The Skeleton Crew Paranormal Cozy Series Book 3
by Dahlia Donovan
January 31, 2025
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Welcome back to the Skeleton Crew. Bring your knitting needles, a good strong brew, and plenty of snacks. You’re going to need them.
Gender-fluid, autistic vampire Hyde Snodgrass is living their best life with their bookshop, cats, and witch girlfriend, Teresa Vega. The colours of autumn are beginning to blend into winter. An ordinarily joyous midwinter is spoiled by the arrival of their estranged family.
When their murderous uncle is found dead in front of their shop, Hyde finds themselves unwillingly dragged into the investigation. Accusations swirl around South Myrddin. It takes a village to untangle the mystery.
Can the true killer be unmasked in time to save them?
Will there be anything to celebrate in the coming Yuletide season?
The outfit of the day was one of their favourites. A lovely blue sweater with a well-worn button-down underneath. Jeans. A little boyish style from yesteryear with their trousers tucked into their socks and a vintage pair of brown boots.
I am a chubby ginger icon. I can seize the day.
Or I can seize a book to read.
That sounds better.
I’ll seize a book.
A particularly loud yowl caught their attention. The cats were definitely ready for their breakfast. They both looked pitifully up at Hyde.
“All right. Come on, you two.”
Mortar was a stunningly beautiful Persian with startling blue eyes who’d definitely been a queen in a previous life. Pestle, on the other hand, had probably been a court jester. His long ginger fur and almost glowing yellow eyes certainly set him apart, as did his sense of mischief.
They were Hyde’s constant companions. They ruled the roost. And more often than not, they kept the right people in the shop and the rest from overstaying their welcome.
Between the Leaves had been Hyde’s passion project for almost eighty years. The building had been a gift from the woman who’d taken them in as a child. A little shop with a comfortable flat on the second floor, it had once been a place serving afternoon tea, but books had been more interesting to Hyde.
Returning to stare at the mirror, Hyde attempted to corral their short, curly red hair into some semblance of a style. It was going to be a hat day. A hat day. It was a mostly nonverbal day. And a they day.
Being a vampire had its perks; being almost a hundred yet having stopped ageing at thirty was certainly a plus. Being an autistic one, though, had drawbacks. Every sound and smell was amplified by what felt like a thousand. The world could be an incredibly overwhelming place. It was Flossie who’d come up with the idea for the signs.
Flossie Vandermark was one of the three witches who ran The Spiked Cauldron, the village pub. She also happened to be a proud member of the Skeleton Crew, a weekly knitting group who met up at Hyde’s bookshop. Flossie had suggested a sign for days when Hyde didn’t want to talk or when they felt more they than she.
It made Hyde feel accepted. Everyone wanted to do what made them comfortable. It was part of the magic of their village.
Acceptance.
Everyone knew about South Myrddin. The little village on a loch in the Scottish Highlands was founded by Merlin himself, or so the lore went. It had a reputation for taking in the abandoned.
Hyde had come as a child when their family vampire coven had rejected them. South Myrddin was the place for stragglers, odd ones, and outliers. A place to find family if one wanted.
A place to find home.
The village had a healthy coven of witches. A few vampires. The odd werewolf. A collection of naiads, dryads, and brownies. Druids and shifters. A stray kelpie. An incubus and succubus, who were Italians who ran a restaurant. And one lone fae who’d been in South Myrddin since the beginning, or so they claimed.
The eclectic bunch of magical beings had all made South Myrddin their home. Most of the villagers came searching for a place to feel comfortable in their own skin. Hyde considered themselves grateful to have been left there all those years ago.
About the Author:
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Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.