Fire Raiser

February 16, 2009
Smalltown politics and big-city newcomers mix badly with a family of rural magicians in this dreary modern fantasy. Bestselling author Holly Lachlan has come home to Pocahontas County, Va., with her adoring husband, Evan (a former U.S. marshal, now the county sheriff). Together they attend a fund-raising party at an antebellum mansion turned into an upscale inn by a strange German investor. Herr Weiss’s hotel is chock-full of sinister secrets, and the assembled guests—including a charming DA and some of Holly’s magically endowed relatives—must combine forces to investigate. The premise has promise, but the mystery elements don’t gain much of a foothold until late in the game, and Rawn (Spellbinder
) frequently interrupts them with vast swaths of left-wing political pontification, elaborate matchmaking attempts and cutesy fawning between the protagonists.

April 15, 2009
Relocating from Manhattan to rural Virginia, practicing witch and popular novelist Holly McClure and Evan Lachlan, her police detective-turned-county sheriff husband, encounter a dark mystery involving a serial arsonist, a refurbished plantation, and the suspicion of Black Magic. Returning to the characters first introduced in "Spellbinder", Rawn crafts a story of the old vs. the new South, hidden family secrets, and the power of superstition to blind us to the truth. With their witty dialog and genuine affection for each other, McClure and Lachlan make a good team. This "urban fantasy" set in a distinctly nonurban setting belongs in most fantasy collections.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.