A Twisted Riposte

Pixie Twist Mysteries #1

by Alyn Troy

A town of wonky magic. A fencer stabbed by her own blade. Can Twizzie untangle the twisted mystery?

Twizzle Twist isn’t your normal real estate pixie. Nor is St. Maurice your normal Southern California town. The magic in the valley belches at the worst time. The faerock vein in St. Mo marks the local fae in uncomfortable ways. Twizzie’s mismatched wings and bum leg are the least of her worries when a showing becomes deadly.

The house-hunting lunges off-target when the first showing comes with more than she bargained for. The owner is dead, stabbed in the back with her own sword.

The seaside town of St. Maurice’s has one of the few remaining amusement piers on the west coast. And someone is twisting the town council to tear it down. If that happens, it will be the end of Twizzle's home above the carousel.

With a murderer on the loose, a cute vampire she needs to sell a home to, and the imminent demise of her home on the pier, Twizzie has too many strikes to dodge all at once.

Will Twizzie and her friends pull the right cord to untangle the twisted knot of intrigue in their sleepy SoCal town? Can they do so before the killer lunges again?

If you love mysteries with a dash of quirky characters, a dose of warped magic, and snarky humor, you'll love Alyn Troy's new Paranormal Cozy Mystery series.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Paranormal, Fantasy, Fiction, Ebooks, Urban Fantasy

Kindle Edition

First published March 6, 2021

About the author

Alyn Troy is an American from the Midwest (Indiana) who writes The Mystic Brews and Pixie Twist series of Paranormal Cozy Mysteries. In addition to Indiana, he's lived in Southern California, where the Pixie Twist series is set, and has served as a history docent on a notable pier in SoCal. In his past lives, he's been a journalist, a wedding photographer, and an adjunct professor.

Alyn gets assistance from his fuzzy familiar (AKA "Lord Fuzzbutt"). When not helping his human with the writing of paranormal cozy mysteries, Lord Fuzzbutt likes to sit out outside and watch the hummingbirds dart about like pixies. He often yowls at the door, waiting to head to the patio for chipmunk duty. Fortunately, the little rodents are craftier than Fuzzbutt is.

Alyn's beverage of choice is dark roast coffee with a dash of honey, and a splash of half-n-half. In addition to being half-way competent with his home espresso machine, Alyn makes a mean Mai Tai.

Reviews

[Emmalynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good, a magical mystery with representation for the disabilities that’s just a way of life for an entire community. A pixie realtor and her vampire client encounter the body of a home owner at a showing. Soon they’re embroiled in family secrets, town gossip and corruption, and more bodies all while trying to solve the murder.

[Kristin Scearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Ane Ellasdatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute town with an interesting magic system and adorable characters. I wish the writing was a bit better, but I still enjoyed it.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this new series start. As a special educator it was wonderful to see characters who weren’t perfect, and fir whom having a disability was not considered a reason not to move forward. I look forward to more Pixie Twist.

[Federica De dominicis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful!

A new series with a fantastic take on life!
I love how the characters represent different disabilities, with all the difficulties in the day to day life. The "human" emotions and struggles are depicted in such a positive and uplifting way that, hopefully, while smiling at some of the situation, they will spark a more serious series of thoughts about how we perceive disabilities and how we interact with our fellow humans.
A highly recommended para cozy, from a very talented Author.

[Sue-Dee Numb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous

From the Welsh Valleys to the Coast of Sothern California meet Pixie realtor Twizzie Twist (the cousin of our very own cafe manager/barista Nia back in Wales)
Twizzie's quest today is to find an appropriate home for her Wizard friend Hop's #87 nephew Chaz Li. Chaz is moving to the town of St Maurice, a Fey town on the coast of Southern California, and as the best Realtor in town, Hop has entrusted her to help Chaz find a house. Sparks fly from the moment they meet, a clear mutual attraction with the two, which is dampened slightly by the discovery of the owner of the first house Nancy Miller-LLoyd was an Olympic fencer and sword aficionado, dead, murdered by one of her own swords.
But as Twiz and Chaz get pulled into investigating the murder there is so much more afoot than just murder.

A really great plot with interesting characters, from the wizard Hop, to the mermaid coffee shop owner Amanda, Mort the cat/dragon and Billie Quinn the journalist with many hats..and nomdeplooms!. Everyone has a story to tell in St Maurice, because of the Faerock mine under the town it causes magic to act strangely and some of the residents were born with conditions caused by the Faerock, Twiz has one leg and one wing shorter than the other requiring a cane, and causing her to fly in a corkscrew when she goes small.

