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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
mysteries, and the Mysteries, July 10, 2002
This review is from: Bell, Book, and Murder: The Bast Mysteries (Paperback)
_Speak Daggers to Her_, _The Book of Moons_, and _The Bowl of Night_ are some of the best fiction about modern witches I've seen yet. And the main reason why is the heroine, Bast. In Bast, Rosemary Edghill creates a delightful heroine with a deep belief in the Goddess and magic--and also with a barbed tongue that deftly skewers the politics and foibles of the Pagan community. Even if there had been no plot in these three novels, I would have kept reading just to "listen" to Bast talk. And as an added bonus, there *is* a plot. _Speak Daggers to Her_: An old friend of Bast's dies of seemingly natural causes in her apartment. Bast discovers that her friend had gotten mixed up in a cult--could this be related? _The Book of Moons_: Probably my favorite of the three, because of the historical speculation. Several New York Wiccans find their Books of Shadows missing. Then, an obnoxious newbie shows up at a picnic brandishing a book he is certain is the BOS of Mary Queen of Scots. Then someone ends up dead. How are all these things connected? Read on... _The Bowl of Night_: Bast thought the most confusing part of the Samhain retreat would be sharing a cabin with handsome ceremonial magician Julian. But when a local fundamentalist preacher ends up dead on the campsite, things keep getting weirder... I'm not sure how well these books work *as mysteries*, since the solution is generally not hard to figure out. I guess I'm just used to the sort of mysteries with 85 red herrings, and no concrete clues until the last two pages, when suddenly the culprit kidnaps the sleuth and reveals the whole plot. Actually, I find that I like Edghill's more straightforward style better, since the mystery is gradually revealed in layers instead of completely hidden and then suddenly sprung on the reader. I just want to warn readers of the more usual sort of mysteries that these work a little differently. As for me, I like them. I only wish this were an ongoing series.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just good religion, good writing, November 15, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Bell, Book, and Murder: The Bast Mysteries (Paperback)
I won't recap all the reviews which tell you that the Bast novels are both unpretentious and Wicca-accurate, but I will agree that that's true. The greatest of these for me, though, is unpretentious; that is, these aren't fantasy nor yet the kind of self-aggrandizement and self-marginalization that sometimes stalk the Wiccan community. And--it's a real pleasure to say this after the last Wiccan murder mystery I had to review--these are WELL WRITTEN. Yes, really! Edgehill knows how to use commas, adjectives, and similar arcana as well as she knows how to cast a circle--and that, my friends, is a rare and beautiful combination. Magic (or, if you prefer, magick) without BS, self-delusion, sentimentality or misuse of the semi-colon--need I say more? It's true that the mysteries aren't very mysterious, but I don't think they're meant to be (and in real life, of course, the spouse generally *did* do it.) These aren't really books about how to solve mysteries; they're about the ethical dilemmas that come with believing what we pagans say we believe, but often fall down on in practice. They're about our responsibility to act when we see a problem, and the risks that action entails, and the way Wicca both helps and doesn't help us to do it. Anyone who ever said she wanted something beyond Wicca 101: these books are it.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Wiccas, July 8, 2000
This review is from: Bell, Book, and Murder: The Bast Mysteries (Paperback)
The Pagan world is a refreshing backdrop for a trio of well written mysteries. What is really amazing is how the author guides the reader into the story and the personality of Bast. I find that I feel her confusion, joy, sorrow and fear. In the first book Speak Daggers to Her the murder? stirs Bast's anger. In the second book The Book of Moons Bast is stalked by the killer. Her peril is so real that I found my heart racing. The last novel The Bowl of Night the author gives us a wonderful lesson that just as there are all kinds of Christians, there are all kind of Pagans but fanatics are just as dangerous no matter what their religion. The solution to the mystery broke my heart even though I solved the crime much sooner than Bast. This is an excellent collection. I hope she write more tales of Lady Bast.
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