Review: The Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard

Title: The Seventh Witch
Author: Shirley Damsgaard
Series: An Ophelia And Abby Mystery #7
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: February 1st 2010
Blurb:
Small-town librarian and psychic Ophelia Jensen hails from a long line of wise and wonderfully gifted women. There's her grandmother, Abby, a talented witch, and her great-aunt Mary, who's about to celebrate her 100th birthday. But as Ophelia learns, when she and Abby travel to North Carolina for the centennial celebration, their family secrets aren't just magickal - they're murderous.

Someone in the sweet Southern town wants Abby dead. Could it be a rogue witch in Ophelia's own family? A vengeful local witch desperate to settle a bitter feud decades in the making? Ophelia must use all her talents to save her loved ones - before the witching hour comes upon them, and bad blood turns deadly.

Ophelia has been through a lot of adventures since the first book. In this one we realize how much she has matured and we see that she's finally at ease with her psychic abilities. Abby returns home for her aunt's birthday after a lot of years without coming back. We find out why she hasn't return before and we also see, for the first time, that she has weaknesses and that some things that happened in the past make her fragile.

We also meet Ophelia's parents for the first time. They give a sense of normalcy when everything else is a little crazy.
The family dinamics are fun and sometimes hurtful, but we also find out why some people are bitter and why aunt Mary doesn't like Ophelia much.
The villian of this story is a young woman with psychic abilities that holds a grudge against Abby and Ophelia's family. In my opinion, she could have been a "better" bad guy.

The surprise in this book is Ethan. I don't know if you remember him, but he was the undercover cop that helped Ophelia rescue Tink, Ophelia's adoptive daughter, in a previous book. He is with the gang that runs with the "black witch". He's the love interest of Ophelia and I really hope that we see more of him in future books.

The mystery in this book was ok, but what made me like it so much was the family dinamics. This is aparently the last book the author is contracted to write, but I really hope she writes more of them because this is one of my favourite mystery series.


Memorable Lines:

She marched up to me, but before she could speak, Cousin Lydia stepped between us.
"Sharon, there's no need -"she started to say, but the woman cut her off.
"Stay out of this Lydia," she barked, stepping around her. "You." She jabbed a finger at me. "You tell your doddering old aunt to stay out of my business."
I guess I knew who the rival witch was now.
Drawing myself to all ofmy five-foot-four height, I started at her. "Who are you?"
She tossed her head around and let out a raw laugh. "Stick around these mountains long enough and you'll find out."
Immediately, I sensed my mother moving to my side.
"Young woman -" she began, her voice dripping ice.
When this Sharon focused her attention on my mother, her eyes narrowed. "And you tell your murdering mother to get the hell out of here, or she'll finally pay for what she did."


Rating:

Review: Fade to Black by Leslie Parrish

Fade to Black
Black CATs #1

After transferring out of violent crimes and onto the FBI's Cyber Action Team, Special Agent Dean Taggert is shocked to encounter a case far more vicious than any he's ever seen. A cold and calculating predator dubbed "The Reaper" is auctioning off murder in the cyber world and is about to kill again-unless Dean and beautiful sheriff Stacey Rhodes can stop him.

Dean Taggert joined the CATs (Cyber Action Team) to get a shared custody of his son from his ex-wife. He thought it wouldn't be so violent as his last job. He was wrong. A man called "The Reaper" kills his victims, tapes the act and then shows it on the web to a select few. When the team gets an ID of the victim, they go to her home town and then they meet sheriff Stacey Rhodes. She was a cop in the city, but something went wrong in a case and she decided to get back home and replace her father as sheriff. When she finds out that the girl that went missing 18 months ago and that everyone thought had skipped town was instead murdered, she teams up with the CAT's and especially with Taggert to bring the killer to justice.

When the deaths start escalating and the killer decides to auction the method in which he will kill his next victim, the stakes get raised, and Stacey and Dean will try harder than ever to catch a killer, especially when they realize that he lives in the little town and nobody had ever notice nothing out of the otdinary.

I really didn't have any expectations when I started this book. It was entertaining but sometimes I wished it would go faster. The relationship between Stacey and Dean was one of the high points of this novel. It was very well handled and also beliveable. Both of them have things to overcome to be able to be together and close the case.

