Reluctant hero Malfred Murd emerges onto a brand-new stage, set with yet more trouble.

Following the events of FOOL’S PROOF, Malfred’s patron has rewarded him with a town of his very own. Proud of the job he’s done ridding it of petty crime— and yearning to earn the love of a certain maddeningly untouchable Lady— he agrees to a task that’s outrageous even for him: turning undercover cop, out to bust the biggest, scariest mob boss in a great, grimy city overflowing with secrets.

Four uproarious storylines diverge, then come crashing together in a powerful, playful conclusion that leaves readers craving more!

______

★★★★★

I love her way with words, her gift for observation. —Jim W.

Can’t wait to see more from this author! —J. LeVangie

You’ll be left wanting more. —Tim A.

The main character, Malfred, is a trip. —Shawna L.

You’ll laugh. You’ll grip your coffee cup. You’ll wince. All the good stuff— an author to watch! —S.C.

Love, action, drama and best of all, you get lost in Eva’s world! —Rikki M.

Each chapter makes you desperate to read the next. Fans of the Discworld novels will particularly appreciate this. —Edward J.

Q. Would you describe your work as "cozy fantasy"?
A. Many readers do! I'm not sure how cozy it is, per se, but I’m of the opinion that the term "cozy fantasy" really means "small-scale"—as opposed to epic, grandiose—and by that measure, this definitely qualifies. There's more at stake here than in, let's say, Legends and Lattes...but even the largest problem my characters face is smaller than the question of saving the world.

Q. What kind of world is it?
A. I had a reader say it was "full of left turns and surprises" and I'd say that's a great way to describe my alternate world. The Whellen Country, for example, is technologically advanced and has a Da Vinci sketchbook flavor: Ye Olde Science Fiction, if you will. But then we also have criminals, foreign cultures, and a variety of monsters.

Q. Is it magical realism? Absurdist fiction?
A. Yes! I can answer that definitively: Amazon says it is, so who am I to argue? (LOL). But really, again these definitions aren't hard and fast. I do describe magic phenomena in a down-to-earth way. Fans of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy and of Discworld will probably dig it. As for absurdism, I suppose it's absurd to think an animal can talk— but we're all used to it really! My character Corvinalias is more realistic than BoJack Horseman, at least in that he's a normal-sized and normally behaved magpie.

Q. How about the writing? It seems poetic and complex.
A. I'm a giant Patrick O'Brian fan and was inspired to write because I wanted to have fun with similarly flavorsome language. Because I find that writing has a lot in common with music, I read my writing out loud to check on its cadence, its timbre. But if you prefer your writing extremely plain I have to warn you: this ain't it!

Q. Is it all funny, all the time?
A. Oh no, far from it. As Sir Terry (“Pterry”) Pratchett said, “You can’t build a plot out of jokes. You need tragic relief.” There are real consequences in my stories, real emotions on a palette going far further than humor. As I like to put it: it’s funny fantasy that hides a serious soul.

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