The story is intriguing, I did not want to put the book down. With many twists and turns and red herrings, it's a great "who done it", for me it was a pleasant change to have disabled characters the disabilities are handled sensitively and do not hold the characters back, in fact as in my own experience I think they work harder for the same results.  magic is also that bit harder you can't just snap your fingers and things happen, again they have to work harder for the same results. I found myself able to relate to that which was nice, (well maybe not the magic lol)

I highly recommend this book, but then so far I have not read a book by Alyn Troy that I have not loved.
(You do not need to have read the Mystic Brews series to enjoy this book though it shares the same magic and lore, the only real connection is that Nia and Twiz are cousins. However if you have not read Mystic Brews you should they are a really good read)

[Julie Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun quirky mystery. I just thought it was going to be about witches and pixies casting magic to solve a murder but it is so much more than that. In fact most magical or mythical creature you can think of is included, like vampires (I am not normally a big fan of vampires, it's the whole biting of the neck thing but don't let that put you off because this is a cosy and no neck biting is involved) and mermaids, to even a few you haven't thought of like dragon/cats or demons running cars. There is a lot of characters but I like the way that they are not all the same and many of them have a disability, just like in life and it adds a little something different to the story that the author used well in creating her characters. Definitely not your normal kind of book. The mystery itself was interesting and took many twists as you tried to puzzle out who the killer was and how they did it. Will be keeping an eye out for the next book.
Twizzie is the number one realtor in St. Maurice but like the rest of the magical inhabitants of the small town she has her own struggles. The town was built to close to a large deposit of Faerock which not only means that is causes magic to go wonky but also birth defects in its children. With Twizzie that means she has a shorter leg and a damaged wing causing her to fly in circles when in her pixie form. This makes her the perfect seller when a wheelchair bound vampire wants to move to the area, as she knows just what he needs. Unfortunately what he doesn't need, is to find the owner of his dream house dead with a sword in her back. Is there a connection with who ever is buying up the properties on the pier? As she was one of the opponent's of demolishing the landmark? Or is it closer to home and her ex husband wanted her out of the way? Twizzle feels an attraction to the new vampire in town but no dating clients is the rule she just won't cross. But if she was to solve the murder then he wouldn't be her client anymore.
I liked the narrator. I have heard her read a few other books by different authors and it is always an enjoyable and pleasant experience.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this story. The characters have zing & heart while the plot keeps one guessing until the end. Plus it's good to have a characters & a setting where disabilities are not treated as something to be pitied or scorned. We need more of that. Hopefully this will evolve into the awesome series that it can be.
Faerock, both the bane and lifeblood of the town of St. Maurice on the California coast. Bane because it can cause birth defects among some paranormals. Lifeblood because it's used to power magical things. Enter Twizzle Twist, real estate agent and one of those affected by faerock.With a shorter left leg and wing, she corkscrewed when flying. So mostly she stays in her tall form. But that doesn't stop our heroine from living a full life. Said life takes its own twist when Nephew 87 of Hoppy, wizard and docent of one of the last Hippodromes in the U.S, is due to arrive & look at handicapped accessible homes. Not a fae but a turned vampire who was injured before his turning. After meeting Chaz Li, they go to the first of the homes he's interested in. Or maybe not. The soon to be unmarried couple that owned it had moved out or so they thought. Finding Nancy Miller-Lloyd, fencer extraordinaire, with a valuable sword in her back was not part of the tour.
As Chaz and Twizzie try to unravel the who & why of the murder & Twizzie keeps reminding herself that she doesn't date clients, another murder occurs. The usual suspects are cleared and yet Twizzie has a nagging feeling she overlooked something. Could that something be so important someone will add Twizzie to the list of recently deceased in St. Maurice? What has faerock to do with everything? The only way to find out is to read the book

[Raquel | mommagracereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cute cozy mystery. It’s been awhile since I’ve read one, so I was admittedly a little bored with the lack of drama and action. I definitely prefer the suspense, but I did enjoy this book.

Twiz is a real estate in a magical town, and this magical town is unique. The faerock in the earth, once it was uncovered and mined, caused fluctuations with the magical energy fields, which caused birth defects and disabilities. I imagined the faerock to be like coal, just… magical.

So the fact that this is an inclusive story? I adore that. Calling their handicaps enhancements? Even better. This is all about embracing differences and making everything accessible to all.

