Witch Way to Murder

Way to lighten the mood a little with the first in a series of witchy detective-type novels by Shirley Damsgaard, Witch Way to Murder.  This cute little quick read was the very thing I needed after a heart-warming novel of pain like the Dogs of Babel, reviewed last time on Reader's Well.  Although!  I doubt I will pick up the next books in the series or more of Damsgaard's books in general.  And I'll tell  you why...

From the beginning, Ophelia - and this name bothers me for some reason - is a witch-in-the-making who doesn't want to be, with a dark past involving someone she loved and lost.  So this girl's got issues.  Add to that her inherent witchiness, coming from her Appalachian grandmother, and there's a pretty interesting life there.  As the story goes, a stranger "Rick Davis" comes to town, bringing with him not only plenty of gossip and irritation in Ophelia's already-convoluted life, but also mysterious death and other kinds of trouble.  Will this guy get the best of Ophelia?  Will she solve the mysterious crimes that are plaguing her small, sleepy Iowa town?  Is Rick someone she can trust to help her?  Or should she be guarding her heart yet again, against betrayal and even death threats?  And of course, there's that lingering problem of Ophelia's witchiness - will she reject her powers and her heritage, hurting her grandmother in the process?  Or will she accept them and open up a whole new world of spells, herbs, chance and danger?

Pardon me here but that paragraph I just wrote makes it sound a little more interesting than it was.  The story I didn't find believable at all - and I realize what kind of book I'm reading, but I expect at least a little believability, not in regards to witch-powers of course but in the story and characters.  This took away from any sympathy you'd have with the characters and a few times it just made me want to put the book down - sad, yes.  And by the time it was over, I was ready for the good stuff again.

Now, don't get me wrong, I really love Charlaine Harris' style in the Sookie Stackhouse books and I am even more in love with Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series.  But those are seriously fun reads - I never really second-guess either author's ability to write great characters, or their fantastic sense of humor.  And in the current Damsgaard book, I did.