) Cozy mystery with a fairy tale twist by Elle Hartford ➱ Book Sale with Rafflecopter

 

 

Beauty and the Alchemist

The Alchemical Tales Book 1

by Elle Hartford

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Mystery 

In this magical mix-up of fairy tales and murder, Little Red Riding Hood solves the mystery at the heart of Beauty and the Beast . . .

What does it take to overcome a curse?

Traveling alchemist Red settles into life as a shopkeeper in rural Belville and expects to focus on her potions. But crime stops for no woman. Neither does Red’s friend, police officer Thorn! When a beastly criminal escapes to a nearby abandoned castle and is found murdered, Thorn immediately suspects Luca, a meek-mannered bookseller–not to mention Red’s best friend.

Red knows that there’s more to the castle–and the murder–than meets the eye. But as she rushes to prove Luca’s innocence, she’s beset by a not-dead-yet ghost, a beautiful and ill-tempered suspect, and a horde of mysterious mist creatures that terrify the town. Oh, and then there’s the series of lost books that hold the key to the castle’s curse! If Red and her friends can’t find the books and solve the mystery, Luca might not be the only one in trouble. But in idyllic Belville, appearances can be deceiving. Red will need all of her alchemical prowess and all the help she can get in order to uncover the truth behind this twisted tale.

This special second edition includes a new epilogue, recipes, and a sneak peek at book two of The Alchemical Tales.

**On Sale for Only .99cents!!**

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Beauty and the Alchemist, 2nd edition

Excerpt 1: A Haunting Discovery

When we hit the third corner, I stopped dead. It felt as though a bucket of ice-water raced down my back. The darkness was so thick that even with my goggles, I could barely see beyond my own hand. The front of the castle stretched away into inkiness.

Officer Thorn, already a pace ahead and nearly disappearing, looked over her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“Something here,” I mumbled incoherently. “There’s something wrong with being here. Don’t you feel it?”

“To tell you the truth, I’ve never been haunted, so I wouldn’t know what it feels like,” Thorn replied blithely.

I sucked air into my lungs. The fastest way out of here is forward, I reminded myself. Gritting my teeth, I began following the officer once more. “Just stay close, okay? No bounding off after evidence or what have you.”

She looked back and grinned, her long teeth flashing. “The sooner we catch Owl, the better.”

“I don’t think Owl is what’s making these shadows,” I said.

Thorn was impervious. “Then it could be Gloria alone, and that’s worse. See, Red, your problem is—”

I never got to hear what my problem was, unfortunately. The grass we’d been edging along gave way to a stone patio set a few inches below the surrounding ground, and I stumbled. With that jarring step came recognition of the fact that we were right in front of the castle’s main entrance, and another bone-penetrating chill.

“Wh-wh-whatever it is y-you want to s-see, it must be h-here,” I said, my teeth chattering.

“It’s just a little cold, Red. Are all islanders such wimps?”

“Hush, and look around!” I insisted. I was starting to think that maybe Thorn hadn’t ever been haunted simply because she refused to see anything other than what she wanted to.

“It’s the front of the castle,” she informed me matter-of-factly. She began stalking about the patio, with me close on her heels. “I was on the inside team during the search earlier, so I missed this. Nice carvings on the doorway. Old and worn down, but they’ve held up well considering. Good sturdy door. See that ironwork across the front? Guess we’re not dealing with the fey, eh? And what’s this—gems inlaid in the doors, too. Surprised those haven’t walked off over time. Maybe they’re locked down—get it? Ha ha. What’s this?”

I’d only been paying half-attention to Thorn’s monologue, but the repetition of the phrase in a new tone of surprise caught my ear. I turned from looking over my shoulder to see that Thorn held something small and rectangular in one large hand.

“Did you just find a book?” I asked, startled.

“Did I?” She handed the object to me for inspection. As I took it, though, the air around us thickened. I had to hold the slim volume very close to my face to see the bark binding. My gaze drifted over the title and the gold leaf to notice that, rather than blackness, a silver fluidity filled my vision.

“Why is it foggy?” I tucked the book into a pocket in my cloak for safe-keeping and frowned as I looked up. Officer Thorn looked just as surprised as me. I could see her face well, despite the cloudiness, because the moonlight had reappeared. It bounced off the water in the air. The world was brighter now, but it was also much closer.

Officer Thorn’s club rose, sending swirls ricocheting through the air. “Never mind the fog, Red. Look here, at the corner of the doorway. Doesn’t that look like—”

Again, I was destined not to hear the officer’s thoughts. Only fair, really, considering how often she interrupted mine. But I wasn’t thinking that at the time. At the time, I was screaming like a banshee, because something had grabbed me from behind.

Excerpt 2: Friendship

“So,” I summarized, beginning to pace the central aisle, “we know where to look for the second book. Which Owl might have been looking for, along with the others, when he was murdered. But why, Luca?”

It took Luca a minute to answer. Finally he said, “The castle has actually always been there. That storm in the summer, when the tree came down across the wall—that’s just when everyone realized it was there, hidden in the forest, like a protection spell keeping it hidden had been broken—does that make sense? But Owl always knew it was there. He—he had a picture of it. Once I asked him about it and he said it has a history, like anything else. He said that history is in a series of books but that I shouldn’t ever go near them if I see them. He said they hold dark power. He said any scholar would know them by the symbols on the covers and that all together the books would bring freedom to people in shadow but to anyone else they’d be a terrible curse and then he said of course I am a light person and then he . . . he laughed.”

