Magick Run Amok (An Abracadabra Mystery #3) by Sharon Pape @sbpape @KensingtonBooks #bookreview #mystery #fantasy

Title: Magick Run Amok

Author:  Sharon Pape

Publisher: Lyrical Underground

Publication Date: May 1, 2018

Page Count: 337

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

 The answer to whodunit may lie beyond the veil . . .
 
November in upstate New York can be chilly, but Kailyn Wilde’s shop, Abracadabra, is a cozy respite where you can find lotions, potions, and plenty of warm, feline company. But what customers don’t know is that the proprietor has some unusual powers—and unusual friends, including the renowned magician Merlin, who’s been transported into the modern world. All of which comes in handy when there’s a murder to be solved . . .

Investigative journalist Ryan Cutler has perished in a car accident in New Camel, and his friend, Travis, suspects foul play—especially when the reporter’s notes reveal a mysterious list of dead men’s names. Kailyn wants to help, but she’s also got her hands full with the curmudgeonly Merlin, who’s not exactly maintaining a low profile. Between keeping the wizard under wraps and mixing up cold remedies that work like magic, she’ll have to tap into her many talents to figure out a killer’s fatal formula . . .

Magick Run Amok by Sharon Pape is the third book in the An Abracadabra Mystery series. The series is a mix of cozy mystery with urban fantasy with the main character being a witch who runs a magic shop, Abracadabra, talks to the ghosts of her relatives that have passed and had conjured Merlin who is now also a character in the series.

As with most cozy mystery series each book is centered around a new case for the characters to solve so the mystery side could be understood without having read all the books. However, the characters and their personal lives have carried their story over from book to book so to get the most enjoyment and understanding it’s always nice to start at the beginning.

In this installment of the series Kailyn’s love interest, Travis, finds that his friend and fellow reporter has gone missing so her goes out to search. Unfortunately Travis does find Ryan’s body and to Travis it looks like he’s been murdered but to the police it looks like a simple case of choking, the problem for Travis is that Ryan was a vegetarian and wouldn’t have touched the burger he’s found with voluntarily. With Travis determined to find a murderer Kailyn, Tilly and Merlin vow to do whatever they need to do to help.

The Abracadabra Mysteries are such fun to come back to book after book for someone like myself that enjoys crossing genres and reading something out of the ordinary. The unique twist of having a main character who is a witch investigating murder is that she always has the perfect (or not so perfect) spell on hand for any occasion whether it be a locked door or icy sidewalk. And with the rather eccentric side characters involved in this one it’s always worth quite a few chuckles along the way. This installment of the series was no different packing in all the fun found in previous reads along with danger around every turn as Kailyn and crew tried to prove who was the killer. Again I’ll be looking forward to the next book in the series to continue on with the fun.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Alibis and Amethysts,the first book in Sharon Pape’s Crystal Shop Mysteries, debuts on August 20th, 2013 from Berkley Intermix.Visit her website to read an excerpt.

The fourth book in her Portrait of Crime Mysteries, Sketcher in the Rye, will be released on December 17th, also by Berkley Intermix. Both books are available for preorder.

Sharon is also the author of three earlier novels, one of which was condensed in Redbook magazine. It was the first paperback original the magazine ever condensed.

For more on Sharon’s background, visit her website: http://www.sharonpape.com