To finish her training in magic, all 13-year old Alice Inkling has to do is leave her home of Wonderland and lend her mystical talents to an Earther community. With Coral Meadows as her chosen city and private investigator as her chosen role there, Alice is more than ready to shine among these silly Earthers. None of Earth’s ridiculous rules are going to stand in her way, not even those administered by Corinne the Intern, Alice’s assigned adult and master of paperwork.
Coral Meadows seems disappointingly quiet until Dorian Tweed, the biggest businessman in the city, asks her for help. Witnesses claim he’s behind the recent string of thefts and he’s even been caught on camera, but he continues to claim he’s innocent, and needs Alice to prove it. Baffling and bewitching, this mystery is exactly what Alice has been hoping for.
The more evidence Alice finds, the more she suspects that something from her home has escaped to Earth. Then buildings and roads start exploding and finding the culprit becomes much more than an entertaining puzzle.
Alice knows she has the powers to stop the escaped monster, but her spells have a cost. The more magic one uses, the more they risk The Madness, an magical affliction of the mind and body, and Alice is already suffering visions and sounds nobody else can see or hear. If she uses the magic needed to stop the monster, she’ll risk never fully recovering from The Madness. If she doesn’t, she’ll be returning to Wonderland as a failure - and leaving her Earthers hopelessly undefended.