A year ago, Ingrid Torfudottir moved to the North Shore of Lake Superior intending to live a quiet life in the sleepy fishing town she thought her mother was born in. Just her and her grandmother in a snug little cabin, running the local get-together spot while Ingrid pursues a career as a book illustrator.

Instead, she learned that her mother, like her grandmother before her, was born in a hidden village founded in the Viking age by Norse settlers long before the time of Columbus. Ingrid's ancestress wove powerful magic to keep her people safe. And Ingrid wears the mantle of that responsibility now, in the modern age.

She is their volva. Their Viking witch.

But that mantle comes with more responsibility than merely maintaining spells. It means learning all she needs to know, but in half the time any of her ancestors took.

And frequently for Ingrid, it means investigating a murder. Or, in this strangely snowy October, a string of murders. Because when a killer employs magic, no one else stands a chance at stopping them before they strike again.

And something more than unseasonable weather seems to be blowing in from the North.