The Tarot Mysteries

Electra Enterprises of San Francisco

A tiny home for authors, artists, and artisans

The Fool Card
The Fool Card is the first in a series of mysteries linked to the tarot deck. In this first book, Xana Bard has chosen a quiet life—drinking tea, talking to her pets, reading, and conferring with the Pacific Ocean beyond her picture window. She calls the ocean Doctor P., and it’s cheaper than her therapist and maybe a little more helpful. She’s happy enough, until the night Thorne Ardall, shot while chasing his boss’s killer, crashes into her house. Using her tarot-trained intuition rather than her better judgment, Xana patches Thorne up and they agree to track down the murderer as a team.

The Magician Card
Xana Bard is approached at Enrico’s Cafe by a young man who asks her to read his tarot cards. When she does, the cards are terrifying. How is Xana going to avert the dreadful future she sees for Asa Ballantine and his sister Beth? Can her friend Thorne Ardall do the job? How does the work the twins are doing on nanotechnology and human organ reconstruction figure into the threat hanging over them? And what help can Xana possibly provide after she breaks her ankle?Meanwhile, why is Agatha Hein, Xana’s dowdy German neighbor, suddenly transformed into a glamorpuss? Why is she driving her husband’s Mercedes instead of walking to the bus at the corner? In this second fast-moving adventure in The Tarot Mysteries series, Xana and Thorne must find a way, in spite of the impediments presented by fractures and furious family members, to dodge the doom she has seen looming over Asa and Beth and solve the mystery of Mrs. Hein’s sudden makeover.

The High Priestess Card
Xana Bard is recovering nicely from her fractured ankle when DeLeon Davies bursts into the East-West Cafe and tells her that his sixteen-year-old daughter has been kidnapped by a cult. How will Xana and Thorne Ardall, the man her mother refers to as Xana’s “thug swain,” rescue DeLeon’s daughter Netta? And why will Xana then volunteer to join the cult? In this third book in The Tarot Mysteries series, Xana and Thorne conspire against the cult’s female autocrat, who calls herself Renenet, “goddess incarnate of prosperity and abundance,” and in the process they learn just how perilous organic farming can be.

The Empress Card
Xana Bard has settled into a comfortable and contented life with Thorne Ardall, her “thug swain,” only to have that life disrupted by the 24/7 bodyguard duties he undertakes in order to protect the notorious but faded former siren Mona Raglan. Mona, Xana learns, is now a kinky boots manufacturer and compulsively adoptive mother. It seems everyone who knows Mona was once captivated by her compelling sexual charisma, or was touched by her taking on a worldwide brood of orphans. Unfortunately, now that the charisma has faded so has Mona’s immunity from being hated by the throng of people she has offended by her predatory man-stealing and caustic tongue. In this fourth book in The Tarot Mysteries series, Xana and Thorne do their best to protect Mona from multiple attempts on her life―attempts that recur with persistence and increasing effectiveness.

The Emperor Card
Xana Bard comes home one muggy afternoon to find a murdered man in her back yard. Knowing that even with an airtight alibi she and anyone living with her will be a suspect, she warns her off-the-grid lover Thorne Ardall to stay away until the murderer is caught. How will Xana unravel the mystery of the body in the back yard? How will World War II, gold fever, and a road trip with DeLeon Davies at the wheel factor into solving the murder? And when will the insufferably hot weather ever cool down?