The Red Hot Empress

"CHARACTERS YOU'LL NEVER FORGET." - TONY HILLERMAN"Fascinating gypsy lore, unforgettable characters, and a wicked sense of humor." -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

DON'T MESS WITH CHINATOWN-EVEN IF YOU'RE A GYPSY

Nudged by her Gypsy mother-in-law, Madame Mina, freelance journalist Annie Szabo writes an article about Jimmy Qi, an Asian boy with the power to heal through music, which is right down the Szabos' paranormal alley. But their good intentions soon put the youngster in danger, prompting, once again, the rise of the funniest, most loveable pair of amateur sleuths since Nick and Nora Charles.

Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of the rising star of San Francisco's Chinatown-including a shady evangelist, the FBI, the tongs, and a man who talks to dolphins. After two suspicious deaths, Annie and Jimmy go on the lam, not knowing whom to trust or why. Leo Rosetti, Annie's lover, and her daughter are also tossed into the mystery, along with meddling world-famous twins who have taken a shine to Annie and Jimmy.

As always in an Annie Szabo mystery, it's Madame Mina, with her outsized pushiness and proportional psychic gifts, who steals the show-along with her hilariously querulous relationship with her widowed daughter-in-law. These two are as funny as they are clever, and the real fun of the supernatural cozy series.

Who can resist Gypsies anyhow?

"A madcap dash through San Francisco's Chinatown and the crumbling Haight-Ashbury district with a cast of bona fide eccentrics." Kirkus Reviews

"Simultaneously kooky and mysterious." Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine