The Vanishing Castle
By: Marlena Cannon
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genres: Adult, Cozy Mystery, Fantasy
Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239767945-the-vanishing-castle
Synopsis:
A fantasy mystery with hooves and heart.
Simarron isn’t a detective, he’s just a centaur with a clipboard and a nose for trouble. He left his homeland to get a professional job in the city as a magical safety inspector. However, his new life isn’t quite as he imagined it to be and his fellow housemates at Slant Row Boarding House (which is definitely not haunted) are shadier than an enchanted forest.
When a castle disappears and an alchemist ends up dead, Simarron must choose between the cozy, safe rule-bound life he’s always dreamed of and the principles that won’t let him walk away. He is a safety inspector, after all, and the city isn’t safe with a killer on the loose.
A cozy mystery set in a richly imagined gaslamp fantasy world, The Vanishing Castle delights with magical intrigue, a quirky found family, and a centaur sleuth you won’t soon forget.
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Lilimari sat at one end of the table in silence, fiddling with her bread knife while reading from a book. I sat on my haunches on the floor on the opposite end, savoring my toast with preserves. Kai and Landlady Lyness were sipping their tea while conversing in soft tones. Tia was chewing loudly and reading the front page of the newspaper.
Despite the cozy scene, my thoughts kept returning to the haunted painting. . .
My nose twitched at the memory. There had been a peculiar smell: dark and musty, like decaying wood, tinged with the sharp metallic scent of blood, layered with red roses and garlic.
The smell had filled my senses and consumed me, until it felt like I was inside the painting itself, trapped behind her downcast eyes, my vision tinting red. I’d never felt anything like it before. But almost as soon as the fear had flooded me, it ebbed. Was this the power of the painting? Could it really cause people to seize in fear?
I was snapped back to the present by the rattling of a newspaper. Tia’s hands were quivering.
“What is it?” I asked.
Tia looked up, her face pale as she turned the paper to face me.
“BRUSH WITH DOOM: Man’s Mysterious Death Linked to Exclusive Art Exhibition,” written by someone named Manrik Skrift.
I glanced at Kai, his brow furrowed. The portrait depicted in the engraving could only be . . .
“Lysandros Garbor, alchemist and investor, age 56,” Tia confirmed.
“Simarron and I were there when he suffered from a seizure,” said Kai.
“When the physicks arrived I thought,‘thank the Goddess.
’”
“But it seems he didn’t make it,” I said, feeling ill.
Kai sighed, setting down his teacup with a soft clink.
“How did I not hear about this until The Mercury printed it? What else does it say?” He reached across the table, but Tia sat further back in her chair, moving the paper out of his reach.
After a few moments of scanning the print, Tia continued reading aloud.
“The article doesn’t say much,” she said.
“Just that Alchemist Garbor, with ambitious plans to renovate Château Gorget, unfortunately met an untimely demise, ostensibly from fright after viewing a mysterious painting. Et cetera, et cetera . . . However, the City Watch has not ruled out foul play, and the writer is of the opinion that the possibility of a ghostly intervention is not to be dismissed either. His alleged final words as he collapsed were,
‘If this is what awaits us in the afterlife, I want no part of it.’” She shook her head and tossed the paper behind her into a wicker wastebasket.
I opened my mouth, but no words would come out. That wasn’t what Lysandros Garbor said! I was there, and he’d barely been able to gasp for breath.
About Marlena Cannon
Marlena Cannon grew up reading "The Cat Who..." mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun and writing stories of her own. She kept writing intermittently over the years, eventually pursuing her dream by completing the DIY MFA program in 2023, where she drafted "The Vanishing Castle," inspired by one of her childhood projects. She also designed the cover using her background in graphic design. Marlena lives with her husband and their rescue rabbits.
Blitz-Wide Giveaway (INT) October 2nd
Prize: $20 Amazon gift card
Link to Enter Giveaway: https://gleam.io/H1mqJ/the-vanishing-castle-blitz
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)
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