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.
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