"Tall, Dark & Dead" leads heroine into trouble

In "Tall, Dark & Dead" by Tate Hallaway ($14, Berkley Books), Garnet Lacey has given up magic. She's also trying to change her propensity for being late.

If she hadn't been late, she wouldn't have arrived after her coven had been slaughtered by Vatican assassins and if she hadn't arrived after the fact to see the assassins still there, sprinkling her coven's remains with holy water, then she wouldn't have called into herself the Goddess Lillith.

When Lillith came, she took over and after she's gone, Garnet wakes up to the slaughter she has wrought -- to the Vatican assassins.

Garnet leaves Minneapolis in a hurry, gives up magic, lands in Wisconsin and is just trying to live her life by avoiding the Vatican Witch Hunters.

Until tall, dark and dead walks into her magic shop. Magic shop? Well, Garnet it's the perfect cover.

No self-respecting real witch would be caught "within a mile of this New Age, Warlock-wannabe haven." At least she hopes that's what the Vatican will think anyway. Then she meets Sebastian Von Traum who comes into her shop.

Garnet is attracted to Sebastian, but she can't quite figure out what he is. She does know that since he's missing an aura, he's dead. She figures there's no future in dating him and that's that.

Until Garnet realizes that there's a Vatican killer on Sebastian's trail. She decides she has to warn him before he ends up like her coven -- permanently dead and unanimated.

Hallaway's Garnet Lacey is an interesting character so I hope we see more of her in future books.