Just when residents thought life was settling down in small-town Wilfred, Oregon, poison pen letters begin to arrive. Who can celebrate the retreat's success or the opening of The Wallingford Guesthouse when secrets and less than neighborly transgressions are aired? Librarian Josie Way is lucky to be a witch, since the spellbound books know plenty about murders . . .

Surprised by an unexpected visit from her oddly pensive mother, Josie hopes to distract her with a visit to the Aerie, the clifftop manor where the recently passed Reverend Clarence Duffy lived. Inside, however, Josie hears hissed warnings from boxes of the preacher's old books--and once home, from the library's detective novels. When Wilfred residents start to receive threatening letters the next day, the witch-in-training is determined to uncover the missives' author . . .

But not before the dead body of one of the reverend's sons is discovered at the bottom of the cliff. Unsettled by the Wilfred residents' crumbling friendships--and by her mother's reason for her visit--Josie has her hands full of dilemmas. Sheriff Sam is no help--he laughs off the letter he receives. Then Josie finds one addressed to her, stating that the author "knows her secret." Josie must trust her fledgling sorcery--as well as a bit of magic from a surprising source--to uncover the poison pen before anyone else receives a deadly delivery . . .