Tuesday, September 2, 2008

No Rest for the Wiccan-Madelyn Alt

No Rest for the Wiccan
Madelyn Alt
Berkley, Nov 2008, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425224564

On the surface Stony Mill, Indiana is a quiet gentle Midwestern town in which everyone knows their neighbors and no one locks their cars. Looks can be deceiving; just ask apprentice witch Maggie O’Neill or her boss at Enchantments powerful witch Felicity Davis. Felicity has been teaching Maggie the craft and how to do Magick.

Maggie is with her sort of boyfriend Tom, a police officer, when he gets a call to go to the food mill where they find hanging up on the conveyor a dummy in effigy and a warning note to the ownerJoel Turner. They put it down as a dumb harmless prank A few days later Joel is found dead from a fall into a silo. On a lighter note, Maggie spends time with her nieces and pregnant sister Mel who needs bed rest. The nieces believe in house ghosts, but darker energy permeates the home. Fearing what the malevolence will do, Maggie, Felicity and practicing witcth Marcus try to force the spirit to go into the light. Ironically Maggie is in danger from a human who wants her dead.

Fans of the TV show (and movie) Bewitched will feel Maggie resembles Samantha, tough and sweet. She stands up to her dominating mom and give her “kind of” boyfriend a chance to be something more while hiding her feelings for Marcus. This paranormal mystery is exciting even with a mundane killer on the loose stalking the heroine; someone the audience will not suspect. This is an enchanting and Bewitching look at “Eerie, Indiana”.
Harriet Klausner