Malachi and the Secret Menagerie: Eve and Malachi, #4

By Abigail Hilton

Gwen is settling into third grade, thanks to her friendship with Eve and Malachi's strange family. When the school hamster is kidnapped, Gwen comes to her animal friends for help. The animals are hesitant to get involved in the dangerous human school. However, when the kidnapper steals Effie, the mystery becomes more personal. If they don't find the secret menagerie soon, the sassy feline may never come home.

 

This is book 4 in the Eve and Malachi Series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pavonine Books
• Release date: Oct 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386423805

Abigail Hilton

Abigail Hilton is a traveling nurse anesthetist, based in Florida. She has spent time in veterinary school and done graduate work in literature. You can connect with Abbie and find all her social media links at www.abigailhilton.com. Abbie also writes steamy fantasy romance under the pen name A. H. Lee. If that sounds interesting to you, check out Incubus Caged. Warning: those books are edgier than her epic fantasy series.

Book preview

Malachi and the Secret Menagerie

Eve and Malachi, Book 4

By: Abigail Hilton

Published by: Pavonine Books

Cover art and illustrations by: Sarah Cloutier

Cover Design by: Jeff McDowall

© 2018 Abigail Hilton. All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This material may not be reproduced, modified, or distributed without the express prior permission of the copyright holder. Artwork is displayed by agreement with the artists.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. A Shrinking Family

Chapter 2. In Which Eve and Her Friends Learn of a Kidnapping

Chapter 3. A Plan and a Suspect

Chapter 4. In Which Nobody Likes Douglas

Chapter 5. Another Note

Chapter 6. In Which We Finally Learn the Boy’s Name

Chapter 7. In Which the Police May Be Looking for a Corn Plant

Chapter 8. Chases in the Dark

Chapter 9. In Which X Marks Nothing

Chapter 10. She

Chapter 11. In Which the Kidnapper is Revealed

Chapter 12. In Which Douglas Learns the Meaning of Alibi

Chapter 1. A Shrinking Family

There was once a baby rat named Eve who made friends with a boa constrictor named Malachi. Together, they helped Eve’s family escape from the glass tank where the boy—their human owner—had kept them. The rats and the snake lived in a patch of blackberry bushes on the edge of the boy’s farm, and they helped solve each other’s problems. They made friends with a cat, Effy, and they helped rescue a kitten named Mew. The rats learned to forage and Malachi learned to eat eggs from the chicken coop. The rats learned to avoid wild animals. Malachi shed his skin on the edge of a pool in the woods behind the farm. They even made friends with a little half-selkie girl who could talk to animals and who promised to keep Malachi warm that winter if he got too cold.

But life outside a glass tank wasn’t all frolicking and blackberries. Two of Eve’s cousins were taken by hawks that summer. Another was taken by a fox. The wild animals were afraid of Malachi, but they would snatch rats who wandered too far from the nest.

Eve’s father, Moses, didn’t wake up one morning. He lived a long life, said her mother, Maribel. He never expected to see such wonders. But she was sad and quiet for days afterward, and so were