She has insatiable curiosity, untameable hair, and a penchant for leaving everything to the last second. She’s Argana Zeit, amateur paranormal investigator in the British Peak District town of Trotterwell.
The Argana Zeit Weird Mysteries series follows the her misadventures. Most of the stories are novelettes – that’s the barely heard of size between a short story and a novella – making for snack-size palette cleansers between the heavy novels that you’re no doubt reading!
Here’s a list of the available stories:
Collected Editions
For the sake of simplicity – not to mention, having something big enough to make a paperback out of – Argana Zeit’s adventures are collected into volumes as soon as they’re numerous enough to justify it.
Here’s the details of the first couple.
- Paranormal in The Peaks
Paranormal in The Peaks: Weird Tales of Argana Zeit Volume 1
Is Argana Zeit’s limitless curiosity the power that will sustain her, or the curse that will lead her to disaster? Ghosts, possessions, pan dimensional monsters, ancient entities, angry tree spirits … there’s not an occult mystery in all of Derbyshire she won’t stick her nose into.
Available as both an e-book and paperback, this collection is a convenient way to get your hands on these, the first seven Argana Zeit stories:
- Argana Zeit Ruins Halloween
- Argana Zeit is on the Menu
- Argana Zeit Stones the Solstice
- Argana Zeit Rings the Other World
- Argana Zeit Collects Snow Toads
- The Devil in Derbyshire
The Devil in Derbyshire: Weird Tales of Argana Zeit Volume 2
Argana Zeit dreams of the day she can give up her day job and get paid to save the world … or at least, her corner of it. There’s a curdling strangeness in her hometown of Trotterwell. Poltergeists defraud the dead. Shopkeepers curse their customers. Mortal rivals set moles on one another. The local magician has been hexed. And naturally there’s an eldritch horror masquerading as the devil.
Beset by mysteries, Argana Zeit and her dog max are going to get the chance to prove themselves … but can they?
Features the cosy mysteries:
- Argana Zeit vs the Mole Marauders
- Argana Zeit and the Cursed Tattoos
- Argana Zeit and the Educated Dead
- Argana Zeit Saves Halloween
- Argana Zeit and the Wolf Moon
Available on Amazon, here in the UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B12R9239
and here for US readers – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B12R9239
- The Horror in the Hills
She’s impetuous, imperfect and impulsive, and he’s fearless, focused and furry. These traits propel Argana Zeit and her ghost-hunting dog Max into every mystery the town of Trotterwell has to offer. Unquiet phantoms, mischievous pranksters, restless hordes of fae, keepers of the dead and, naturally, a tribe descending from the ancient pre-Celtic Britons … they’re all here. Because this is the haunted heart of the Peak District, and what you’ve heard is true: There’s horror in the hills.
Put on the kettle, and dive into this spine-tickling collection of Cosy Paranormal Novellas & Novelettes.
Collects these adventures:
- Argana Zeit and the Lathkill Ghostherd
- Argana Zeit Bothers the Boggarts
- Argana Zeit and the Monster of Minninglow
- Argana Zeit Evades Halloween
- Argana Zeit and the Quantum Experiment
Available on Amazon: UK link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C9YFH8B8 and US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9YFH8B8
Individual Stories
Of course, if you’d rather read about the individual stories, here they all are, from oldest to newest!
- Argana Zeit and the Haunted Busker
This is where it all started!
Argana Zeit is a Paranormal Investigator, or at least, wishes she was. She is the closest thing the small town of Trotterwell has, so when a brawl in a shopping centre has occult overtones, constable Fred Berkshire calls her in to help out.
Included in Paranormal in the Peaks, available here.
- Argana Zeit Stares into the Abyss
The trouble starts with an archaeological dig up at the Arkwright arms, where a volunteer is sectioned to a psychiatric hospital.
When he goes on the run, Argana Zeit, the local paranormal investigator, will get sucked into a dangerous mystery. She must find out what they unearthed, and how to banish it, before it hurts anyone else.
For what is it that lurks around the corner of the mirror, at the very edge of vision?
Included in Paranormal in the Peaks, available here.
- Argana Zeit Ruins Halloween
Argana Zeit would like to ignore the ghost under the road and take the night off. But when a séance throws up some strange clues, and the exorcist is in town talking about angels, she’s going to end up working Halloween.
The third Argana Zeit story is out on Amazon! If you missed the previous two, don’t sweat it, you can read them in any order! If you don’t have a kindle device, Amazon provide a free kindle app for phones, tablets and desktops.
Included in Paranormal in the Peaks, available here.
- Argana Zeit is On The Menu
Follow the recipe, they said. It will be easy, they said. But what happens when the recipe is a summoning spell in disguise? Bad stuff, that’s what. That’s when you have to call in Argana Zeit, finest* paranormal investigator in the Peak District.