The story starts with Twiz gaining a new client, Chaz, who happens to be a wheelchair bound vampire, but only by day. She takes him around to see houses for sale as he’s moving to the area. Things don’t go to plan when they find the owner of the first house murdered in her office.

Twiz and Chaz unite and try to solve the mystery, while also looking at other houses. Twiz is adorable with finding Chaz cute but continually telling herself she doesn’t date clients. I think everyone can see that she’s got the heart eyes for him, ha.

The “whodunnit” reveal at the end was totally unexpected, not on my suspect list at all.

And then we get a kiss from our MC’s at the very end but it’s not even written. What the heck. 😂 (I know, I know, it’s a cozy mystery, NOT a romance! Ha)

[Jen Mays · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit of a mixed experience for me; is it possible to both like and dislike a book at the same time?

A short quick mystery about a murder in a small, oceanside town in California populated primarily by fae. Our main character, Twizzle Twist, is a pixie with a too-small wing who works as a realtor for the fae-folk looking to rent or buy, but becomes an amateur sleuth when she and her client visit a home occupied by the murdered former tenant.

There’s an awful lot of stuff going on in this short little book, so much so that even I, with years of fantasy reading and gaming under my thumb, found it hard to keep up with it all. I can imagine that new folks to the genre might be overwhelmed. The amount of detail and quirks about this fae town crammed in weren’t helped by the grammar issues of choppy sentences in spots, and words left out periodically. Also, there are some odd choices made within the story that broke with the character development (example: our male love interest is a vampire but he blushes at one point when two teenagers ogle him---how is he blushing when he’s undead with no blood circulation?)

In general it was a cute fluffy read that became increasingly annoying because of the issues noted above, and it was good that this was a short read since this might have approached DNF territory if it had gone too much longer. I ended it enjoying it enough that I would give another in the series a try, but I’m not rushing to get to it, and would likely skip the rest of the series if the issues mentioned aren’t improved in later stories.

[Deb S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twizzy Twist lives in St. Maurice, California; a small town along the coast. She’s the best Realtor in town & is happy to show a newcomer named Chaz, who is a vampire, some of the available houses. Their first stop doesn’t go well because the first room they look at comes with a dead body. Little does Twizzy know that this is just the beginning of things to come. St. Maurice & the area around it are hotbeds of magic & other mayhem which doesn’t help. People are talking about someone trying to buy land in town for development which would affect the town’s historic pier, but no one knows who that person is. As the bodies pile up Twizzy teams up with Chaz to find the killer & the person trying to destroy their beautiful town. It’s takes teamwork with Twizzy, Chaz, Mort & others to find the killer &
everyone is surprised who it is.

[Tess Ailshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. A bit awkward as Twizzle explains concepts of magic, demons, gnomes, etc. I must've read another by Troy, as the "don't drop the 'g' in 'gnome'" and the concept of demon-rated cars was not new to me. (Yes, I went back and checked; I had also rated the other one I read as three stars.)

SEVERAL instances of wrong words ("gauges" instead of "gouges"), missing words, or awkward constructs, detracted from the story. The characters are difficult enough to envision, despite descriptions, and the fae-mundane lines almost get in the way of the story. Nothing a good copy editor and editor couldn't fix.

[Barrie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing read.

Meet Twizzie Twist realtor extraordinaire and a Pixie somewhat handicapped thanks to the magic ore in the local mines that screws with all magic and magical creatures. So when a hot vamp moves to town looking for a new home she's only too happy to help, unfortunately, at the first showing they find the owner dead which opens secrets and mysteries and tension between the two rival covens and the council when it's discovered that someone is buying up all the business leases and has plans to demolish the town's pier for a new development. Great storylines with zany characters magic mayhem humor romance there's even a mini Dragon, well worth a read, Baz.

[Anne Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the journey into Twizzle Twist’s life in St. Maurice. There’s a grand pier that one person is hoping to get torn down. Faerock causes problems & Twizzle has a twisted leg & one of her wings is also damaged, so she cannot fly. She’s a Realtor & very good at her job. When showing a house to a vampire, he knows something is wrong in a room due to smelling blood. Yes, the former Olympic fencing champion is dead, with a sword in her back. Really interesting how she gets to sort it out before the police do!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars so I round up.

It was a cute story, but a lot of details and it kind of got chaotic for me. Too much was happening to quickly and almost in like chunks. I mean the plot and story line did not transition nicely. The plot was nice and characters are funny but I just think it was many details for no reason. I understand the point of setting the "magical world" of this community but it was too much with no explanations how these little details tied into the story at the moment. It was an ok story for me. Nothing that made me want to continue unfortunately.

