Author: Tamara Berry
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496719638
Kensington Publishing
288 Pages
$12.99; $16.46 Amazon
November 26, 2019
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Selling mystical elixirs and tantalizing tonics is a pretty good way for a fake medium to earn a living. Or at least it's Ellie's main source of income -- until a villager turns up dead. The cause? Murder by poisoning. And though Ellie's concoctions don't include anything worthy of a skull and crossbones, suddenly she's the prime suspect. Her only recourse is to find the culprit who did do away with Sarah Blackthorne. No one liked the mean old battle-axes. But did anyone hate her enough to kill her?
It's enough of a mystery to make Ellie hang up her witch's hat and take millionaire beau Nicholas Hartford up on his offer to keep her afloat. Except Ellie is not the kind of woman to lean on a man -- least of all a man she adores whose place in her life is uncertain. Besides, Ellie's taken on two young witches-in-training -- apprentices if you will -- and both of them are convinced a werewolf is the murderer.
Just as Ellie's wondering if there really is something otherworldly going on, animals suddenly begin to disappear -- including her beloved cat, Beast. Now Ellie's on the warpath to uncover the wicked truth about the people and the place she's only just begun to call home...
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Eleanor Wilde is a fake psychic who's taken to making potions and tonics for the villagers around her, becoming the village witch, living in a cottage on the estate of her beau, rich Nicholas Hartford. But Nicholas travels and isn't always around, and she refuses to live on his largesse, rather trying to make it on her reputation, such as it is. But one morning she's conscripted to act as emissary for the Hartfords by Nicholas's mother. She's to attend in her place on the committee for the annual village fete. Not all the people attending are happy about it; and one elderly woman, Sarah Blackthorne, accuses Eleanor of giving her 'the evil eye' just before Sarah drops dead of a suspected heart attack.
Now Eleanor is out to prove her innocence, and is determined to find out who killed the woman. Hindering her efforts is the daughter of the village physician, Lenora, who insists that apprenticing with Eleanor is the place she wants to be for her school project. When Nicholas's niece Rachel hears of this, she decides she wants to apprentice, also. And when the remains of a man's beloved pet pig is found mutilated, the girls have decided it's the work of a werewolf. Well, keeping them occupied reading about the history of werewolves can't be bad, right? Wrong. Especially when Eleanor starts wondering if the girls might be on the right track...
This is the second book in the series and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more than the first (sorry). The characters are given a chance to flesh out better, and we're getting a much better idea of the way that Eleanor thinks. This is a young woman who has not had the easiest time in life; she's had to care for her permanently injured -- now deceased -- sister, and recently moved to England to begin her new life in the village and decide just what her relationship with Nicholas is. But she's worried that the villagers don't really accept her, and she wants to become a part of this place that she's taken to her heart.
She also feels the need to watch over the two girls in her care, even though Lenora's mother isn't happy about the arrangement; and she's worried about her cat Beast, who recently disappeared, wondering if she's been a victim of the person -- or animal -- that has been capturing and killing pets throughout the village.
The mystery itself is done very well, and we're wondering who could possibly be a killer in their midst. She's sure it has to be one of the people who were at the meeting, which makes the murderer a local villager. But she has no idea who it might be, at least until she discovers a major clue -- one even others have missed, and she's sure she can find a way to get a confession. That is, until Ellie herself is thrown off her game and may just find herself in danger of being the next victim...
All in all, when the murderer is discovered, it comes almost as a surprise, and a pleasant one at that, since it's always nice to have time to figure it out along with the protagonist. I thoroughly enjoyed this book so much that I look forward to the next in the series. Recommended.
More on Tamara Berry's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/tamara-berry/
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