Bestseller Dodd's busy sequel to 2022's Point Last Seen opens a thousand years ago in Tajikistan, where a miner discovers a fabulous ruby. A holy man, who recognizes that "the gem held the potential to incite violence," places the ruby inside a jewel-encrusted statue of a dragon, which many centuries later is spirited off to a collector in California. In the present, Zoey Phoenix, a flower breeder in Gothic, Calif., a small town known as "a center of mystical energy," winds up in the hospital after her car is run off the road. Her mother, Morgayne Phoenix, enlists Zoey's ex-husband, former professional wrestler Luca Damezas, to look after her while she recovers. Shortly thereafter, Morgayne drops out of sight, others are murdered, and Zoey's life is threatened. Who is behind these deaths, and why target Zoey? Fortunately, the author keeps on reminding readers of the whos, wheres, and whys of the hodgepodge of a plot, which contains a touch of magic, a dollop of mayhem, a drizzle of psychosis, a large splash of obsession, and just the right amount of sweet romance. This is for established Dodd fans only. Agent: Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Mar.)

Flower propagator Zoey Phoenix may have irrevocably shattered his heart when she divorced him two years ago, but that doesn't mean Luca Damezas wants to kill Zoey now. But someone wants Zoey permanently out of the picture, which leaves Luca no choice but to agree to serve as her bodyguard while she recuperates from a nearly fatal car accident. Further evidence of pending danger presents itself when the two arrive in the remote Pacific Coast village of Gothic and discover someone has tossed Zoey's home and workplace. Could a clue to what the killer is looking for be buried somewhere in Zoey's shadowy memories of her past? Or would it be safer for Zoey if she simply forgets whatever it is she might know? Dodd (Point Last Seen, 2022) deftly loads up the extraordinarily entertaining plot of her latest thrilling and chilling entry in her Gothic-set novels, making it all work with a cinematic flair that Hitchcock would envy, an inventively imaginative cast of characters that includes a former professional wrestler, and a sense of wit so dry it would be perfectly at home in Death Valley.