Where There's a Witch (Bewitching Mysteries, No. 5)

Taking a break from her job at Enchantments, Stony Mill’s finest mystical antique shop, Maggie O’Neill visits a carnival where she senses some bad spirits. And when a construction worker is suspected of killing a young woman, it’s up to Maggie and the N.I.G.H.T.S. ghosthunting team to uncover the dark spiritual energy leaking into their town before it spoils everyone’s fun.

Customer Reviews:

Has the potential to do much better

By Praxidike - August 27, 2009

I've read all the books in the series. I like the paranormal themes and believe the characters do have potential. I'm having a lot of trouble with this one, however. It moves very, very slowly, and the identity of the murderer is obvious even before the murder is discovered. I actually peeked at the end because I couldn't believe it would be so obvious. When I saw that it was, I lost interest and it is still sitting on my night table, gathering dust. Now that I've read the other reviews, I may finish it just to see the resolution of the love triangle.

One of the reservations I have with this series is that Alt doesn't seem to know who her audience is. People who like paranormal mysteries don't need to be convinced that the occult isn't "evil". They're already with you. We don't need to be lead through five books of Maggie trying to work out in her own head that using her abilities is okay. The only reader who needs to be lead that way isn't going to be reading what is... read more

MY LEAST FAVORITE IN SERIES SO FAR---

By SJ - July 18, 2009

I was so looking forward to this book and was truly disappointed. It started out VERY SLOWLY and then continued in jerks and stops. The mystery was one that has been much overdone and the villain was obvious early on. The characters were only ghosts of themselves from the previous books, a little too see through this time and not enough substance. Too much time was spent on mundane details and not enough on adding a since of thrill to the story. Even the love-interest angle fell a bit flat, though I'm glad things worked out the way they did. My fingers are crossed that the next book will have a little more zip to it.

Enjoyable, but...

By Mara Grey "Mara" - July 25, 2009

I have read three books in this series, and I like them, with some reservations, listed later. My main problem with this book is the mystery plot, which hides the killer behind a screen so flimsy that it seems the author expected little intelligence from the reader. Not a bad subplot to be revealed, just way too obvious practically from the beginning.

I like her characters, I like Maggie's struggles with accepting her own unusual gifts. The positive and negative sides of witchcraft, the pitfalls in using it, the need to grow in ones gift, are all presented well. I find Felicity, Maggie's boss, a bit too perfect for believability, but she works as a "teacher" figure, if you need teachers to be a bit beyond human frailty.

I get somewhat bored with Maggie's endless internal dialogs, however. They slow the action. Perhaps, if the author had shortened them, she'd have had more space for extra convolutions in the murder plot.

And it's hard to see why... read more