Flamboyant actor Leo Pierson's Art Nouveau treasures have been stolen, including a one-of-a-kind Lalique glass dragonfly he claims is cursed. David Randall, 302 Grace Street's private eye, agrees to recover the valuables before he realizes that murder has raised its ugly head in the Parkland art community. Samuel Gallant of the museum board is missing, until Randall and his landlord/consultant Camden find Gallant's body stuffed in a museum closet. When another board member suffers a fatal accident and the art critic for the Parkland Herald is attacked, Randall suspects that the stolen dragonfly is indeed cursed.

Camden's friend, Rufus Jackson, receives a letter from his ex-wife, Bobbi, and is surprised to learn he's the father of a baby. So when Bobbi is found murdered in her home and her child stolen, Rufus becomes suspect number one. PI David Randall immediately takes the case, but is almost sidetracked by a series of what appears to be never-ending favors. In addition to the tangle of deals, Randall has to contend with Rufus being hell-bent on revenge, the return of Cam's telekinesis, and growing concern that if the baby --- a girl named Mary Rose, as it turns out --- is found, Rufus might not want to keep her. But where is Mary Rose?

Private investigator and former beauty queen Madeline Maclin thought she'd seen it all in her small North Carolina town of Celosia. Yet EVIL TURNS, the fifth installment in Jane Tesh’s lively mystery series, opens with a young man's body covered in strange occult symbols found in a local vineyard, putting Maddy on notice that there is more than one witch in the neighborhood.