Publisher: Berkley
Published: October 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0451476593
Genre: Cozy
Mystery
Format: Print
Obtained via: Publisher
Reviewed by
name and email address: Gina myreviewbooks@aol.com
FOUR HEARTS
Annabelle (Annie) Britton has settled down into life in
Portsmouth with her pet cat Alastair, her friends and her coven sisters. Yes, coven sisters. Annie is a witch and Alastair is not your
ordinary, average, every day house cat – he is her familiar. That same comes from a family of witches as
new to Annie, but she’s learning to live with her special set of talents – and her
familiar’s ability and penchant to disappear just when you need or want him
most—like a visit to the vet.
Portsmouth, however, happens to have a resident vet who is also a witch –
one who has no problem circumventing various familiars’ special talents. Annie forms and instant bond with Ramona, the
vet, as does Alastair. While at the vet
she meets the famous Attitude Cat and her person. Also while there Cheryl Bell descends on them
demanding to take Ruby, aka Attitude Cat.
It seems the little cat is in the middle of quite the custody dispute. When Ramona turns up dead and Ruby disappears
Annie quickly finds herself in the middle of the search for the killer and
catnapper. Despite her best efforts to
stay out of the investigation it quickly becomes evident there is more at work
than a murder…there is a good chance a witch is involved.
FAMILIAR MOTIVES, the third of Delia James’s Witches Cat mystery
series is a bit dark for a cozy, but that’s not a bad thing since it shows a
nice expansion of James’s writing. James
clearly gets cats and their pernickety and independent ways and she also knows
the craft. While she does “Hollywoodize”
some craft aspects, she does respect the basic creed and portrays it well. The delves nicely into family – both by blood
and by choice – dynamics and the ups and downs of relationships in a realistic
way. She does a wonderful job of showing
how our loyalties and relationships can collide while telling a really good
story.
I was pretty sure I knew who the killer was when that character
was introduced. It wasn’t that hard to
tell, but how Annie tracked the killer down was creative and at the same time
gave the character some good development.
I also applaud James for not falling into the “love triangle” debacle so
many cozies deteriorate into. With
grandma BB about to return to Portsmouth this series can only get more fun and
more interesting.
Each book is a standalone and you don’t really have to have read
the prior books or read them in order although doing so shows you the nice
progression of the character’s personalities and relationships.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of
this book.
<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;"
marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"
frameborder="0"
src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=regatayl-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=045147659X&asins=045147659X&linkId=8f01d6c0eac4f373f96a3d8d468f5347&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>
No comments:
Post a Comment