From the B Shelf...

 Author: Juliet Blackwell

Title:  Hexes and Hemlines

First lines:  "It didn't take a witch to figure out something was very, very wrong on the thirteenth floor of the Doppler Building. ... I took a deep breath and concentrated on not losing my lunch. Most days I deal in vintage clothing, not corpses. I may be a natural-born witch, but I'm no more comfortable around violent death than any other mortal merchant on Haight Street."

Hexes and Hemlines is a fun mix of witchcraft and murder mystery. Lily Ivory, who owns a vintage clothing shop called Aunt Cora's Closet, gets called in to consult on the murder of a man named Malachi Zazi, mostly because he's found surrounded by several symbols of bad luck. The detective on the case knows she's a witch and hopes she can explain what all those symbols might mean. But the more questions Lily asks, the more people keep telling her to back off--from Aiden, the powerful witch who's been training her, to Bronwyn, her close work friend, as well as another witch named Doura who threatens Lily if she doesn't leave well enough alone.

Lily leads a complicated life, and as I read this mystery I found myself wishing several times that I'd read the previous two books in this series first. It would have helped me sort out her various acquaintances and tangled relationships. But my library didn't have any copies of those books sitting on the B shelf. Only this one. And Blackwell did a pretty good job of catching me up on Lily's life. 

I thought the magic and witchcraft in this book was a lot of fun. And Lily's familiar, Oscar, made me smile. He's a goblin who pretends to be a pot-bellied pig when regular humans are around. But I felt the mystery itself got a little lost in the confusion of all the different characters. Still, I liked it. And I wouldn't mind trying another book in this paranormal mystery series at some point. 

Happy Reading!

Woman 99 by Greer Macallister

A Gilded Age historical fiction novel

First line:  "Goldengrove devoured my sister every time I closed my eyes."

When Charlotte's parents have her older sister, Phoebe, committed to Goldengrove Asylum, Charlotte decides to channel her inner Nellie Bly and get committed to the asylum herself in order to rescue her sister. Only she doesn't tell anyone her plans. And it only dawns on her once she's locked up in the asylum as just another anonymous indigent 'madwoman' that it might not be so easy to find Phoebe, or to get back out.

"I'd planned to find Phoebe, then inform the doctors that we were both sane, there had been a mistake, and we were leaving....I would save my sister the way she had saved me. But I could see now that what I'd imagined was only one of many, many possibilities and far from the likeliest one. Like Nellie Bly, I'd found it relatively simple to get in; how hard would it prove, I now wondered, to get out?"

I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would when I first started reading it. Probably because I found Charlotte's voice, as well as many of her actions, frustrating. She never would have succeeded in her quest to rescue her sister without the help of the other women in the asylum. I mean, who decides to get herself thrown in an asylum without a good plan of how to get back out? But maybe Macallister's main point was to show how unfairly women were treated back then, and how easy it was for the men around them to deem them mad and have them locked away for the rest of their lives. She certainly does an excellent job of portraying life in the asylum! Charlotte's personal life, and romantic drama, were less interesting to me. And I thought it all wrapped up a bit too neatly at the end. But the things that bugged me about this one might not bug you. And there were things I liked about it. So if you're interested in this time period, or in the stories of the women who were put in these asylums, definitely give it a try.

Happy Reading! 

Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer...

"Being haunted by a ghost who carried secrets she was desperate to share wasn't an easy thing."

Finally, a ghost story that doesn't disappoint! I loved everything about this book: the genuine characters, the compelling mystery, the supernatural occurrences, and the setting. It takes place in San Francisco in the early 1900s at the time of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Delia Martin has just returned home after a 3 year absence, trailing a ghost behind her, a ghost she calls Shadow.  Shadow was murdered decades earlier in a way that is eerily similar to a rash of recent murders haunting the city. The first murders were investigated by Capt. Matthew Ryan; these latest murders are being investigated by his son, Lieutenant Gabe Ryan. Because of Shadow's ghostly connection to the case, Delia finds herself drawn into the investigation, and drawn to Gabe as well. But even with Shadow's help, finding this serial killer won't be easy. And Delia might be his next victim.

Besides Delia and Gabe, there's an engaging cast of supporting characters in this story. And while I loved the romance between Delia and Gabe, I appreciated the fact that it didn't upstage the mystery. This fast-paced and fun ghostly thriller is a perfect mix of mystery, historical fiction, and romance. And Jaime Lee Moyer is an author I can't wait to read again. I know it's early in the year to be picking favorites, but I'm putting this book on my list of Top 10 Reads for 2014. It's that good!

Another Ghostly Tale: An Inquiry Into Love and Death