Envy, Silk, and a Star Sapphire

Russell Bearden has spent his life dismissing his family's cursed-ring stories as generations of bad luck. Then he sells the star sapphire. The next morning, the ring is back in his possession, and the police are at his door accusing him of stealing it. Russell only wanted one thing: to finally be free of the family curse so he could marry Joyce without wondering whether generations of tragedy were about to become theirs. When he brings the ring to Rowena Kestrel, owner of a small rock and mineral shop in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, she begins digging into the history behind the sapphire. What she finds is a story of jealousy, obsession, and a nineteenth-century jeweler named Elias Tidwell, who cursed the ring after the woman he loved chose another man. Now that old envy is still working its way through the Bearden family, and a present-day Tidwell seems far too interested in making sure the curse stays useful. With Mister, her snow Bengal cat, nearby and a little quiet magic when she needs it, Rowena must untangle family letters, old records, false accusations, and one very stubborn sapphire before Russell's fear costs him the future he's been trying to protect. Envy, Silk, and a Star Sapphire is a warm, lightly magical cozy mystery filled with small-town secrets, family history, rockhounding, quiet magic, and one curse that has overstayed its welcome by about a century and a half.