Argana Zeit is reunited with Fred Constable in their latest outing, an action-heavy adventure described by one reader as ‘this is what Dr Who ought to be’.
*Amateur
Included in Paranormal in the Peaks, available here.
- Argana Zeit Stones the Solstice
When a rogue druid bends the solstice celebrations to her own ends in the modern day Peaks, amateur investigator Argana Zeit and her intrepid hound Max are hired to save the day.
It’s got solstice stones, mysterious runes, a grumpy druid or two, a faithful hound and Trotterwell’s most scatter-brained paranormal investigator. What’s not to like in this cosy short horror?
Included in Paranormal in the Peaks, available here.
- Argana Zeit Rings the Other World
Everyone knows that the Large Hadron Collider is a sort of universe destroying doughnut. So when one excitable geek uses its data to build a black box that can talk to other worlds, what could possibly go wrong? It’s going to be up to paranormal investigator Argana Zeit to pick up the pieces!
Pick up this short cosy horror on Amazon Kindle.
Included in Paranormal in the Peaks, available here.
- Argana Zeit Collects Snow Toads
Winter in The Peaks, away from the lights and the gritters of the city, it’s a dangerous time. But there’s one car crash that doesn’t look like an accident, and paranormal investigator Argana Zeit needs to find out who – or what – caused it before anyone else gets killed. There’s something waiting in the blizzard. And it isn’t friendly.
Oh, and there’s the thing with the toads.
This rounds off the collection Paranormal in the Peaks, available here.
- Argana Zeit vs the Mole Marauders
Internet attention-seeker Akira Pixels has turned his croquet lawn into a giant roulette table, and is running an ad-hoc casino with it. But when someone’s rigs the game, paranormal investigator Argana Zeit will be dragged in. There’s a body in the woods too, and something very strange is going on with the moles!
Included in The Devil in Derbyshire, available here.
- Argana Zeit and the Cursed Tattoos
Jason’s tattoos are eating him – or at least, that’s what he believes. And he’s not the only one. When her friends start falling under the curse of a rogue tattooist in Matlock Bath, Britain’s most inland seaside town, Paranormal Investigator Argana Zeit must unravel the mystery and break the curse. Before anyone goes mad. Er, madder.
A stand alone, long short story, Included in The Devil in Derbyshire, available here.
- Argana Zeit and the Educated Dead
Who says you can’t teach the old dead new tricks? But is Dupont’s school for the recently expired the real deal … or a clever scam? When Argana Zeit investigates, there’s more on the line than she realises in this cosy British horror.
Come and find out in this long short story! It features in The Devil in Derbyshire, available here.
- Argana Zeit Saves Halloween
It’s Halloween so naturally paranormal investigator Argana Zeit would like nothing more than to stay in and keep her head down. Some chance! When illegal ravers are abducted in the woods on her patch, she’ll get dragged into this mystery.
Pour yourself a bowl of pumpkin soup and settle down for an hour or two to enjoy paranormal shenanigans.
Included in the collection The Devil in Derbyshire, available here.
- Argana Zeit and the Bay of Ghosts
Masked urchins are stealing hermit crabs. There’s child cultists and a fisherman who just might be a ghost. But that’s not all that awaits Argana Zeit on holiday in Robin Hood’s Bay … something ancient and terrible has been waiting for its time.
This novelette, which takes place in the summer before Haunted Busker, is exclusively available by subscription to the Owain Oakwood mailing-list.
So head on over to the sign-up area and dibs your copy!
- Argana Zeit and the Wolf Moon
We call the first full moon in January the wolf moon … but is that because the darkest month of winter makes you want to howl, or because something stalks the night? Argana Zeit races monster hunter Temerity Case to get to the truth first!
Included in The Devil in Derbyshire, available here.
- Argana Zeit and the Ghostherd of Lathkill Dale
The dead have their shepherds, nudging them steadily toward the light. That’s no easy task in leafy Lathkill Dale, where lost souls curdle in the darkness of the abandoned mines below. Here a ghostherd will seize a unique opportunity, one that will pit its limitless empathy for the departed against its callous disregard for the living.
There’s going to be trouble. And Argana Zeit will be right in the middle of it.
With three lives on the line, can she solve the riddles of the past before she reaches the river’s end?
- Argana Zeit Bothers the Boggarts
In the haunted and forgotten hills beyond Sheffield, the sheep are dying. Tourists report blue lights bobbing like marsh gas. A legion of mischievous spirits, quiet for generations, is rising. Paranormal Investigator Argana Zeit and her dog are going to need all their wits about them as they try and uncover the cause. But with a city to save, figuring out what’s riled the boggarts is only the beginning of their troubles. Can they quell the insurrection?
