Joyce and Jim Lavene have
written more than forty novels together, including the Retired
Witches Spellbook mysteries, the Missing Pieces mysteries,
the Renaissance Faire mysteries, the Peggy Lee Garden mysteries,
and the Sharyn Howard mysteries.
Magic,
mayhem and family squabbles all combine in this amazing paranormal
mystery involving a witches’ ball, murder and a fight
to be on the Grand Council of Witches.
When
Dorothy’s long-missing father, Drago, steps into the
witches’ paraphernalia shop run by Molly and Elsie,
everyone is surprised. Dorothy’s ghostly mother, Olivia,
spent years protecting her daughter from Drago’s evil
ways. Drago’s magic is so powerful that even the Grand
Council of Witches have banned him.
Brian, Dorothy’s fiancé and a powerful witch
in his own right, has joined their coven. Brian and Dorothy
still need training, and since the loss of the coven’s
spell book, Drago’s sudden arrival only amplifies its
absence. Fortunately, Drago leaves confident that his daughter
will come to him on her own.
The upcoming
birthday bash for Brian hosted by his parents at their castle
brightens everyone’s spirits. Molly, Elsie, Dorothy
and Brian attend, with Olivia hidden in a bracelet. Unfortunately,
Olivia’s not the only entity hidden away: a cat that
Dorothy gives Brian for his birthday is a shapeshifter, one
Drago uses to piggyback to the event. Then Olivia discovers
Makaleigh, one of the oldest council members, hidden behind
a couch, dead, and Antonio, a witchfinder from the Spanish
Inquisition, arrives to accuse Molly of the act.
Even though I missed the first two releases in this outstanding
series, I was quickly hooked on the characters and mystical
world created by this wonderful husband and wife team. I laughed
at Olivia’s ghostly antics, admired Molly’s ability
to convince Antonio that they must use modern methods (fingerprints
vs. torture) to discover the murderer’s identity, and
the approaches they use to find the killer. I was especially
engrossed by the interpersonal relationships between the various
characters in this intriguing and highly enjoyable mystery.
This beguiling and magical series is one of the most enjoyable
I’ve read.
Reviews
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Looking
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