That Old Black Magic: A Piper Donovan Mystery
3.5/5
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About this ebook
That Old Black Magic is New York Times bestselling author Mary Jane Clark’s savory and suspenseful confection filled with murder, mystery, history and voodoo, in which Piper Donovan must unmask a devious killer striking in New Orleans’s legendary French Quarter.
Aspiring actress and wedding-cake decorator Piper Donovan has barely arrived in New Orleans to perfect her pastry skills at the renowned French Quarter bakery, Boulangerie Bertrand, when a ghastly murder rocks the magical city. Intrigued by the case, Piper can’t help but look for the “Hoodoo Killer” among the faces around her. Could it be the handsome guide eager to give her special private tours? Or the inscrutable jazz musician who plays on historic Royal Street? What about the ratings-starved radio talk-show host? Or even the amiable owner of the local Gris-Gris Bar?
Though Piper has a full plate decorating cakes for upcoming wedding celebrations, she’s also landed an exciting but unnerving role in a movie being shot in the Big Easy. When the murderer strikes again, leaving macabre clues, she thinks she can unmask the killer. But Piper will have to conjure up some old black magic of her own if she hopes to live long enough to reveal the truth.
Mary Jane Clark
Mary Jane Clark worked at CBS News for nearly three decades. Her twelve KEY News media thrillers were inspired by that experience. Envisioning the Piper Donovan/Wedding Cake mystery series, Mary Jane enrolled in cake-decorating classes and researched unique wedding locations. The daughter of an FBI agent and a mother who customized cakes for the neighborhood kids when she was growing up, Mary Jane has two grown children and splits her time between New Jersey and Florida.
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Reviews for That Old Black Magic
45 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is book 4 in the Piper Donovan series by Mary Jane Clark. Its an excellent mystery and the best so far of the series. That said, this should not be read as a stand alone. There are too many references to previous adventures of the main characters to read it without reading the other books in the series. The main character,, Piper Donovan, is in New Orleans to work with a famous chef to learn more about baking. Not only is she a baker and an actress but she seems to land in the middle of some murders. The book is fast paced and you don't know who the bad guy is until almost the end. This series just keeps getting better and better
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mary Jane Clark weaves a good story. Even though I usually do not read anything with the voodoo theme, this book set in New Orleans draws the reader.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loved the book, easy going, easy to read and very historical.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved Mary Jane Clark's Key News mysteries and kept thinking why is she stopping writing these books I enjoy so much. And then I decided to try the second in her Piper Donovan series and thought it was okay but not as good as the Key News stories. But now after reading the fourth in the series I'm really starting to appreciate them.
Mostly because in this book Piper's in New Orleans and of course where Piper is dead bodies soon appear - and I didn't know who did it! And along with that surprise came a really good story, fast paced with good descriptions of New Orleans ( I definitely have to get down there to try a mufalatta!). My only complaint is Jack (and this is entirely personal) I hate the "I am cop, you are 'a mere civilian'" which is just a replacement for "I am man, you are a 'mere woman'". - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5For someone like me who has never read this author, you may find her style of writing confusing, the large amounts of characters and red herrings annoying and the main character Piper, silly and naïve. For those of you who like this very sweet form of cozy mystery, you will most likely love this novel AND if you follow this author you will love this book!I will say that the author did do a very good job of deflecting the reader from figuring out who done it. I don’t think there was even the barest whisper of a hint as to who committed the three murders and tried for a possible fourth.There are many very short chapters and I found that somewhat annoying, but it sure made it easy for me to put down this book, as I got bored with it. Unfortunately this happened all too frequently for my taste.I found the story tepid, the fact that Piper is a cake decorator AND an actress is a little too much to swallow in this particular instance and there are to many plot lines that didn’t seem to have enough closure for my taste. *ARC SUPPLIED BY PUBLISHER*
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A more alert protagonist would have helped this book. Did not finish but skipped to end to find improbable murderer.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The book was just O.K. I didn't really feel the suspense of the storyline and I felt that the climax was rather weak. Some of the chapters' fillers didn't do much to the storyline overall.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love all of MJ's books. There's character development, suspense and she doesn't have to write pages and pages of detailed sexual encounters to tell you that the characters are in love. And here we have Piper still recovering from her previous encounter. Most other writers would have their lead just shrug off the encounter or look forward with gleeful anticipation to catching the next bad guy. Piper here is human!