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Diamond City Magic series

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Trace of Magic (Diamond City Magic -1) by Diana Pharaoh Francis

Trace of Magic (Diamond City Magic #1) by Diana Pharaoh Francis

Diamond City Magic series — by Diana Pharaoh Francis. 

NEW SERIES!

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Urban Fantasy / Romantic Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Mystery-Suspense and Romance

Series Description or Overview[]

Even the most powerful tracers can’t track you if the magical trace you leave behind is too old. But I can track almost anything, even dead trace. That makes me a unicorn, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Lock Ness Monster all rolled into one. In a word, I am unique. A very special snowflake. And if anyone ever finds out, I’ll be dead or a slave to one of the Tyet criminal factions.

Riley Hollis has quietly traced kidnapped children and quietly tipped the cops to their whereabouts one too many times. Now she’s on the radar of Detective Clay Price, a cop in the pocket of a powerful magic Tyet faction. When he blackmails her into doing a dangerous trace for him, Riley will have to break every rule that keeps her safe. Or become a Tyet pawn in a deadly, magical war. ~ Goodreads

Lead's Species[]

  • Magic Tracer

Primary Supe[]

  • Mages

What Sets it Apart[]

  • Diamond mining is a key element
  • Magic world contolled  by the mob.

Narrative Type and Narrators[]

  • First person narrative told by Riley Hollis.

Books in Series[]

Diamond City Magic series:

  1. Trace of Magic (2014)
  2. Edge of Dreams (April 15, 2015)

Shorts, Novellas, Anthologies and Guides[]

none yet

Other Series by Author onsite[]

World Building[]

Setting[]

Diamond City, Colorado — a city that has a wild west feel.


Places:

Supernatural Elements[]

✥ Magic tracers, mages, magic drug, magic mob,

Glossary:[]

  • Tracer: magically inclined individual who can read traces of humans and then find them
  • Sparkle Dust: highly addictive drug— If you take too much, you will turn into a wraith and eventually disappear.
  • Diamond Dole: an allowance for everybody in town for being a resident. Once you qualify, you get a couple thousand dollars a month.
  • Five major kinds of magic talents: tracers, dreamers, travelers, makers, and binders.

Groups & Organizations:[]

  • Tyet: Magic mafia—criminal faction that controls the magical world

World[]

✥ In this world the Rocky Mountains near Gunnison, Colorado, there is a massive diamond mine. The caldera rivals the size of the Yellowstone Caldera. On one side it, a city has grown up–Diamond City. It’s a corrupt place, with various mafia-type groups competing to run it. These aren’t ordinary mafias. Magic pools here as well, and many of the citizens are magical. (The reason has to do with the magical flow of energies in the earth and the fact of the volcanic eruption, but that’s not all that important right now).

Magic happens all over the world, but here it’s tied to corruption and political domination. There are five major kinds of magic talents:

  • Tracers
  • Dreamers
  • Travelers
  • Makers
  • binders

Each has particular kinds of skills. There are many more minor talents that are branches of the main talents–tinkers, haunters, rag pickers, quilters, and so on. Those talents are far more limited, but can be equally dangerous. After all, the tiniest pressure at just the right point can knock down a mountain.

Diamond City is a unique place–a mix of lots of money and the really poor. There’s the diamond dole–an allowance for everybody in town for being a resident. Once you qualify, you get a couple thousand dollars a month. That’s not a lot, given the high cost of living, but it keeps people from dying too frequently. Plus there are always jobs, especially if you have any magical talent at all. On the other hand, it’s easy to die in Diamond City. It’s easy to get sideways of the mob, or a corrupt cop, or just fall down a mineshaft and disappear. The entire place is riddled with tunnels, many of them abandoned by the miners, many of them used by the mob or druggies or gangs or the homeless to hide out. ✥ City's History: Diamond City was built in the caldera of a Colorado volcano and began as a mining community when diamonds were discovered. The diamond rush brought not only miners, but eventually families, businesses and, of course, those who prey on them. Crime began with small gangs of thugs, but as the town evolved, so did the criminal element until the Tyet (a criminal alliance of sorts) was formed. Tyet’s influence is felt everywhere and staying below their radar is almost impossible, particularly if one has a special magical talent. ~ Bitten by Books

✥ Magic Trace: Everyone leaves a ‘trace’, a magical trail of sorts. Riley not only can trace someone any time and any place, but she can even trace the dead. Tracers are considered the least dangerous of the five magical skills. ~ Bitten by Books

Protagonist[]

✥ Riley Hollis has a very special talent and has devoted her entire life to staying as under the radar as possible. Riley is a Tracer. Everyone leaves a ‘trace’, a magical trail of sorts. Riley not only can trace someone any time and any place, but she can even trace the dead. Tracers are considered the least dangerous of the five magical skills, but Riley invested a lot of time and experimentation to learn exactly what she can do with it and the results would have rewritten the rule book if anyone knew. Her entire family was devoted to not letting anyone know! When Riley was 5, her mother was killed by Tyet and her father refused to talk about it. Years later, he disappeared, leaving behind his second wife, Riley and her half-sister and brothers. The mystery of both has haunted Riley for years and kept her in Diamond City. As long as the crime bosses thought she was just a hack tracer, she was safe. Circumstances would soon force Riley out of her anonymous safe zone. ~ Bitten by Books

✥ Riley Hollis: Riley Hollis is a tracker, a magically inclined individual who can read traces of humans and then find them. However, she is extremely special because her abilities are far greater than the normal tracker because she can trace dead traces and nullify almost any magic. So, she is careful, staying off the radar and hiding her unique skill set especially from the likes of Detective Clay Price who not only works for the police but the dirty Tyet syndicate. However, when kids go missing she risks everything to get them back. ~ GR reader | Marsha ✥ Riley has trust issues from her childhood. This is part of the issue separating her and Clay in addition to his close ties to his brother, head of the Tyet. Riley learns some new things about her talent and she learns some things about the father who disappeared when she was young. These revelations help her understand where this lack of trust is coming from. ~ GR reader | Kathy Martin

