Never trust a bossy kitten—especially when she comes out of a secret room. Ivy Patterson has a brand new happiness plan. Ditch the soul-sucking job, buy a super cute blue bungalow, and take over Uncle Vincent’s produce market when he retires. It’s all going according to plan until Ivy’s life flips upside down. Uncle Vincent is murdered. A sassy black kitten shows up out of thin air and starts giving Ivy orders. And Ivy finds a secret room that holds shadowy magical secrets which crack open her past. Ivy spent decades believing the dark magic she possessed should never be touched. Can she catch a killer without tapping into the unfamiliar power deep within? Or will her sassy attitude, an opinionated kitten, and a murderer willing to strike again destroy her splendid new life?

Ivy Patterson’s life is cruising along better than ever. She moved home to Aurum Falls, Michigan, took over her late uncle’s produce market, and is even dabbling in magic. Yep, she’s a new witch at forty and feeling pretty special about it. See, it’s a big deal to be learning witchy stuff because Ivy’s mother cut her off from it decades ago, saying the magic Ivy possessed was dark and dangerous. But the thing is that Uncle Vincent had dark power too, and he seemed to find a way around it to build up a side hustle, using magic to solve problems for folks around town and keeping the market afloat with the extra money. Ivy takes a job through the back door of the secret magic room too because…hello! The market really does need a boost of cash. But when Ivy’s new client winds up dead twenty minutes later, Ivy will have to decide whether to dare to follow in her uncle’s footsteps—and possibly suffer the terrifying costs of using dark power—or give up magic entirely, hang up her sleuth hat, and settle for an average life.