Diana "Thoth" Goodfarmer reads death through handwriting. That is, she sees the last minutes of a person's life when she reads anything they write. But in a world where women shoot fire from their hands, move heavy objects with their minds, and control others through careful incantations, this ability is hardly considered impressive. Everything changes when recent widow Freyja Truearrow shows up at Thoth's door claiming that her husband's suicide was, in fact, murder.Without evidence or a culprit, Thoth takes it upon herself to seek justice. The police dismiss her prodding, even after she discovers her murder victim's double life: newspaper journalist by day, prizefighter by night. As suspects begin to turn up-a vicious female fighter void magic, a male consort who allegedly heard the murder taking place, a chain-smoking newspaper editor, a mysterious boy with a mysterious power-so do more bodies.With a serial killer on the loose, it's ultimately up to Thoth and Domidi, a boy with the ability to destroy everything he touches, to unmask the culprit before magic makes murder.