Books of Dubious Origin

New fantasy series!

A mysterious black book is sent to small town librarian Zoanne Ziakas. She has no idea who sent, why they sent it, or what she’s supposed to do with it. The volume is old and battered and unable to be opened as it’s locked by an unbreakable latch. Zoe thinks nothing of it until she wakes up in the middle of the night having pricked the tip of her finger with a straight pin and the book is on the kitchen counter beneath her hand. Zoe is positive she left the book on her bookshelf. Remembering her disturbing dreams, she fears the book was calling to her in her sleep, instructing her to prick herself with the pin.

On the recommendation of her mentor Agatha Lively, Zoe takes the book to the Museum of Literature in New York City, where there is a secret collection for Books of Dubious Origin, known to the staff as the BODO. Housed several floors beneath the museum and inaccessible to all but the chosen few, the BODO is maintained by carefully vetted archivists and librarians. They say the books are full of secrets that can’t be deciphered and possess powers that must be guarded because of their ominous potential.

The volume Zoe found definitely fits the profile. When offering the book to the BODO department, Zoe is stunned to learn that she is descended from a family of witches who specialized in necromancy and the archivists think her book is the family’s grimoire. A confirmed skeptic about all things witchy, Zoe has no interest in discovering the secrets of the strange book. She just wants it gone.

When newfound evidence suggests that someone wanted the spell book so desperately that they murdered Zoe’s grandmother, and quite possibly her mother, to get the volume, Zoe has no choice but to leave her quiet village in Connecticut and join the staff at the BODO in an attempt to crack the book’s code and ensure that she is not the killer’s next victim.