Read time: 4 minutes
📚 Read as a book | 📃 272 pages
⏱ 4 hours | 📱📖 Read on Kindle
ARC via NetGalley
🏷️ Publisher: Kensington Cozies
Book Blurb:
In this spin-off of Carol J. Perry’s Witch City Mysteries, Lee Mondello’s Aunt Ibby starts her own sleuthing career in Salem. When a birthday party gets interrupted by cops with a search warrant, Ibby learns her tenant’s apartment is stuffed with paintings stolen from a museum decades ago — and the tenant himself is missing. Ibby and her friends, fueled by weekly Midsomer Murders watch parties, decide to do some real-life detective work. But when the missing man turns up dead in the Salem Woods, Ibby has to prove she’s got the investigative chops to match her niece.
Let’s talk about the book:
Yes, I know this is a spin-off. Yes, I know Lee Berrett Mondello isn’t in the book. Yes, I know all that, but I still wanted Lee. I still craved for those visions in the shiny surfaces. I still yearned for magic in the mystery. Aunt Ibby game me mystery, but without the magic.
Aunt Ibby and her two friends go about solving a crime in this book, which kicks off a brand-new series where these three amateur sleuths take centre stage. And look, the mystery itself works. It’s a straight-cut cozy with all the drama, fun, and sleuthing you would look for: stolen paintings, a shady cult-adjascent art group, a body in the woods, the whole deal. There’s real craft here.
But as a true Carol J. Perry fan, I kept waiting for that spark, the paranormal kind. It never showed up. I enjoyed the journey. I really did. Ibby’s tech-savvy sixty-something energy is charming, and O’Ryan the cat is doing his best. But I don’t think Aunt Ibby is the one I’ll be following into book two. I’ll take the mystery. I’ll just keep missing the magic.
Would I recommend it?
If you love a clean, well-plotted cozy with no paranormal elements, this one delivers. It has solid pacing, a fun cast of amateur sleuths, and a satisfying whodunit. But if you are coming from Witch City series hoping for a taste of Lee’s magic, temper your expectations. It’s a good mystery. Just not the mystery I was hoping for.
If You Liked This, Try These
- Witch City Mysteries series (starting with Caught Dead Handed) by Carol J. Perry — if you’re craving the Lee Berrett magic this spin-off didn’t deliver, go straight to the source.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Devil’s Chew Toy by Rob Osler — for readers who like their cozy mysteries with a sharp, character-driven amateur detective.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary - The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths — if you want a slightly older sleuth solving crimes with wit and grit, minus the magic.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Death and Croissants by Ian Moore — a cozy with a found-family feel and a detective duo you’ll want to follow book after book.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Missing the Magic: What Do You Say?
Have you ever picked up a spin-off hoping for the same spark as the original, only to find the story’s great, but the magic’s gone? Tell me in the comments: does a spin-off need to keep the original’s “special ingredient” to work for you, or can it stand on its own?
Book Links
Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below — they work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your orders. #SupportLocal
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert
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