The second book in the Shadow Grail series by the "New York Times," "USA Today," and "Publishers Weekly "bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

Spirit and her friends Burke, Loch, Muirin, and Addie have managed to defeat the evil force that has been killing students at Oakhurst Academy for the past forty years--or so they think. When a series of magical attacks disrupts the school, Doctor Ambrosius calls upon alumnus Mark Rider to secure the campus--and start training the students for war. The only student without magic, Spirit doesn't trust Mark or his methods. She knows that Oakhurst isn't safe. And if Spirit and her friends want to live long enough to graduate, they have to find out what is really going on--before it's too late.

Like Susan Isaacs, Rosemary Edghill cast a keenly observant, friendly, yet faintly amused eye on an intriguing American micro-culture. Like The Witches of Eastwick, the Bast novels offer a very new view of the practitioners of a very old faith. Like Alice Hoffman, Edghill allows that there's still magic in the air.

Rosemary Edghill's Bast novels are a real treat. Bell, Book, and Murder contains all three Bast novels, Speak Daggers to Her, Book of Moons, and the first softcover edition of The Bowl of Night (excerpted in USA Today).

Who--or what--is stalking the students at Oakhurst Academy?

In the wake of the accident that killed her family, Spirit White is spirited away to Oakhurst Academy, a combination school and orphanage in the middle of Montana. There she learns she is a legacy--not only to the school, which her parents also attended, but to magic.

All the students at Oakhurst have magical powers, and although Spirit's hasn't manifested itself yet, the administrators insist she has one. Spirit isn't sure she cares. Devastated by the loss of her family, she finds comfort with a group of friends: Burke Hallows, Lachlann Spears, Muirin Shae, and Adelaide Lake.

But something strange is going on at Oakhurst. Students start disappearing under mysterious circumstances, and the school seems to be trying to cover it up. Spirit and her friends must find out what's happening--before one of them becomes the next victim...

- The contributors to MURDER BY MAGIC include well-known writers with strong fan followings. Laura Resnick won the John W. Campbell Award as Best New Science Fiction/Fantasy Writer; Carole Nelson Douglas, the author of over 40 novels, won an American Mystery Award; and Susan Krinard's debut, "Prince of Wolves (Bantam, 1993), was a bestseller.- Aspect has had several successful themed anthologies: the Knights Templar anthologies have nearly 74,000 combined copies in print, the African American anthology "Dark Matter (2000) won the prestigious World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, and Brian M. Thomsen's "A Yuletide Universe was published in 11/03 and shipped 15,000 copies.- Rosemary Edghill is the author of the Bast mysteries (Forge Books), which include "Speak Daggers to Her (1994), "Book of Moons (1996), and "The Bowl of Night (1996). She also writes fantasy and science fiction, including the Twelve Treasures series, as well as romances such as "Met By Moonlight (Kensington, 1998) and "Fleeting Fancy (St. Martin's, 1992). She has collaborated on bestselling novels with Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mercedes Lackey, and Andre Norton.