Accidents Never Happen

What do Blondie, Edgar Allan Poe, and Amontillado sherry have in common? These are all key to solving Zang’s atmospheric and creepy mystery. In 1985 Baltimore, sisters Annabel and Madeline (Mad) run Goldie’s, a dive bar with a Poe connection—it’s so like many southside bars, each with its own schtick. Their father not only named his daughters after Poe characters, he also is suspected of being the infamous Poe Toaster, who leaves roses and sherry at the grave on Poe’s death anniversary. After he disappears, a string of murders, all of bartenders, strikes the city. Before long, Mad is pulled into it, not knowing whom to suspect—Tim, who runs “spirit” tours around the city; Martin, a burly chef who takes a shine to her; or maybe even her own father. When she makes a gruesome discovery in a hidden room in the basement and Annabel is nowhere to be found, Mad knows she must do something to find her sister and protect herself, her cousin Piper, and Goldie’s. Zang cranks up the tension deliciously as more grisly connections are made, leaving Mad to come to a terrifyingly awful conclusion as to who is responsible for the killings. Poe and ‘final girl’ fans, this one’s for you!—Dodie Ownes