Black Hat Bureau

Remember that old line about how the only way out of the organization is in a pine box? Well, Rue Hollis spent 10 years thinking she had escaped the Black Hat Bureau, no coffin required. Then her former partner had to go and shatter the illusion by showing up on her doorstep with grim tidings. 

After a black witch pitched a hissy fit in Hollis Apothecary, Rue got stuck cleaning up his mess. That was the easy part. Repairing the damage he inflicted on Camber and Arden? That makes Rue wish she could bring him back to life just to kill him again. Slower this time. While Rue is setting her new life back to rights, Clay and Asa are off working a case, but it soon becomes clear that they'll need her help to catch the vicious creature preying on locals in a small Tennessee town. 

When one of Santa's reindeer meets a grisly end during the annual A Downtown Dickens Christmas Festival, Rue realizes her enemies are closing in on her location, and Samford will pay the price. But when one creature turns into two, and two into three, and then three into four, Rue knows the problem is bigger than a singular threat to her new hometown. And that's before a holiday shopper strolls into Hollis Apothecary claiming to be a long-lost relative. Of her father's.

Monsters with a taste for children are nothing new, but fairy tales never mentioned this nightmarish predator. Rue has her hands full tracking the creature hunting the streets of Charleston, but a call from home divides her attention—and her loyalties. A stranger has come to Hollis Apothecary, asking questions that prickle the hairs on her nape, but she can't abandon the victims based only on a bad feeling. The pit in her stomach only grows when the stranger takes a hostage and makes his demands. He wants to talk to Rue, face to face. Or else.

Famous monsters are resurrecting across Mississippi, each one recreating their own gruesome deaths through new victims. Every time Rue pins down one horror legend, another appears with its own bloodthirsty agenda. The summoners raising these vengeful spirits save their best for last, a cruel gift that shatters Rue. But she's not the only one whose heart gets broken.