I pushed the goggles on my forehead higher up over my hair, thinking.

“And by ‘I,’ I mean me, in that story,” Luca added as an afterthought.

“I know. I wasn’t about to see Owl as a ‘light’ person.” More importantly, I asked, “So Thorn thinks you and Owl had a fight over whatever power the books hold?”

“Someone and Owl did.” Under his hood, Luca’s eyes were huge and solemn. “I think Officer Thorn thinks the books must be some kind of key for a hidden magic or treasure, since the castle’s been protected for so long. Maybe it’s something Owl could have used to escape, she thinks. But after looking at the book you found, I don’t think they lead to that kind of power. I just think the books are a history, that’s all. Probably left behind by whoever lived in the castle last.”

My pacing slowed. “Did you tell Thorn all that?”

“I tried, but Red, she doesn’t get it. You’re my friend, and I know you understand. But everyone else—they just think I’m a scholar, even if I’m kind of funny sometimes. If I go on about books having power they just say, ‘well of course you would think books are important on their own, but you ought to know that’s silly,’ and of course murder must have a bigger reason. And I’m sure it does, I just couldn’t explain it right to Officer Thorn.”

At this I stopped. Luca sees the books as having value, but not enough value to commit murder over. In fact he seems scared of them. But Thorn would say he’s lying, that all together the books have magic or some secret, which he and Owl fought over. So if I can find all the books and prove that there’s nothing special there, that Luca is right about them being just a history, then that’s a point in his favor. It means Owl could have been murdered for something he was doing in town, not because of some strange magical scheme.

I turned back to Luca, smiling. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. You know, alchemists deal with symbols all the time. A little scavenger hunt at the castle shouldn’t be any problem.”

Beauty and the Beast, New and Old

Many of us know the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. But wait, would that be the 1991 animated film, or the 2017 version with Emma Watson? Or maybe when you picture the Beast, you see the original 1946 black-and-white monster . . .

We’re used to stories being reused in movies. And while some might complain about it, the truth is that stories have been retold for centuries! Movies aside, there are countless folklore versions of Beauty and the Beast from different cultures and times.

Don’t worry though, I won’t list all of them out here. After all, that work has already been done! Check out this page on “Beauty and the Beast, folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 425C,” put together by retired professor D L Ashliman. It has a European focus and doesn’t contain every tale from all over the world, but it’s still very thorough.

Oh, and what’s that “type 425C” stuff? Basically, that’s a label folklore scholars use to identify a story that follows a Beauty and the Beast plotline. Every fairy tale out there has a label and archive like the one linked above.

Of course, none of this takes into account the vast number of YA, fantasy, or romance books which retell Beauty and the Beast. There are probably too many to count, especially if you consider Beauty and the Beast as a theme rather than a prescriptive outline. Some of my favorites include:

- The Fabled Journal of Beauty, by Boyd Brent (a creative and adventurous retelling)

- Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley (a classic! She also wrote an earlier version, Beauty)

- Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna by Maia Chance (a historical murder mystery version!)

I’ve also written my own retelling, which blends the original story with cozy mystery and cozy fantasy themes. Beauty and the Alchemist takes the idea of curses and seeing beyond appearances and adds a dash of murder to the mix. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I’m pleased to be offering the expanded special edition this month! You can find it wherever you buy ebooks.

Beauty and the Alchemist by Elle Hartford is a cozy mystery set in a world that combines fantasy, and alchemy, with the classic fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast - a bit more mature version :)

The story follows Red, a traveling alchemist who settles down in a small town to open a potion shop. However, her plans are quickly derailed when a beastly criminal escapes from jail and is found murdered in the woods near her shop. Red is immediately drawn into the investigation, and she soon finds herself embroiled in a mystery that goes far deeper than she could have ever imagined.

Along the way, Red teams up with a handsome police officer, a talking dog, and a mysterious bookseller to solve the crime. Together, they must battle a curse, a horde of mist creatures, and a not-dead-yet ghost if they are to uncover the truth behind the murder and the curse that has been plaguing the town for centuries.

Hartford does a great job of blending the classic fairy tale with the world of alchemy and fantasy. Full of suspense and laugh-out-loud humor with well-developed characters that I instantly loved or loathed. The world-building was beautifully described and easy to picture. 

I found myself white-knuckling my Kindle every other page. Can't tell you how many times I battled my inner wee one not to peek ahead - don't worry I won the battle but it was hard sometimes

If you're a fan of cozy mysteries or fairy tales, then I highly recommend Beauty and the Alchemist. It's a fun and heartwarming read that will leave you wanting more.

Elle adores cozy mysteries, fairy tales, and above all, learning new things. As a historian and educator, she believes in the value of stories as a mirror for complicated realities. She currently lives in New Jersey with a grumpy tortoise and a three-legged cat.

Find more stories of Red and her friends at ellehartford.com. And while you’re there, sign up for Elle’s newsletter to get bonus material, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and terrible jokes!

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