A Witch and the Whispering Woe (A Longview Mystery #1)
Author: Raven Cross
2 out of 5 stars
In Longview, Rhode Island is the bed and breakfast owned by Brianna Olney. While letting her cat out, she finds the dead body of her cook, Jilly Case. While wondering about who could have killed Jilly, Bri also has to worry about trying to find another cook, as she herself is a bad one. While going to bed, Bri is thinking about Jilly when suddenly her ghost appears in front of her, which isn’t surprising since Bri has always been able to talk to the dead. With encouragement from her friend Vicky, and Jublis, her talking cat, Bri sets out to try and solve the case.
Before I get into the multiple negatives, there were some positives. The mystery itself was interesting, and there were plenty of suspects. I liked the characters. Bri and Jublis’ relationship and their banter added some humor, especially Jublis and her uncaring for humans besides Bri and the way she shows it which prompts Bri to try and scold her. I do wish there was more about Bri’s background and her family, and how she met Jublis. The ending was also good with Bri needing help and how it all plays out.
There were unfortunately, quite a few problems with the novella. Some minor things that just bugged me included some minor editing errors, like officer being misspelled as office. And the town of Longview is called Fairview twice. Also, Jilly is holding a piece of leather when Bri finds her, but Bri still has it later. Why didn’t the police have it? Another minor thing that just really annoyed me is about Bri. The word witch is in the title, but in the book she can just speak to spirits and call them to her, and she has a talking cat, and she’s never called a witch. So is she a witch or just a medium?
The biggest problem, though, was the writing. There’s odd word choices and sentence structure. There’s also some iffy dialogue. Sometimes the writing in general just felt a bit stilted and awkward. Another big problem was the Kindle formatting was off, with odd line breaks that sometimes had me unsure about who was speaking.
There are a lot of negatives, but also some positives in this book, which is why I rated it 2 out of 5 stars. I think the author mostly just needs a good editor. Right now, I don’t recommend this book. It certainly isn’t terrible, but there are so many books with witches and mediums solving mysteries that I recommend passing this one up.
Current Price through Amazon Kindle: $0
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0187VHWXG
(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)