Look Both Ways (A Witch City Mystery)

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

I tend to like reading mysteries and ones with an infusion of magic are even better. Unfortunately, I felt like I was forcing myself to finish LOOK BOTH WAYS. It had a lot of good elements to it including a murder to solve, hidden diamonds, and lots of suspects to choose from to make it a fun whodunit. The story seemed to focus so much on the mundane day to day tasks that I started to lose interest. There were so many small elements and odd conversations that distracted from the actual murder mystery. Also, there was a ton of repetition of events. A character would do something and them explain what happened to two other people and have two separate discussions about said same event. Since there was so much repetition I felt like nothing happened until maybe the last few chapters.

On the magic front...well there wasn't too much. Lee is a scryer and sees visions, her friend reads tarot cards, there's a coven, and her cat is mysteriously smarter than the average cat. Now that would seem like a pretty nice set up for a witch who solves mysteries using her visions with the help of her friends. Except there wasn't too much magic and the visions Lee did have were really boring and so vague I was amazed at how she could figure it all out. There were long stretches of times where I almost forgot that this series had 'witch' in the title.

The ending did get some more magic once the bad guy being caught which was good and I wish we got more of that earlier in the book. LOOK BOTH WAYS had potential to be a light magical mystery story and in the end it felt like work to get through it.

I liked the earlier books in the series much better than this one. It's not as mystical and her voice seems to have changed from the first books. She uses words and phrases my 90 year old mother uses, placing her in an older generation. She doesn't write as if she's a young Lee Barrett, but more as if her Aunt Ibby is speaking.
Disappointing.

The bureau is a great character in Book 3 of this series! Since I have family in Salem, this series is especially interesting to me. I am enjoying how the artsy school is a part of the mysteries and Lee is definitely an offbeat character--driving with the top down in chilly weather! That all makes for good reading!

X mad gift for MIl

I love the combo of cats, psychics, and mysteries with humor. Carol J Perry has created a wonderful series with all of these fun elements. And the finale scene with cats was especially fun! Pur-fect! I’ve read the first three books and plan to read them all. Hoping the series lasts a long time!!

I recently enjoyed a second book in the "Witch City Mystery" series called "Look Both Ways" by Carol J Perry.
Witch City is of course Salem, Massachusetts, home of the famous Witch trials. (The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693.)
The main character, Maralee is a Scryer (which means she can see "things" in reflective surfaces- that helps her solve mysteries). Her day job is a teacher, and her boyfriend is a Salem, Mass. police officer. The series has great characters- her Aunt and her aunt's boyfriend (who runs the school where Maralee is emplooyed); and Maralee's tarot card reading friend, River. There's also Maralee's mysterious cat...
In this book, the story revolves around a murder in the past, and Maralee purchases a bureau that once belonged to the victim, and has secret compartments with clues... clues that prompt murders that Maralee and her boyfriend need to solve. I love the characters, the story and the series. 5 of 5 stars!

Me mum loved it.

Love this mystery series!

I like the stories about witchcraft and murder.

Another great book in the series! You will still be able to understand this book, even if you haven't read the other books in this series.