Drinks & Sinkholes by S. Usher Evans

Drinks & Sinkholes is a great, easy story to get into. Pigsend is a quaint little town with all the required characters like nosey neighbors, cantankerous old farmers a useless mayor and, in this case, a rather mysterious keeper of the Weary Dragon Inn. The story is set 5 years after the “Queen” over-through the King. The Queen’s first order of business was to eradicate all the magic in the land. Well, at least all the magic that didn’t benefit her, anyway. Just as some of the Queen’s soldiers show up in town, Pigsend suffers from a series of earthquakes that lead to sinkholes appearing at random around town. With Hendry, the useless mayor, refusing to do anything about the sinkholes, it falls to Bev, the keeper of the local Inn to sort out the mystery. Which is quite fitting, as Bev (short for Beverage Wench) is a bit of a mystery herself, seeing as she can’t remember anything, including her name, from before the time she wandered into Pigsend 5 years earlier. Regardless of her past, she deals with the setbacks and interesting people, and creatures, she comes across as she does what she must to determine what’s ailing her beloved adopted town. ( )