An art-collecting dragon— Angharad Stoneweaver—and a reformed delinquent—Sam Braun—team up to solve a seemingly unsolvable museum heist. Will they crack the case, recover the paintings, and make a tidy profit? In this delightful new mystery, the most infamous art theft in Boston history is recast with both human and supernatural players.
ISBN: Print 978-1-61696-473-3; Digital formats 978-1-61696-474-0
Published: March 2027
Available Format(s): Trade paperback, Digital
An art-collecting dragon and a reformed delinquent team up to solve a seemingly unsolvable museum heist. Will they crack the case, recover the paintings, and make a tidy profit? In this delightful new mystery, the most infamous art theft in Boston history is recast with both human and supernatural players.
Every dragon needs a man on the inside.
Angharad Stoneweaver is a dragon with exquisite taste and the finest reputation in the art world for recovering lost masterpieces. What she lacks is the ability to fit through a doorway.
Ex-lowlife Sam Braun has landed the job as Stoneweaver’s right-claw man, working as her eyes and ears on the ground. Sam’s pay is good, the perks are better, and he has no regrets about trading the gutter for the good life.
But when the mobster (and friend of Sam’s late father) Carmine Delucci turns up dead, Stoneweaver’s latest investigation hits a little too close to home. Everyone knows Delucci was behind the largest heist in American history, but nobody knows what happened to the stolen paintings. For Stoneweaver, it’s a mystery she cannot
resist. For Sam, it’s an unraveling of his father’s seedy past, and a possible answer to an impossible question: What, exactly, is the power of art?
Praise for If Wishes Were Retail
“Irresistibly fun and funny, with a ton of heart and depth! This is the kind of book that sneaks up on you and sticks with you!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
“Delightfully charming!”
—Phil Foglio, cocreator of Girl Genius
“Habershaw (The Iron Ring) offers plenty of laughs in this diverting urban fantasy. After Alexandria Delmore, 17, loses her job at a bagel shop, she sees an ad to be a cashier for a genie who calls himself Mr. Jinn and intends to sell wishes at the Wellspring Mall and applies. Mr. Jinn proves a mercurial boss who’s out of date with modern mores and often impulsively abuses his powers, but Alex hopes to get him in line. At first, people are wary of Jinn, but when a video of one of his clients’ more malicious wishes coming true goes viral, customers begin trickling in. Jinn’s miracles range from the mundane—changing hair colors, healing sunburns, and fixing someone’s limp—to grand, including setting up a client with actor Chris Hemsworth, achieving world peace, and curing cancer, but his methods are often unconventional. When the mall gets in trouble for the duo’s business of “warping reality,” Alex’s chances at economic stability and a better future are jeopardized. Even when the consequences of Jinn’s actions become dire, Habershaw keeps up the lighthearted, humorous tone. It’s a cozy, comical confection.”
—Publishers Weekly
“My three wishes? Three more books as good as this one from Auston Habershaw.”
—Tom Holt, author of The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse
“If Wishes Were Retail taps into a long-storied tradition of smart comedic fantasy in the vein of Terry Pratchett. Habershaw’s efficient and accessible prose allows his deeper themes of anti-exploitation, community, and the cost of human greed to take center stage, presented through laugh-out-loud absurdist moments that keep building and building in a page-turner of a novel. If Wishes Were Retail is a ten out of ten gnomes—if you can see them, that is.”
—Mia Tsai, author of Bitter Medicine
“I wish I’d thought of this.”
—Daniel Pinkwater, author of Jules, Penny & the Rooster
“A love letter to wounded people and community spaces, this suburban fantasy is both delightfully absurd and firmly grounded.”
—Dave Klecha, coauthor of The Runes of Engagement
Auston Habershaw is the acclaimed author of the Saga of the Redeemed (Harper Voyager Impulse). He is a winner of the Writers of the Future Contest and a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. Habershaw has published multiple science fiction and fantasy short stories in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Escape Pod, among other places.
Habershaw has worked as a lifeguard, barista, waiter, QA tester, dog walker, hotel bellhop, pedicab driver, SAT tutor, office drone, and a bunch of other random things. He currently teaches composition and literature at MCPHS University in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find him online at aahabershaw.com
In Her Exquisite Clutches
Auston Habershaw
Every dragon needs a man on the inside.
