Jeanne of the Bookblog of the Bristol
Library is back today with her latest review…
Treadmill Books: The Witch’s Familiar Series by Delia James
Annabelle Blessington Britton, an artist just coming off a
bad relationship, decides to take up her friend Martine’s invitation to visit
her in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Martine is a chef. Annabelle quickly
discovers that her family has a past in Portsmouth that she knew nothing about,
that a strange grey cat seems to be following her, and that she herself is a
witch. On top of that, she finds that
the cat’s former owner has died in an apparent accident which may actually turn
out to have been murder.
Mysteries with cats and a touch of the supernatural are a
bit more common than one might think at first; I can think of at least four
other series that fit that description right off the bat. Five, if the cats
aren’t particularly active characters.
Anyway, the grey cat in question is Alastair who was the familiar of the
late Dorothy and has now adopted Annabelle as his witch. There’s quite a bit of convincing to be done,
but by the book’s end Annabelle has joined a coven and is starting to learn the
magical ropes.
Each book explores a bit more of the lore surrounding the Craft,
all during the course of investigating a murder which has some supernatural
overtones. Fortunately, one member of the
coven is a police officer, albeit a junior officer who has to keep her
activities out of the spotlight; still, it gives Annabelle some access to the
police process. There’s the standard
police officer who takes a dim view of Annabelle meddling, one or two possible
love interests (very chaste so far), a couple of good friends, and many
mentions of good cooking. I consider it
a cozy, but since there is no hard and fast definition of a cozy, some might disagree.
Annabelle is a likeable enough character, though she leans
toward the dramatic and her thought processes are a bit scattered. She can be flippant is often self-deprecating,
giving the books some non-magical levity.
She depends a lot on her “Vibe” to assess a person or situation, so
readers get character views filtered through Annabelle’s perceptions. Also, she
tends not to ask any questions that might clear up a lot of things too quickly
but that can make the plot drag a bit.
As for the supporting characters, they could be better
developed. We’re told about them, but not particularly shown; they tend to run
to type (for example, no nonsense police officer who is former military and has
PTSD; brusque police officer who doesn’t like “nosy parkers” meddling in his
cases; earth mother with a past;
incredibly patient understanding boyfriend; straight-laced and patrician coven
leader, etc.) Alastair the familiar is a
more vivid presence than most of the human characters and he makes up for a
lot. Also, Julia the coven leader has
two dachshunds who are more expressive than she is.
The plots are serviceable and can be somewhat topical. I particularly liked the story line in Familiar
Motives which involves a famous feline spokescat a la Grumpy Cat who goes
missing when her veterinarian is murdered. I won’t go into further details for
fear of spoilers but I liked the way the author handled the scenario.
Verdict: This is an
okay treadmill series. It’s enjoyable but early chapters are often rather slow
while Annabelle describes and dithers, giving new readers background
information. The books generally do pick
up momentum about half-way. In the meantime, I count on Alastair to keep me
entertained along with learning a little about how magic is viewed in Annabelle’s
world. (Except for some phrases and a blessing, there aren’t much in the way of
specifics about magic unlike, say, Juliet Blackwell’s Witchcraft Mystery series. Part of this is because Annabelle is new and
doesn’t ask questions, as noted above.)
There are three books in the series so far:
1.
A Familiar Tail
2.
By Familiar Means
3.
Familiar Motives
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