✥ Riley is forced to work with Detective-Asshole Clay Price (her pet name for him) to find Josh. Price was a good detective, but he also moon-lights as an Enforcer for Gregg Touray, a top Tyet crime boss. Riley had made it a practice to avoid Price at all costs. Not only was he dangerous in both his legal and illegal activities, but he was also the hottest man she’d ever seen and she so did not need that complication in her life. ~ Bitten by Books

Sidekick[]

  • Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen:

Characters Chart[]

Characters What About
Riley Hollis tracer, private eye can track almost anything, even dead trace;
Detective Clay Price Police Detective, Tyet, works for powerful magic Tyet faction; blackmails Riley into doing a dangerous trace for him;
Taylor sister hysterical, wants Riley to find her ex-fiancee, Josh;
Gregg Touray Tyet criminal boss Clay Price’s brother
Josh Taylor's fiancee missing, by violent attack;
Leo brother Riley recruits him to help get kid from cave;
Percy Caldwell makes Sparkle Dust; captures Riley, tortures her and tries to addict her to the Dust;
Lauren cop

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column. Or, in Source Mode: copy-paste rows.

Diana Pharaoh Francis - newer

Diana Pharaoh Francis — author of Horngate Witches series and Diamond City Magic series

Diana Pharaoh Francis

Diana Pharaoh Francis

Author[]

Diana Pharaoh Francis

Bio: I didn’t start out to be a writer. I was a storyteller from as far back as I can remember, and a daydreamer of epic stories, but it never occurred to me to write anything down. I read voraciously, but I wasn’t one of those people who said–hey! I could do this! Or even, this is so awful I could do better. I marveled at writers and thought of writing as something other people did. I did try my hand at some really horrible poetry in my senior year of high school. It was dramatic and bleak and world-tiltingly awful. When I got to college, I did poorly in my freshman comp class. I wrote in purple prose and use twenty words for what I could say in two. I loved language, but I didn’t really have much control over it. Then I took a creative writing class. It was awful. Total slaughter. I had caught the bug, though, and from there on out, I wrote. Eventually I wrote a really bad romance and finished it. I finished it! I could do that! And then I went to graduate school and another graduate school, got married, had dogs, had kids, went to work professing, and kept writing. Finally I had my first book accepted and I’ve been writing ever since. — As far as the prosaic stuff goes, I like to crochet, bake bread, spoil corgis, eat chocolate, sing to the radio, pretend to play tennis, geocache, crochet, and garden. Though I really hate weeding. I also like to make my hair purple with some frequency. ~

Contributors[]

Cover Artists[]

  • Artist: not listed — Source:

Other Contributors:[]

  • Audio Book Narrator: — Source:
  • Editor: — Source:

Publishing Information[]

  1. Trace of Magic: Paperback, 236 pages, Pub: Aug 29th 2014—ISBN 1611945143
  2. Edge of Dreams: Paperback, Pub: April 15th 2015—ISBN 1611945852

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✤ BOOK ONE—Trace of Magic (2014): Even the most powerful tracers can’t track you if the magical trace you leave behind is too old. But I can track almost anything, even dead trace. That makes me a unicorn, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Lock Ness Monster all rolled into one. In a word, I am unique. A very special snowflake. And if anyone ever finds out, I’ll be dead or a slave to one of the Tyet criminal factions. Riley Hollis has quietly traced kidnapped children and quietly tipped the cops to their whereabouts one too many times. Now she’s on the radar of Detective Clay Price, a cop in the pocket of a powerful magic Tyet faction. When he blackmails her into doing a dangerous trace for him, Riley will have to break every rule that keeps her safe. Or become a Tyet pawn in a deadly, magical war. ~ Goodreads | Trace of Magic (Diamond City Magic, #1) by Diana Pharaoh Francis

✤ BOOK TWO—Edge of Dreams (April 15, 2015): The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And a pound of flesh. Magical tracking expert Riley Hollis is on a mission to save five teenagers lost inside a mountain. But nothing is what it seems, and soon Riley finds herself bruised, bloodied, and embroiled in a battle to bring down a sadistic criminal dealing in human souls and the darkest of magics. Her only hope may be to swallow her pride and ask for help from her not-quite-ex-boyfriend and his notorious brother—Tyet criminal boss, Gregg Touray. Even that may not be enough to protect her. Something has gone very wrong in the trace dimension and in Riley’s head. If she doesn’t figure out how to handle the past, the present, the trace, and the bad guys, the road to hell is going to look like a great alternative. ~ Goodreads | Edge of Dreams (Diamond City Magic, #2)

✤ BOOK THREE—:

First Sentences[]

  1. Trace of Magic (2014) — Everybody leaves a magical trail of sots, like an indelible ribbon unrolling behind them.
  2. Edge of Dreams (April 15, 2015) — Diamond City had been hit with snowstorm after snowstorm.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

Awards[]

Read Alikes (similar elements)[]

Goodreads suggestions:

See Category links at bottom of page

Notes & Tid-bits[]

FAQ | Diana Pharaoh Francis | Diana P. Francis | Diana Francis

See Also[]

See Category links at bottom of page

External References[]

Book:

Freebies & Excerpts:

Summaries:

World, Characters, etc:

Reviews:

Interviews, Guest Posts, Author Commentary:

Author:

Community, Fan Sites:

Gallery of Book Covers[]

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