Welcome to Canera, where the wine flows, the river runs deep, and nothing truly dangerous ever happens—
until a strange book surfaces.
When the Chief Librarian discovers a mysterious, unmarked tome hidden in the library basement, she does what any sensible librarian would do: she brings it to book club.
What begins as an odd curiosity quickly turns unsettling. The book won’t open—until all five members of the Canera Book Club touch it at once. Then the pages reveal something impossible: words that respond to intention… and change reality when spoken aloud.
An unnatural storm stall over the valley and the Verri River begins to rise, the group realizes the town is in danger. Someone is manipulating the weather. Someone has been hiding Canera’s history. And someone knows far more about the Arcane Index than they should.
With the help of Luce, a glowing ghost owl bound to the library itself, the unlikely investigators must piece together what’s happening before the Wine Festival brings hundreds of visitors into a town on the brink of a flood. Or worse.
But the book has rules. The words demand restraint. And every use comes at a cost.
Set among vineyards, bookshops, bakeries, and rain-soaked streets, The Arcane Index is a cozy mystery with gentle magic, sharp observation, and a small-town cast where every name—and every word—matters.
Because in Canera, the most dangerous thing isn’t the storm.
It’s what someone says out loud.
