The Tale of Castle Cottage

The Tale of Castle Cottage

By Susan Witting Albert

3 ½ Out of 5 Covers

The Tale of Castle Cottage is the last in the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter.  This has been an overall charming mystery series that began when Potter bought Hill Top Farm after the tragic death of her first fiancé through to her marriage to Will Heelis in this final volume.  As an examination of a small English village at the beginning of the twentieth century, it is full of charm and warmth that can only really exist in fiction.  While this is a fictionalized history, the author made the wise choice to have Beatrix never directly involved in the mysteries, merely having a knack for putting the facts together while she worried about her next publication or her nagging parents.  There was also the excellent element that, a la Beatrix Potter, the animals in the village interacted and had their own adventures.   

The series was marred about halfway through as it seemed like another author took over.  This was evident when the third book explored the popular question of the time about the existence of faeries, settling on a magical realism that did not come down on a definitive answer.  Then the fourth book began by stating that faeries are absolutely real, a complete change from the previous choice.  Additionally, previously important characters were shunted to the side once they were happily married.  And there was an increasingly intrusive narrator.

So how does this volume stack up to the rest of the series?  Somewhere between the wonderful start and the less successful middle.  Beatrix is now engaged to Will Heelis, but has yet to tell her parents, who disapprove of everything she does.  A very valuable book has gone missing from Tidmarsh Manor.  There is something strange with the contractor’s invoices for the remodel of Potter’s Castle Cottage.  A gang of rats have moved into town, much to the civilized animals’ dismay.  And then one of the contractors turns up dead.

The variety of plots has always been a strength of the series.  It allows for everyone to have something different at risk, which makes for compelling drama.  Not every book has involved a murder, but there has been plenty of mystery and action.  And the author makes sure to drop in on as many characters as possible to get their opinions and any updates about their lives.

There are a few slights against this particular volume.  One is that the rat story had been done before, so this felt like a retread.  And then, while the missing book is found (quite coincidentally), the reason it was lost has to be explained by the narrator rather than by any character discovering the chain of events.  That the narrator has to give any sort of exposition to this degree should not be allowed.

Overall, this is a pleasant conclusion to the series, finishing with Beatrix’s marriage.  The author reined in many of her excesses from the previous books and while it was not quite a return to form to the first few, it was a reminder of what used to be.

Home for a Spell

Home for a Spell

By Madelyn Alt

3 Out of 5 Covers

Surprisingly, this latest in A Bewitching Mystery series actually focuses on the mystery.  Maggie O’Neill is looking for a new apartment and finds an offer that is almost too good to be true.  But when she goes to sign the lease, she finds the manager dead.  Maggie, as she has been for every other murder in the small town, is instrumental in solving the case.

While it is a nice surprise for the mystery to be the main story, it comes at the detriment of everything else.  There is absolutely nothing supernatural in this book and the family drama that occurred in the last volume is barely a blip on the radar.  This lack of follow through has been a source of frustration for this reader for the entire series.

While there may not be follow through, there is character development that occurs.  Maggie is actively engaged with the mystery throughout, despite still being in a cast, instead of her usual passive approach. 

The mystery is still pretty obvious, though there are some surprising twists.  The problem is the author has never been able to produce believable red herrings.  This is especially true in this book.  The author attempts to set up one, having a man angrily confront the apartment manager before the murder.  But then that man never shows up again.  He’s mentioned, but never appears again in the story.  How could the reader possible suspect such a person when the character does not appear after the crime?

Also, is murder the only crime that can happen in a small town?  Some variety to the type of mystery would be refreshing.  At least by focusing on the mystery instead of any soap opera, the story qualifies as average.

