A satisfying whodunit with a persuasive folk-magic element.
A modern-day witch calls on a powerful magical ability in order to solve a murder in Gardner’s debut paranormal mystery.
Before she commits suicide, Kitty, a homeless woman with Alzheimer’s disease, hands her friend—a Salem, Massachusetts, witch named Lily Scott—a key and exhorts her to “find the truth.” Later, Lily finds Jolene Williams, a witch and a leader of the Dark Moon Coven who wants to take over St. Bridget’s Homeless Shelter, horribly murdered. Lily investigates using her secret power to travel in people’s dreams—or “dream-walk”—but it’s an ability that she’s hesitant to use due to a past tragedy. The novel presents a thoroughly researched view of witchcraft and the Wicca religion, as when Ann, the owner of St. Bridget’s, tells Lily she owes Jolene money, and Lily reflects on “The Wiccan ‘Three-Fold Law’…[which] warns that whatever harm you do to others will return to you three times over.” Sometimes the sentences become appealingly punchy, such as when Lily, as a youngster, surreptitiously uses her grandmother’s Book of Secrets to dream-walk for the first time and meets a figure called the Dream Stalker: “I can’t move, can’t run. A figure appears out of the fog….The Stalker grabs me…I can’t breathe. He drags me backwards.” However, one wishes that the novel better balanced Lily’s characterization with the demands of the mystery genre, especially as the narrative is rendered in the first person. Even so, the dream-walking sequences stand out: “Thousands of embedded crystal stones sparkle along the walls on either side of me. Each stone stores a memory.” The novel also contains several shocking plot twists that will keep readers compelled all the way to the novel’s conclusion.
A satisfying whodunit with a persuasive folk-magic element.Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73-391994-4
Page Count: 257
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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