To Catch a Witch

June 15, 2018
A town whose residents include mortals and witches, each with their own specialized powers, reels when a local woman is murdered before a big race.Though Darcy Merriweather's personal concierge company, As You Wish, has been hired to manage the Enchanted Village's Wicked Mad Dash, her role changes from organizer to investigator when a prominent racer doesn't show up for the main event. Darcy had just been chatting with Abby Stillwell, a running aficionado looking forward to taking part in the day's events despite a bout of food poisoning the night before. When she hears about the food poisoning and its connection to a chocolate cake, Darcy suspects that troublemaker Vince Paxton may be at work. Putting a hex on a cake serious runners shouldn't be eating the day before the big race reminds Darcy of Vince's peculiar sense of humor. But Vince's mischief would never go so far as to get rid of Abby, whose body is recovered not far from the race's start. Darcy's abilities as a Wishcrafter who can grant wishes, but only to others, doesn't help her investigation into Abby's death. When she questions Abby's roommate, Quinn, and her boyfriend, Ben, they act as if they're hiding something. Luckily, Darcy can bounce ideas off village police chief Nick Sawyer because she lives with him. But even he can't imagine who would hurt someone as kind as Abby. Darcy's distracted from Abby's death when her sister, Harper, can't seem to recover from Vince's hex. Harper, who's had a rough time since learning her identity as a Crafter, is only beginning to come to terms with her power and her breakup from Marcus, her boyfriend. Darcy's need to split her time between mystery-solving and sister-caretaking is complicated further when she learns a family secret that could change everything in the future.The latest in Blake's cozy/supernatural series (The Witch and the Dead, 2016, etc.) contains enough fighting over in-groups and identities to be read on several levels, making it more prescient than many of its ilk.

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