A Witch in Time

A Witch in Time

By Madelyn Alt

2 Covers Out of Five

My hopes for a new direction in this series were dashed by this volume, which is pure soap opera.  And not good soap opera, like Downton Abbey.  More like the soap opera where people’s actions are forced rather than following any character logic or where they make ridiculous decisions and are shocked by the consequences.  Maggie’s sister Mel gives birth and its twins, a surprise she didn’t tell anyone about, least of all her husband.  As said husband was apparently never much of a family man (they already have two daughters), Mel hopes that surprise twins would give him reason to be home more.  Instead, he walks out on his family.  While this is terrible and deplorable, there appears to not have been a lot of trust in the relationship.  Also, the reader only gets one side of the story, as the husband has barely appeared in the series.

Maggie overhears a conversation that seems sinister and breaks her ankle walking down the stairs.  There is also a mystery in there, involving another mother who just gave birth, but that doesn’t even kick into gear until the third act.  With such a short time to deal with the mystery, instead of red herrings that characters can only spin wild theories that indicate they may not be functioning at their best intelligence.

The biggest problem is that none of the drama or consequences seems to directly affect Maggie. She exists on the periphery of everything that is happening.  Even her broken ankle is less of a burden and more of an opportunity for her new boyfriend to show what a great boyfriend he can be.  And unless the main character encounters challenges and risks, there isn’t much to a story, making this volume practically superfluous.

Where There's a a Witch

Where There’s a Witch

By Madelyn Alt

3 ½ Out of 5 Covers

This is much more of what I was expecting out of A Bewitching Mystery series.  The author embraces the urban fantasy elements by crafting a story where the supernatural is actually key to the mystery and is full of atmospheric chills. Construction for an extension to a local church uncovers a hidden room and releases an entombed spirit, who latches onto Maggie O’Neill.  When a body is laterdiscovered at the site, things take an ominous turn.

Even though the mystery is still fairly obvious, Alt offers some clever clues filled with double meanings that highlight some of Maggie’s ongoing personal drama.  While that personal drama never quite becomes compelling, the intertwining of the story elements marks a new level of creativity.  And the climax is not only exciting but logical.

As excited as I am for this new direction, the usual problems with this series abound.  In particular, the author has created a large cast of secondary characters through the series, but then had no idea what to do with them, so they just never show up.  By this point, the main supporting cast has been determined and each gets some page time, but it is annoying that a bigger world has been created and then never explored.  The author has also gotten in the happen of odd chapter breaks; they aren’t climaxes or logical breaks but more arrive in the middle of a scene so you need to keep reading just to get the whole scene. 

While there hasn’t been an elevation in the quality of storytelling, I hope this book marks a new direction for the series that will make it more compelling.

No Rest for the Wiccan

No Rest for the Wiccan

By Madelyn Alt

3 Out of 5 Covers

Maggie O’Neill comes to the aid of her pregnant, bed-ridden sister by taking care of her two nieces and helping clean the house.  Her sister, Mel, may seem like she has the perfect life, but she admits to Maggie that there is something sinister in her house.  This haunting doesn’t go as far as anything like the Paranormal Activities movies, but it does require a cleansing by Maggie’s boss, the witch Liss, and their friend Marcus.  This leads to Mel blabbing to everyone she can that there are witches in their small, conservative town of Stony Mill.  And Maggie breaks up with her police man boyfriend, who she didn’t see a lot and always fought with, a development that has been a long time coming.  Oh, there is also a murder that happens, it’s really not that important to the story, though it does lead to one of the more exciting climaxes in the series.

The shift in focus to urban (well, suburban) fantasy is welcome, though the author does seem hesitant to fully commit to a change in genre.  The complications brought about because of Maggie’s sister’s gossip offers a new dynamic to the series, which could serve the series well as conflict is the source of drama.  And a chance to visit with Maggie’s family, introduced in the first book but never really brought up since, also provides a change of pace.

But besides breaking up with her boyfriend (a plot point I predicted would happen in the first book), many of the changes don’t have a profound impact on Maggie.  She seems to exist on the edge of all the action, leaving her to worry and fret but not much to actually do.  Maggie’s general passivity has been evident throughout the series and it makes the stories less dynamic then they should be.  And the fact that the mystery is so secondary to the plot that the author can’t even conjure up red herrings could be a disturbing sign for a mystery series.