An art-collecting dragon— Angharad Stoneweaver—and a reformed delinquent—Sam Braun—team up to solve a seemingly unsolvable museum heist. Will they crack the case, recover the paintings, and make a tidy profit? In this delightful new mystery, the most infamous art theft in Boston history is recast with both human and supernatural players.
In Her Exquisite Clutches
by Auston Habershaw
ISBN: Print 978-1-61696-473-3; Digital formats 978-1-61696-474-0
Published: March 2027
Available Format(s): Trade paperback, Digital
An art-collecting dragon and a reformed delinquent team up to solve a seemingly unsolvable museum heist. Will they crack the case, recover the paintings, and make a tidy profit? In this delightful new mystery, the most infamous art theft in Boston history is recast with both human and supernatural players.
Every dragon needs a man on the inside.
Angharad Stoneweaver is a dragon with exquisite taste and the finest reputation in the art world for recovering lost masterpieces. What she lacks is the ability to fit through a doorway.
Ex-lowlife Sam Braun has landed the job as Stoneweaver’s right-claw man, working as her eyes and ears on the ground. Sam’s pay is good, the perks are better, and he has no regrets about trading the gutter for the good life.
But when the mobster (and friend of Sam’s late father) Carmine Delucci turns up dead, Stoneweaver’s latest investigation hits a little too close to home. Everyone knows Delucci was behind the largest heist in American history, but nobody knows what happened to the stolen paintings. For Stoneweaver, it’s a mystery she cannot
resist. For Sam, it’s an unraveling of his father’s seedy past, and a possible answer to an impossible question: What, exactly, is the power of art?
Praise for If Wishes Were Retail
“Irresistibly fun and funny, with a ton of heart and depth! This is the kind of book that sneaks up on you and sticks with you!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
“Delightfully charming!”
—Phil Foglio, cocreator of Girl Genius
“Habershaw (The Iron Ring) offers plenty of laughs in this diverting urban fantasy. After Alexandria Delmore, 17, loses her job at a bagel shop, she sees an ad to be a cashier for a genie who calls himself Mr. Jinn and intends to sell wishes at the Wellspring Mall and applies. Mr. Jinn proves a mercurial boss who’s out of date with modern mores and often impulsively abuses his powers, but Alex hopes to get him in line. At first, people are wary of Jinn, but when a video of one of his clients’ more malicious wishes coming true goes viral, customers begin trickling in. Jinn’s miracles range from the mundane—changing hair colors, healing sunburns, and fixing someone’s limp—to grand, including setting up a client with actor Chris Hemsworth, achieving world peace, and curing cancer, but his methods are often unconventional. When the mall gets in trouble for the duo’s business of “warping reality,” Alex’s chances at economic stability and a better future are jeopardized. Even when the consequences of Jinn’s actions become dire, Habershaw keeps up the lighthearted, humorous tone. It’s a cozy, comical confection.”
—Publishers Weekly
“My three wishes? Three more books as good as this one from Auston Habershaw.”
—Tom Holt, author of The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse
“If Wishes Were Retail taps into a long-storied tradition of smart comedic fantasy in the vein of Terry Pratchett. Habershaw’s efficient and accessible prose allows his deeper themes of anti-exploitation, community, and the cost of human greed to take center stage, presented through laugh-out-loud absurdist moments that keep building and building in a page-turner of a novel. If Wishes Were Retail is a ten out of ten gnomes—if you can see them, that is.”
—Mia Tsai, author of Bitter Medicine
“I wish I’d thought of this.”
—Daniel Pinkwater, author of Jules, Penny & the Rooster
“A love letter to wounded people and community spaces, this suburban fantasy is both delightfully absurd and firmly grounded.”
—Dave Klecha, coauthor of The Runes of Engagement
Auston Habershaw is the acclaimed author of the Saga of the Redeemed (Harper Voyager Impulse). He is a winner of the Writers of the Future Contest and a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. Habershaw has published multiple science fiction and fantasy short stories in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Escape Pod, among other places.
Habershaw has worked as a lifeguard, barista, waiter, QA tester, dog walker, hotel bellhop, pedicab driver, SAT tutor, office drone, and a bunch of other random things. He currently teaches composition and literature at MCPHS University in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find him online at aahabershaw.com