"Bewitching amateur sleuth"
Sleepy Stony Mill, Indiana holds many secrets that the
majority of the residents are unaware of including Maggie
O'Neil but she will shortly find out about one of them and
her life will never be the same. She works in a
collection agency, a job she hates. One morning instead
of going directly to work she feels pulled to heading to
town on the road that will lead her to River Street and
the exclusive stores there. It starts pouring so looking for a store that is open she
literally falls into Enchantments, an antique shop owned
by Felicity Down. Maggie and Felicity hit it off and when
Felicity's officers a job, she reveals she is a practicing
witch. Maggie doesn't believe in the New Age mumbo jumbo
but accepts the job. On her very first day, Felicity gets
a call from her estranged sister and leaves Maggie in
charge. When Felicity arrives at her sister's house, she
finds her sibling murdered. The police believe Felicity
is the killer but Maggie believes she is innocent; she
intends to find out who the murderer is. THE TROUBLE WITH MAGIC is a bewitching amateur sleuth tale
with touches of the paranormal. Although Maggie wants to
deny the existence of ESP she can't convince herself that
the voices she hears or the ability to feel other people's
emotions are the products of an insane mind. Felicity
believes she has talent and drives Maggie into the writer
of her group N.I. Ghts (Northeast Indian Ghost Hunting and
Tracking Society) since the small town contains spirits
only sensitives can feel or hear. There are many suspects
with viable motives as Maggie as a loyal friend refuses to
let Felicity take the fall for something she didn't do.
Forecasting the future, Madelyn Alt has a surefire winner
on hands. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 15, 2005
SummaryFirst in the new Bewitching Mystery series!
Closing in on The Big Three-Oh and feeling the pain,
struggling small town single girl Maggie O'Neill stands at
the crossroads of life. She's spent the majority of her
by-and-large uneventful life following the rules laid down
by others (society, religion, and, most importantly, her
mother) and has depressingly little to show for it. So when
a chance meeting brings a job offer from the owner of a
fashionably upscale gift shop, Maggie jumps at this
unexpected opportunity to bring about a new season of change
to her otherwise boring lifestyle. Even the revelation that
the owner proclaims herself a modern-day witch doesn't give
her much pause. She decides she could use a little magic in
her life.
Things get complicated as Maggie begins to experience
strange, unexplained occurrences on her own, and she must
decide whether to trust her admittedly left-of-center boss
and the local ghosthunter group or the mundane teachings of
science and society. When her new boss is accused of murder
and it becomes painfully clear that this goodhearted witch
will never receive a fair shake in conservative Stony Mill,
Maggie bravely sets out to learn the truth, for better or
for worse. As she locks horns with a suspicious cop, a slick
politico, ex-lovers, and the less-than-forthcoming members
of the victim's own family, poor Maggie is left to wonder:
How much of what we're allowed to see is real . . . and how
much illusion?
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