A Charmed Death (Bewitching Series #2)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
The second installment of Madelyn Alt's Bewitching Mystery saga -- a narrative blend of amateur whodunit, paranormal fantasy, and tongue-in-cheek chick lit that features lovable protagonist Maggie O'Neill -- finds the almost-30-year-old single resident of Stony Mill, Indiana, at the center of a murder mystery involving illicit sex, arcane witchcraft, and more than a few otherworldly spirits.

With just a few weeks until Christmas, O'Neill's job as a clerk at Enchantments, an upscale gift shop owned by her friend Felicity Dow, is as hectic as it is exciting. But when O'Neill witnesses a teenage goth girl getting brutally picked on by a trio of mean classmates, her intuition warns her that something very bad is about to happen. When one of the assailants turns up dead a few days later, O'Neill's curiosity gets the best of her and she investigates -- only to uncover a secret sex blog that implicates some of Stony Mill's most respected residents…

Mystery fans who seek out "feel-good" reads for their literary escapism (books by authors like Janet Evanovich, Charlaine Harris, Kyra Davis, et al.) should definitely check out Alt's Bewitching Mystery saga, which is powered by her Everywoman heroine O'Neill. A small-town girl struggling to find her place in the world, she has an optimistic and idealistic outlook on an oftentimes malevolent and depressing reality -- as well an addiction to old episodes of Magnum P.I. -- that makes her one of the most refreshing and endearing protagonists to grace the amateur sleuth genre in years. Alt certainly picked the right name for this series. It's a bewitching saga by a positively witchy chick. Highly recommended. Paul Goat Allen