The Mystic and the Missing Girl

By Vikki VanSickle
** Publication Date 8 September 2026 **
4 stars


Not quite sure if this qualifies as a cozy mystery or not, but it’s a good one. 


Drew Benson returns home to Stanfield after the death of her beloved aunt. Hannah left Drew her store, Good Vibrations, and the apartment above it. At one time Drew had been a promising mystic, like Hannah, but over time they’d drifted apart. Now Drew was back and trying to make a go of it.


When a fellow classmate from high school asks Drew for her aunt’s journals, Drew is taken aback. The classmate, Nick, is now a journalist working on a story about Ginny Evans, a high school senior from Stanfield who had disappeared twenty years ago. Hannah had been involved in the investigation, but her clues led the detectives nowhere. Nick’s request sends Drew poring through Hannah’s journals to find anything that might have been related to the investigation. With this, Drew becomes involved in Nick’s investigation as well, leading Drew to discover things about herself that had been buried deeply for many years.


There are definitely lighthearted moments in this mystery. VanSickle did a wonderful job balancing good and bad, with the story and her characters. Hannah was a larger than life person, and Drew is anything but. I loved all the mystical references to the Tarot and crystals and astrological readings. This novel never felt like it dragged. I was so eager to find out what was going to happen next, I could barely put it down. This is the perfect fall novel.


Also, I understand now that the Death card in the Tarot deck means change, the death of not someone, but something. Good to know.


Really good and worth the read.