Review: A Mythical Case of Theft by Melissa Erin Jackson

Posted June 4, 2025 by Lola in Fantasy, Review / 4 Comments

A Mythical Case of Theft (A Mythical Pet Sitting Mystery #3)
by Melissa Erin Jackson

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery/ Cozy Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
When feathers appear, danger is near.

Deandra’s grandparents, January and Morris Eyre, are hosting a fundraising auction at the Mermaids Club. While they’re no strangers to auctions, they’ve never hosted one with a guest list this moneyed or with items this rare. The revenue from the event is sure to pull in a nice chunk of change for the much-needed renovations of the local library—but the lure of the self-igniting phoenix feather is also pulling in unscrupulous individuals.

A multimillionaire in the talisman industry—and the owner of a company with a shady past—has his sights set on the feather. When his invitation to the high-profile event is rescinded, Duncan Bettencourt works to discredit the Eyres by blasting flagrant half-truths across his popular social media page. His cornerstone claim is that the small philanthropic club doesn’t have the resources necessary to pull off such an event.

When the phoenix feather goes missing, Bettencourt jumps at the chance to scream “I told you so!” from virtual rooftops. With renewed purpose, Bettencourt uses his online clout, gobs of money, and pure spite to relentlessly torment the Eyres. Deandra and Wendy must once again don their sleuthing caps, this time to help their grandparents track down a thief.

Because the missing feather isn’t only rare, it’s potentially dangerous. Under the right conditions, the self-igniting feather could be crafted into a bomb. The cousins must locate the feather before it falls into the wrong hands—not just for their grandparents’ sake, but for Axia’s.

My Review

I received a copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series and jumped on the chance to read the third book as well. I started it shortly after I received it and had a great time reading about Deandra’s adventures in Axia again. This time she is pet sitting for a flying pony, which was a lot of fun to read about. And there is another mystery, this time in the form of a phoenix feather that gets stolen from the club her grandparents are part of.

The mystery is a bit slow to start, but I thought that worked well here. There is some introduction about the Mermaid’s Club Deandra’s grandparents are part of and the auction they are running that the feather is part of. There are plenty of fun pet sitting scenes as Deandra now is taking care of a flying horse and all the struggles that come with that. I always like seeing how Deandra handles the pet sitting and it’s fun reading about the mythical pets and creatures she takes care of. There’s also more of her own pet dragon havoc, which was fun as he’s beginning to fly, but as he’s disguised as a dire wolf he can’t actually fly outside of the apartment. So Deandra has to figure out how to handle that.

As the book progresses the plot about the feather becomes more important as it gets stolen. I thought it was interesting that there is a theft instead of a murder to solve in this book. It switched things up a bit, but still made for an engaging mystery. There are plenty of people who have their eye on the phoenix feather and I enjoyed seeing the mystery play out. It kept me guessing and the reveal was a good one. I liked seeing it all play out and I liked how it made sense and I could see some of the hints to this person when looking back.

I really like reading about Deandra, her cousin Wendy, her pet dragon Havoc and her love interest Cruz as well as the town of Axia and some of the other fun side characters and pets she meets. There’s a fun set up for the next pet sitting job for next book. And I liked reading more about Deandra and how she’s doing with her pet sitting as well as her romance with Cruz. I really like Deandra and Cruz together. In this book they don’t see each other often as Cruz is out of town for work, but they still call and the end has some great scenes involving the two of them. I like their banter and their connection and they are just so sweet and fun together.

To summarize: I really like this series and this third book was another great read. I liked following Deandra as she gets caught up in another mystery, a theft instead of a murder this time. I liked how this switched things up and still had an engaging mystery that kept me guessing. I liked the reveal of who had stolen the feather and why and how it made sense and there were some hints to this person. I really like Deandra as a main character and enjoy reading about her. I liked the pet sitting scenes, this time involving a flying pony. I also liked seeing more of Havoc, her pet dragon. As well as more of Deandra interacting with her cousins Wendy, her grandparents and other side characters and pets. The romance between Deandra and Cruz is so well done and they are so sweet and fun together and I always enjoy reading their banter. All in all another awesome book and I can’t wait for the next one!