Midlife Alchemy

 Midlife Alchemy, Kate Swansea, Independently Published, 2021

Elise Clair is a married dentist, working with her husband, also a dentist, in the Upper Midwest. At the same time that she catches him fooling around with a couple of his dental assistants, she gets a strange and unsolicited job offer. A town called Black Lake Falls, Washington, needs a town dentist. Elise gets on a plane.

The first thing she notices is that the town is protected by magical wards. Elise knows her way around the worlds of witches and "real" magic, having been taught by her mother. The town is built around a portal between this world, and the world of the umbra, which are hideous, carnivorous creatures. Elise is given an amulet to wear. It is the portal's (called the paraval) early warning system, flashing whenever there is a breach. 

A major breach occurs, and the umbra pour into the town, looking for a way into the wider world. This forces all the townspeople into the well-lit town square (umbra don't like bright light). They can't stay there forever. Elise comes up with a surprisingly easy way to kill umbra. Is the "invasion" thwarted, and the paraval closed again? Do the townspeople return to "normal" life?

This is a first-rate piece of writing. It is just weird enough, without being too weird. It has lots of good storytelling, with good characters. This is an excellent start to a series.