I knew who the killer was at the middle of the book, so it wasn't really surprising. It took me time to get into the story, and I had to force myself to keep reading until the story sped up. It was an ok debut book, and I'll probably read the next one, but it's not on my high priority list, which means that I'll read it when I don't have anything more interesting in my TBR pile.

Memorable Quote:

"Sheriff Rhodes?" he asked, his tone gentle. "Can you identify the woman on the photographs?"
She swalloded visibly, then nodded once. "It's Lisa Zimmerman"
"You're sure?"
"Even if I didn't recognize her face inmediately, I'd know her by that bumblebee tattoo on her shoulder. She was a finalist in a statewide spelling bee in elementary school. She had that put on a couple years ago, I guess to remind herself that she'd once accomplished something." She pushed the pictures away, the tips of her nails touching the very edges, as if she couldn't bear any more contact with them. " So she's dead?"
"We haven't found her body," Wyatt explained. The man sounded cooly profesional, as always, but also quietly subdued in respect of the sheriff's obvious dismay. "But yes, there seems to be no doubt the woman in these pictures is dead."


Rating:

Review: Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland

Mark of the Demon
Kara Gillian #1


Cop and conjurer of demons, she's a woman in danger of losing control—to a power that could kill.... Why me? Why now? That’s what Beaulac, Louisiana, detective Kara Gillian was asking herself when an angelic creature named Rhyzkahl unexpectedly appeared during a routine summoning.
Kara was hoping to use her occult skills to catch a serial killer, but never had she conjured anything like this unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being whose very touch set off exquisite new dimensions of pleasure.
But can she enlist his aid in helping her stop a killer who’s already claimed the lives—and souls—of thirteen people? And should she? The Symbol Man is a nightmare that the city thought had ended three years ago.
Now he’s back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he, too, is well versed in demonic lore. Kara may be the only cop on Beaulac’s small force able to stop the killer, but it is her first homicide case. Yet with Rhyzkahl haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head...


Kara is a police detective and a demon summoner. A serial killer, named by the press "Symbol Man" has started to kill again after three years; they call him that because he always carves a symbol in some part of the victim's body. The captain of her divison puts Kara in charge of the investigation. She sees that some kind of arcane power has been use on the victim, so she decides to summon a demon to ask questions about it, but something goes wrong, and instead of appearing the low level demon she summoned, appears Rhyzkahl. She doesn't know what kind of demon he is, but she knows that he's powerful, angry and could kill her whenever he wanted; but instead of that, they end up having sex.

The next day another victim is found, and when she goes to the morgue to see what has the medical examiner found, a visitor comes by the room. His name is Agent Ryan Kristoff from the FBI, and he has been assigned to the task force of the "Symbol Man" murders. In that first meet, Kristoff ignores Kara the best he can and later he tries to remove her from being the lead, but he's unsuccesful.

After that, everything seems to go worse. The body count increases, she still can't figure out what went wrong in the summoning, Agent Kristoff starts being suspicious of her and she has started to have very vivid dreams about Rhyzkahl, in which she finds out that he made a connection between them, so she could call him anytime she wanted. But at the end, everything has a price.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked the mystery of the "Symbol Man" and I never guessed who he was until it was revealed at the end. The demon dimension was something that I've never read about and I really enjoyed the very short glimpse we get of it. I also liked how demons weren't nor good nor evil. I hope that in future novels we get to see more of that dimension.

At the beginning of this book Kara wasn't an expert summoner, so she asks for help and advice from her mentor, her aunt Tessa. I liked the relationship between the two of them, but I think Kara should have asked more questions about how she knew about Rhyzkahl or at least Tessa should have voluntered the information. Also, I don't know how in the first meeting between Kara and Rhyzkahl she could have gone from being scared and sure she was dead to feel a very strong desire for him. It looks like there's going to be a love triangle between Kara, Kristoff and Rhyzkahl in the next book, and I want to see how is going to be played out.

This book was a fantastic beginning to a very interesting series and I would recommend it to all Urban Fantasy lovers who don't have anything against demons.

Memorable Quote:

"I am Kara Gillian," I stated clearly as I rewove the potencies, naming myself as part of the binding process. I had no intention of completing terms and releasing the bindings, but the forms still have to be followed. "I had summoned you to serve me - "
The laughter stopped me - a cold sound that cut through my words and sent a chill up my spine.
"Serve you?" The voice flowed from the crouched figure, serene and vicious. "I will rend the flesh from your bones and scatter your blood to the wind."
Oh. Shit.

Rating: