Madeira Cutler and her best friend are traveling to their hometown of Mystick Falls to celebrate her sister Sherry's engagement and aid her father in saving her sister from a new "Jezebel" in town. At the engagement party Maddie understands how much her help is needed as it's difficult to tell the bride-to-be from the usurper in their midst. The confusion isn't helped by the groom's mother embracing the other woman, Jasmine, as everything she could want in a bride for her son. When Jasmine turns up dead at the engagement party, strangled by a bridal veil, Sherry becomes the number one suspect.

Determined to clear her sister, Maddie begins her own investigation into Jasmine's murder, aided by her on-again, off-again (currently off, mostly) boyfriend, FBI agent Nick Jaconetti, and former childhood nemesis, Detective Sergeant Lytton Werner (he has yet to really forgive her for an unmanly nickname she'd given him in the third grade). Maddie's investigation turns up more than one suspect, and she must race against time to discover the real killer before he, or she, realizes the wrong bride died and goes after Sherry.

A VEILED DECEPTION by Annette Blair is the first in her Vintage Magic mystery series, and it's phenomenal. Ms. Blair beautifully captures New England's ambiance and mystique as she weaves a well-crafted mystery into the threads of Maddie Cutler's life. Maddie is a wonderful character, strong and quirky and going through a period of self-discovery both exciting and a bit frightening for her. The supporting cast of Maddie's close-knit family, Sherry's uptight soon-to-be in-laws, the men in Maddie's life, Mystick Falls oldest citizen and the occasional ghosts who have a habit of unexpectedly popping up make Mystick Falls a place worth visiting. As with all of Ms. Blair's stories, this one is going on my keeper shelf!