A Demon Summer (50 page)

Music was provided by the small, high voices of the Nether Monkslip Angel Choir singing
a cappella
and, for the after-festivities, by the St. Edwold's Rock of Ages band, which seemed to get better as the night wore on and the wine disappeared. As a special request from Max, they played “I'll Never Find Another You,” by the Seekers. Max and Awena, laughing, held hands as they followed the age-old custom of jumping over an antique sword, to symbolize the cutting of old ties. The dancing and whooping and celebrating went on into the wee hours. There was no one to complain of the noise, for the entire village was there.

And for a little space of time, Max and Awena came to know that it was true, that happiness was not in the future, and never in the past, but right in the here and now.

 

ALSO BY G. M. MALLIET

Pagan Spring

A Fatal Winter

Wicked Autumn

Death at the Alma Mater

Death and the Lit Chick

Death of a Cozy Winter

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

G. M. Malliet's novels and short stories have been nominated for many crime-writing awards, including the Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity, and she won the Agatha Award for
Death of a Cozy Writer
. She holds a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge and continued her graduate study at Oxford University. She lives with her husband in the Washington, D.C., area. Visit her Web site at
www.gmmalliet.com
.

 

 

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

 

A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group.

 

A DEMON SUMMER.
Copyright © 2014 by G. M. Malliet. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

 

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.minotaurbooks.com

 

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover illustration by Rob Wood/Wood Ronsaville Harlin, Inc.

 

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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

 

ISBN 978-1-250-02141-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-250-02142-7 (e-book)

 

e-ISBN 9781250021427

 

First Edition: October 2014