Foresyth Conservatory by A.L. Sterling

Ninth House meets Mexican Gothic in a dark academia mystery where the cards are stacked against reason—and the price of knowledge is blood.

Dahlia Blackburne is a failing bookstore keeper and Tarot reader who relies on deductive reasoning—not magic—to cast her fortunes. When a stranger calling himself the Meister walks into her shop and offers three times her normal rate for a reading, curiosity—and her growing debts—compel her to accept.

But the reading reveals that the Meister has a far more dangerous proposition: infiltrate Foresyth Conservatory, an elite occult arts graduate school, and investigate the alleged suicide of brilliant but troubled student and puzzle maker, Julian Earhardt.

Desperate to care for her ailing mother after her father’s recent death, Dahlia agrees to investigate Julian’s death. But inside Foresyth’s rose-thorn-covered walls, Dahlia is thrust into the school’s ruthless academic Circle—including the alluring "Trees" Aspen and Sequoia who are obsessed with creating art that doesn’t merely imitate life, but transcends it.

As the line between performance and passion blurs, Dahlia must confront the truth about Julian, the Conservatory, and a dangerous form of magic that isn’t taught—but inherited.

The cards at Foresyth have already been dealt.
Now it’s time for Dahlia to play her hand . . . or be consumed by the game.