Date published: December 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-149434-0
Cozy Mystery with Paranormal overtones
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
In this latest installment of Ophelia and Abby’s series, it is once again Ophelia who becomes the target in perhaps the most insidious murder mystery to date. The story opens with Ophelia recalling a series of dreams where she’s with a most amazing man. He takes her breath away but he’s no one she knows. It’s not Ned her reporter friend, Rick Delaney who readers met in book 1, WITCH WAY TO MURDER, cautious DCI investigator Camacho or the enigmatic DEA agent Ethan. No, this is someone new. Spiffed up for a library fund raiser, a matter she feels strongly about, Ophelia is quite surprised when the man from her dreams suddenly appears.
Without losing a beat he asks her to walk with him and Ophelia agrees. To her surprise he is an author, although not one she’s familiar with either under his pen or real names. What she does know is she is so very drawn to this man and in moments is kissing him. But not for long because moments later a shot rings out and a bullet pierces Stephen’s heart. A distraught Ophelia is brought home and rather than respite within her comfortable four walls, the dreams come fast and furious. Bit by bit she accepts Abby and Darci’s assessment—the dreams are of a past life. But which of the men in that life is Stephen? And what was he to her?
THE WITCHES GRAVE was the least interesting of this series for me. It felt rushed, disjointed and almost as if the author had run out of steam and needed to find some sort of direction to go. Tink was easily dealt with the focus being a murder attempt on Ophelia. Rather than have Tink and Abby become collateral damage, Tink is sent off to Aunt Mary’s in the Appalachians. Despite the fact Tink has long awaited this trip, she resists going. Instead of the long planned trip for Aunt Mary’s birthday, which could have been and might still be its own murder mystery, Tink now makes the trip.
As usual, when the murder, or in this case the attempt, happens, Ophelia decides to take some vacation time from the library to deal with her personal business. The series spans three to our years, with each book about six months apart in Ophelia’s life. I wish I had half as many vacation days as Ophelia does with her five to six years working in the library or could take them on the spur of the moment like she does.
The reincarnation theme was interesting and I liked how Ms. Damsgaard linked events and people to present day situations. I felt it could have been done a bit better—the dream sequences seemed muddled into the middle of the story and while past life flashbacks may occur in that fashion, in reading a book you need a bit more separation. One thing I did notice is that this book is about 30-40 pages shorter than the others coming in at 262 pages. While it may have told the story that needed to be told, it was lacking in several areas. I have to wonder if Ms. Damsgaard had written the 300 or so pages seen in the other books if this one would have been more satisfying.
That said I am looking forward to the next book in the series and am sorry I will have to wait almost a year to catch up with Ophelia and Abby.
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