Virginia King describes Laying Ghosts as the 'back story' and Planting Pearls as the 'prequel' to the series proper.
'A strange message. A deserted beach house. A shocking incident from the past …
'When a text message from a long lost friend lures Selkie Moon to Crystal Cottage, the chilling events from a house-party four years earlier wrap her in ghostly fingers and turn her life upside-down.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'A new name and a new home.
'A scary ex-husband ...
'And a ghost.
'When Selkie Moon escapes her controlling husband to start a new life in Hawaii, she's under pressure to support herself with her new business, stay hidden from her ex, and trust her new friends.
'She doesn’t expect to get tangled in a so-called haunting!
'What happened at the old Honolulu house back in 1961, when Elvis was shooting Blue Hawaii?
'Do the weird experiences of the new owners and their five-year-old daughter mean they’ve interrupted a ghost?
'Or could something else be going on?
'As she helps to unravel the mystery, Selkie gets caught up in something that’s way beyond her skill-set. Will her amateur ghost-hunting put her and everyone else in danger?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'When Selkie Moon reclaims the name her mother gave her, she unwittingly triggers a series of events so bizarre, she’s forced to delve into the murky depths of the past and face the shocking truth about herself.
'Selkie Moon was named after a fairy tale – one of her dead mother’s extraordinary ideas. The selkies are the seal people of Celtic folklore who peel off their skins and dance in the moonlight on human legs. Ironic, since Selkie almost drowned as a toddler and has been afraid of the sea ever since. A fact her step-mother rubs in on a regular basis.
'Now Selkie has run away – from her life in Sydney, from too much control and not enough love – to start over again in Hawaii. Suddenly she’s all alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Without a life raft.
'Soon her refuge begins to unravel and she's running from something else entirely. Someone is trying to kill her. No tangible evidence, just a voice in her head – not that she’s psychic, no way. But the messages multiply and the threats escalate until she’s locked in a game of cat-and-mouse with a mysterious stalker. As a sleuth Selkie’s an amateur and her first instinct is to keep running. But is she running from her past? Or her future?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'When Selkie Moon finds herself naked on a Hawaiian beach, she has no memory of the past two weeks. Recovering at a friend’s house, she wakes to find a bizarre collection of items scattered across the floor, items she apparently gathered in her sleep: a rock, a spoon, a message scrawled in lipstick … What do they all mean? Only her subconscious knows.
'A dark fairy tale journey takes Selkie around the globe, from Honolulu to Sydney to Paris. Filled with mythical clues, fear and laughter, The Second Path has Selkie unravelling the mystery behind the strangest clue of all – the word that keeps haunting her: home.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'A mysterious parcel. An unsolved crime. A spell from beyond the grave.
'After returning from her last strange quest, Selkie Moon is more than ready to settle down. So when she receives a parcel from her great grandmother 35 years after her death, opening it seems like such a bad idea.
'But curiosity wins and the objects it contains plunge Selkie into long-buried family secrets. Suddenly an old mystery begins to echo with the present and she’s wrapped in a spell that won’t let go: frightening visions, deadly encounters and a pull from the past that she can’t ignore. What happened down by the old stone well in 1896 – and why does it matter to Selkie after more than a hundred years?
'Armed with only her wits and psychic twinges that are hardly reliable, Selkie is drawn into a web of cryptic clues that delve deep into the folklore of Ireland where superstition still weaves a powerful – and fatal – spell.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Thirty years ago, a baby boy was kidnapped. When Selkie Moon travels to Hong Kong to discover his fate, she has high hopes of reuniting him with his father. Until the tea leaves on her flight make a chilling prediction.
'Then in a Kowloon night-market she witnesses a child abduction – and the echoes with her quest suddenly raise the stakes.
'As the strange events escalate and reach back into Chinese folklore, Selkie is forced to confront the powerful force that’s hell bent on stopping her. The omens are unmistakeable. Someone is going to die.
'Someone closest to her?
'Or Selkie herself?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.