Book cover titled 'Marigolds and Murder' by A. K. IKEZOE, featuring illustrations of marigold flowers, leaves, and snail shells on a black background with stars, bordered by a rust-colored frame.

What good is it to know the truth if you’re powerless to change it?

Philadelphia, 1950.

Nobody suspects that private detective Katsumi Okazaki uses prophecy magic to solve her cases. But her uncanny “intuition” at finding the truth can’t help her prove that her new client’s wife was murdered. Not when everyone else is convinced the death was accidental. To make matters more complicated, Kat’s new client is an Exalter—afflicted with unpredictable magical abilities as collateral damage from the war—and her story stirs up Kat’s own painful memories of displacement and the love she lost.

Luckily, Kat has plenty of practice burying her personal problems under a mountain of work. She sets out with her ethically questionable but trustworthy assistant to find evidence and catch the killer. But dread creeps in when she realizes she’s being tailed. Is someone trying to thwart her investigation, or does the government still not trust her?

Either way, Kat can’t let her client down. And if what her magic tells her is real, then catching the killer might not be enough . . . not if she’s going to be able to live with herself when it’s done.

The first book in The Exalted series, Marigolds and Murder is a queer fantasy murder mystery that blends WWII history with magic.