Review: A WITCH’S TAIL by Melanie Snow
Fiction, Paranormal Cozy Mystery, first in series
3***
Blurb: Can she awaken her dormant powers and stop a desperate killer destroying the forest? Sarah Spellwood feels she’s hit bottom. Divorced and jobless, she relocates to the enchanting village of Witchland intent on solving the murder of her late mentor. But as she pursues clues buried in the man’s fight to save the endangered forest-dwelling lynx, she makes an enemy of a ruthless land developer. Encountering fairies in the woods, Sarah discovers she’s been repressing unique gifts passed down from her ancestor and founding witch, Lativia Spellwood. But though she can now hear her deceased friend’s dog speak, she isn’t sure her abilities are enough to expose the greed and corruption covering a killer’s lies. Can Sarah work with the magical beings to bring a murderer to justice? Witch’s Tail is the charming first book in the light-hearted The Spellwood Witches cozy mystery series. If you like paranormal puzzles, delightful canine companions, and environmental enlightenment, then you’ll love Melanie Snow’s wagging-ly fun whodunit.
THOUGHTS: I really wanted to like this story more than I did. It was okay. Not great, not awful. The plot was intriguing – a woman-lawyer is hit with a divorce, throws herself into her job, but then loses that, and her mentor and friend is killed. She inherits his house/law business and dog and moves from the big city (NY) to the small town of Witchland, where her family is from. Her ancestor, Lativia, founded the town and still protects it as a ghost with the help of tiny fairies. With their help, she also discovers her own powers, including being able to talk to her dog. Her first job is to keep a crooked developer from taking over and destroying the nearby forest. She also discovers that her mentor was murdered and is determined to prove that.
Things I liked: the fairies! They were hilarious, especially when they kept moving the things in Sarah’s house back to the way her mentor had them and not the way she wants them. The dog is interesting too. I like the way Sarah finally solves her mentor’s murder.
Things I didn’t like: The instant attraction between the hunky sheriff and Sarah, even though he doesn’t believe her. And hitting us over the head with how handsome he is way too many times. The story itself read more like a book for a much younger reader – the subject matter was adult, the writing wasn’t.
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