Do not confuse The Witching Tree by Alice Blanchard with any gentle witch-related book like Practical
Magic or any other by Alice Hoffman. Different authors, very different books despite the common theme of witchcraft in the US NorthEast. This
one jumps right into the darker side of both witchcraft and villainy: a modern practicing
witch & historical-coven leader wakes up with a foggy memory, dressed in an old
Halloween witch costume and chained to a railroad track. The recent history of this little northeastern town is sure to
intrigue if you like reading about serial killers, covens, and curses. Although this is
several books into the series and I haven't read any of the previous ones, I’m not having trouble following who is who among the investigators and chief suspects. Any recurring characters and their
connection with Natalie are explicated (briefly) at the time they appear. There
are a lot of witches, however: two historic covens plus scatterings of modern
solitary witches who appear in a clump and must be gradually distinguished
from each other going forward. Mostly they’re sweet, harmless women who have
potlucks and volunteer at the food drive when not performing their rituals, but
some have motives for wanting the dead witch out of the way.
Immediately following that heart-stopping prologue, we jump to a cosy 19th
century mansion where our protagonist, Natalie Lockhart, is considering an
important decision: whether or not to quit the police force. Her recent life
has included more than one previous grisly murder case and she’s lost people dear
to her, and she’s feeling very scarred by it all. So right now, there’s a lot of
temptation to hunker down in this mansion with hot, handsome, devoted Hunter
Rose, like “curling up with a leather bound Charles Dickens novel.” The imagery is poetic the character and setting feel very
soothing. It’s great contrast to what has just gone before, and you can’t help
but wonder how soon this gently Gothic upstate idyll will be overturned either
by the discovery that Hunter and all he promises are not quite so idyllic as the
vacation atmosphere that has so far permeated their relationship promises, or by witch
purée being found on the nearby railroad tracks.
It is hard for this modern woman not to yell about the gilded cage
awaiting Natalie if she slides into Hunter’s gilded world where he earns all
the money and owns all the assets. Even though she is dreaming of unlimited
time to paint and draw and just be herself, including lots of sex and good
times with Hunter, quitting her job for this is abandoning her own hard-won career
at 30 because some man promises a better vision. Whether the character or the author
also sees that as a trap becomes clearer down the road.
The pacing is good, churning ahead with introduction of
clues, suspects, fellow police, and a full net of red herrings. By the 10%
mark you're well into the investigation's early stages, and one big flag has just turned up
for it: the dead witch was doing research for a new book - presumably about
witchcraft - in the same historic town that had killed three women during the
Salem witch trials era, and been cursed for it. Detective Natalie doesn’t quite believe
in curses, but she memorized the words of that particular curse way back in
childhood and it sure seems, with yet another grisly death to investigate, that
the town is prone to more than its share of evil deeds.
The book makes a distinction between modern 'good' witchcraft, or
Wicca, and the various dark rituals commonly thought of as 'witchcraft' including neo-satanic rites invented by confused drug addicts who are hoping magic will turn their chaotic lives around better than NA meetings will. Blanchard can make a basic description of a pretty, snowy,
woodland scene feel deeply creepy and potentially evil. Just imagine what she
can do with a sagging cottage where a pair of tweakers - wannabe evil witches - have been
squatting in squalor while making up weird rituals out of their drug-addled imaginations.
One intermittent flaw in the writing is that the author
first does a great job of showing us the series of disasters that brought Natalie to the point of emotional and psychological brittleness and
then spells it out in clumsy sentences like “Natalie felt tremendous guilt and
pain and sorrow.” It’s like a kindergarten teacher came along and added a
clarifying sentence. And there are occasional
lines of description that don’t make a lot of sense, like “peeled off her
coat with a stale crackle.”. It’s hard not to think that is a dictation typo
that got left in accidentally.
Overall, though very well written, this book is unrelieved grimness apart from that
briefly cosy opening scene in the mansion. There are no lighter moments to take the tension down a notch,
only Natalie’s exhausted efforts to keep her web of personal and professional
relationships functioning in the face of not only another hideous crime but her
own fragile mental state. It's a tossup what is more compelling for the reader: following the police investigation to find the villains, or guessing whether Natalie's life & psyche will fall apart completely before the climax.
Be warned that readers who like full closure on their mysteries won't take kindly to this ending. There's a lot of emotional punch but ends left deliberately loose and lots of setup for the next book too.
This ARC was sent to J.E Barnard by NetGalley in exchange for honest review.
See reviewer Barnard's books (both the grim and the gleeful)
#novel #witchcraft #murder #witches #WitchingTree #AliceBlanchard #AliceHoffman #MacMillan #NatalieLockhart #NetGalley #Minotaur
