I still remember the night Zaidy Mel taught me to read the cards. I didn’t learn everything in one night—obviously, it’s a process—but I do remember that we sat for hours on the hardwood floor of his study, heads bent together, wading through his tarot deck. I’d grown up watching my grandfather lay out the cards one by one, stroking his lined chin as he parsed the meaning of a given spread.

But to finally read the tarot for myself? To have Zaidy transmitting all that wise, mystic knowledge to middle school me? I was beyond honored. I still am.

I just wish I could have him back. Every day, but now more than ever. This divorce has been… brutal. The messages on Noah’s phone, his late nights at “work”, my mom’s constant pushing to give him another chance even after the divorce was finalized—it’s been rough. I sometimes wonder if things would’ve been different had Zaidy Mel been around to talk things through with. I wonder if he’d have seen something in the cards that could’ve prepared me for all this—or at least given me more strength to soldier on. To forgive.

But anyway…

Now I’m here—in Shiloh. I packed up my Chicago life and moved to rural Nebraska, plunked myself down in the very same little house Zaidy Mel used to live in. And it’s only a week now until my tarot cafe—Cafe Arcana—officially opens. I’m nervous, sure, but it feels right. When I sit inside my little cafe, sipping a cup of dark roast and running my fingers down the worn edges of my grandfather’s old tarot deck, I almost think he can see me. Because I could’ve sworn I heard his voice a couple times, in the back of my mind.

But I don’t know—maybe I’m letting my imagination get carried away. Regardless, I’m feeling good about what’s to come here in Shiloh. And who knows? Maybe I’ll get a sign from Zaidy, letting me know I’ve got this.

A Deck Stacked for Murder, A Café Arcana Mystery Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: August 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

When Ava Goldberg opens a tarot cafe in her late Kabbalist grandfather’s rural Nebraska town, she’s up against more than just the conservative townsfolk-there’s a killer on the loose.

Ava Goldberg’s life in suburban Chicago was perfect-until it wasn’t. Eager to leave her cheating ex-husband behind and reclaim her independence, Ava opens a tarot cafe in the tiny, cornfield-laced town of Shiloh. Although finding her place in Shiloh as a tarot reader-and the only Jewish person-brings more tsuris than Ava bargained for, she hopes that with the support of her childhood friend, Rose, she can pull through. But when a body winds up in the Main Street fountain and Rose’s husband, Joel, is the primary suspect, the whole town is thrown into chaos.

Armed with her tarot deck and a whole lot of chutzpah, Ava sets out to gather the evidence she needs to clear Joel’s name and keep her friend’s family intact. With her struggling shop just barely afloat and constant reminders of her past creeping in, Ava enlists the help of Owen, the dashing hardware store owner she can’t seem to get rid of, to track down the killer. But as their hunt continues, it becomes clear the town harbors more than a few secrets-and that someone will stop at nothing to keep them buried.

Meet the author
Aliza Levine is a writer, tarot reader, and homegrown Nebraskan who lives for that first sip of coffee each morning. When she isn’t writing, she’s crocheting, running after her baby daughter, or watching ungodly amounts of Murder She Wrote.