aimeeerickson

I borrowed this book from my library because the second in the series looked interesting on the store bookshelf and I hate to start a series in the middle. If I had run into the series with this book I'm not sure I'd ever get to the second one. It's mainly because the main character is so flaky. In the book she states that she's been a practicing Wiccan since The Craft was popular, which would put it around 1996. Given that she's turning 30 and the book was published in 2016, she would have been practicing for 20 years. The problem is, she says she was in high school when she first became Wiccan. I don't know many 10 years olds in high school, so either my math is bad or hers is.

Having been a practicing Pagan myself for 27 years I take exception to some of the descriptions and references. Most Wiccans I know only call themselves Wiccan, never Pagan. When people ask me the difference I like to say "Wicca is to Pagan like Catholic is to Christian." One branch of a much larger tree. A practicing Wiccan also would not have been surprised that the day of the week and the phase of the moon are important to their workings, especially if they'd been doing it for 20 years. Not every single Wiccan (or Pagan) uses the phases of the moon and days of the week as guidelines, but a large number do. And even if they don't use it, that is usually because they choose not to, not because they never knew. It's in every single intro to the craft book I've ever owned.

Aside from my obvious issues with her details, the other thing that I didn't care for was the oh so convienent premise of why she has all the time in the world to conduct her amateur investigation and why the police aren't involved. The police are out because the city cops want the "big boys" with the special unit to do all the casework. Can you say cop out (pun intended)? Even the smallest town police would do more than a cursory investigation into a burglary, no matter what was stolen. I could see them asking for assistance from more specialized units, but just dropping it all together? Too convenient a reason for the heroine to not have police interactions.

As for why she has so much time on her hands? She's taking a "forced vacation" to avoid having to resign/being fired from her law firm because there was the hint of scandal about the theft and an upset family member. I'm sorry, any business that dumps me at the first sign of losing their reputation or their biggest client or future business, without taking into account the circumstances is not a business I want to work for. The rats should at least wait until the ship is sinking before they start deserting.