Ebook413 pages7 hours
Strange Fascination: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery
By Syd Moore
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
It’s summer in Adders Fork. The sun is out, the sky is blue and things are going swimmingly for Rosie Strange, thank you very much. The Essex Witch Museum has been relaunched with a new Ursula Cadence wing and picnic grounds.
Then developers roll into the sleepy village to widen the road. When the centuries-old Blackly Be boulder, said to mark the grave of a notorious witch but now in the car park of the Seven Stars, is moved, all hell breaks out. Within hours a slew of peculiar phenomena descends and, when a severed head is discovered atop the boulder, the locals can take no more and storm the Museum to demand someone take action.
Can Rosie and Sam unravel the mystery? And what of the ancient treasure that could drastically change someone’s fortunes and offer a motive for murder?
Then developers roll into the sleepy village to widen the road. When the centuries-old Blackly Be boulder, said to mark the grave of a notorious witch but now in the car park of the Seven Stars, is moved, all hell breaks out. Within hours a slew of peculiar phenomena descends and, when a severed head is discovered atop the boulder, the locals can take no more and storm the Museum to demand someone take action.
Can Rosie and Sam unravel the mystery? And what of the ancient treasure that could drastically change someone’s fortunes and offer a motive for murder?
Author
Syd Moore
Syd Moore has worked extensively in publishing and the book trade and presented Channel 4’s late night book programme, Pulp.
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Reviews for Strange Fascination
Rating: 3.5384615384615383 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
13 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Consider my enthusiasm for this series dampened. This was a very average effort, with a number of problems I couldn't overlook. The biggest is the MC, Rosie. I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt and say she probably has a long-range plan for Rosie's personal growth, but if so, she's not executing it well. The MC has a chip on her shoulder about being from Essex and the stereotypes involved in being an "Essex Girl"; the chip is big enough to sit firmly in soapbox/crusader territory, as she frequently fights the good fight against the idea that an "Essex Girl" is cheap, trashy, and dumb. And then proceeds to refer to vegetarians as "nut-nuts". And utterly dismiss someone's conversation about ecology, because ... who cares? And when people fail to fawn over her best friend for being the "black urban goddess" she is, her knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss them as backward conservatives. (They were polite, mind you, they just didn't fall to their knees in awe.) Not sure how she can find the time to fight the Essex Girl stereotype when she spends so much time stereotyping everyone else. The author also seems intent on making Rosie a bit of a dim bulb through the use of scenes and dialog that are obvious choices to highlight her ignorance without showing any desire to correct it. Again, it's hard to square this with Rosie's righteous mandate to stamp out the cliches. She also spends a lot of time drunk. Absolutely pissed. Bottles of Prosecco at a time pissed. Now, I don't care what socio-economic class you are in or are perceived to be in by others - being a drunk is not classy. I understand some cultures enjoy the plonk more than others, but sorry, drunk is tawdry in any culture and economic class. So. MC with contradictions. It happens, and as I say, the author might have a master plan I'm just not seeing. Unfortunately there were some egregious editing issues too. Poor and odd word choices (she kept referring to the ground as the floor - is this a common interchange in UK English?), and poorly copyedited, this 3rd instalment felt rushed to press. The pace dragged too, and the plot was all loosey-goosey. A more severe editor would have done this book more justice. I liked the story though, once I was able to dig through all the extraneous dead-ends. I enjoy the factual elements of historical record the author uses, tying them and local legends into her modern day murder plots. If the author dropped the hypocritical chip on the MCs shoulder, matured her up, dried her out, and tightened up her plotting, she'd have a hit series on her hands. She might yet, but this book won't be a contributing factor. I'll be taking a close look at the fourth one (if/when it comes out) before I commit to reading further in this series.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strange Fascination is the third in the quirky Essex Witch Museum mystery series but it can also be read as a stand alone. When developers move a boulder known as the ‘Blackly Be’ which supposedly lies over the grave of a witch, strange things start to happen. Stir in a couple of bodies and a murder and the cauldron is bubbling nicely.This series of books is fun to read with Strange Fascination being no exception. There are some zany characters and they are written with a sense of humour. The mystery side in this particular book is very intriguing, although it takes a little time to get going. I like that there are one or two true facts contained within the fiction. The ‘will they, won’t they’ relationship between the two main characters, Rosie and Sam, continues. If I was Sam, I’d run a mile - Rosie is like some sort of man eater, she makes me cringe and roll my eyes at times with her euphemisms and metaphors. Just get on with it, guys! ?. There is also progress with another thread running through the series - an old family mystery, the disappearance of Rosie’s grandmother, Ethel Rose.All in all an entertaining, enchanting and enjoyable read. I look forward to more of Rosie and Sam’s witchy adventures.
Book preview
Strange Fascination - Syd Moore
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