[Juanita Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I certainly recommend

I’m glad I picked this out to read. I will warn there’s a couple grammar mistakes but nothing major that derails the story. I love the diverse characters. Yes I mean different supernatural characters but also, Troy uses many characters with different disabilities. And I love that the disabilities don’t hold the characters back at all. The storyline was good. And I am ready to read the next in the series already.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different twist

Twizzle, the town's best realtor and a pixie, stumbles onto a dead body while showing a client one of three homes he was interested in buying. The homeowner was stabbed in the back with one of her prized swords, and now Twizzle's can't help but be curious about the murder. With the help of her friends, she begins to look into the mysteries surrounding her quirky town filled with magical beings, with a few disabilities of their own.

[Annette Aguilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical mayhem

A sweet magical adventure full of magical mayhem and wonky spells.T he characters are full of quirky and wonderful characteristics each one is lovable and cute! They keep finding murdered bodies and stumbles into one misadventure after enough. Will romance have a chance or will they be the next victim?

[Heather Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, new fave

This is a new to me author and now one I will definitely be reading more of. Easy to read style, interesting and quirky characters with intriguing plots.

Twizzle is a pixie in a small magical coastal town. A real estate agent with some lovely friends in a picturesque place.

[Jane litherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twizzle Twist the Real Estate pixie has more to debate when her latest client ends up dead….its not the norm when showing your home to wind up deceased before it’s even leased to say the least! With Twizzle’s own abode threatened ! Great entertaining read with good writing and immersive storytelling and thoroughly entertaining.

[Nancy Gerards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to Saint Maurice , home of Twizzle a real estate agent ,a pixie, a good friend to everybody she knows.......and she has a limp
with the help of cane she goes around on her bisniss .The aera is know for it's 'fearock' what triggers defects in anyone magickal
It's good to have a setting where disabilities are not treated as something to be pitied or scorned.

.

There's a nice flurry of folks around her like the wizard Hop , the mermaid coffee shop owner Amanda, Mort the cat/dragon and Billie Quinn the journalist with many hats. Everyone has a story to tell in St Maurice, because of the Faerock mine under the town it causes magic to act strangely and some of the residents were born with conditions caused by the Faerock.





There were twists and turns in this book, some of them to do with the characters’ personalities and how not everyone is quite how they seem at first impression. And I loved that! That’s what I want, in a mystery, to be misled. And misled I was! I thought I knew whodunit… and boy was I wrong! Thumbs up for this book!
Alyn has the rare ability to paint with words without repeating her self over and over again .


A great start to a new series and I am looking forward to the next book

[liz jones]

Great read

I really enjoyed the first book in what I hope will be a nice long series.I loved the characters in fact probably better than their Welsh counterparts. Can't wait for May when the next book is ready

[Harold Force · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and a bit different.

Another take on vampires. Seems as if every book does that. This one has some different twists on magic, and ,yes, there is a pun in there. Ending kind of runs together, once they know who the killer is. I will probably go back to read another.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swords, Magic, and Drones

Nearly as many twists in this as there are in the faerock mines.

Twizzie, Chaz, Hop, and the rest are people I'd like to meet and it takes all of them to solve the mysteries surrounding the Pier. A fun read.

[Tricia Huskey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, a little slow moving at times. I was somewhat bothered by the Asian man speaking in a stereotypical manner as well as the terms loony / crazy. I was expecting a fae / pixie story but there was a lot of other assorted magical beings. Felt more like a mash up of ideas.

[Sherry Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute twisted little tale

Quite a creative story! A variety of characters and none of them are quite what you would call ‘normal’! But they do come together to create a nice little mystery!

[Sandra Holladay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs a bit more proofreading, enough that it was irritating. The magic/fae stuff was a lot different than what I’m used to, not bad, just feeling off. The ‘wonky’ magic was interesting. The mystery was good enough.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty boring

Forced myself to finish reading this book. Some good moments but mostly boring. Too much attention to the boring aspects of real estate and the possible takeover of the pier and not enough action. Even the murders were boring. I'll skip the rest of these.

[Liza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun cast of characters.

A Fae town - but most have some form of disability (or other ability). A pixie with a wing problem causing her to fly in a spiral; a vampire who spends the day in a wheelchair but walking at night.

Nicely written interactions. And then there's a murder!!

[Elaine Parent · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Twisted Riposte

A great start to a new series and I am looking forward to the next book. This has me hooked.