Customer Reviews

Never Burn a Witch: A Rowan Gant Investigation

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

NEVER BURN A WITCH is the second Rowan Gant Investigation, following HARM NONE.

Someone is running around St Louis with an apostolic way of thinking. They truly believe God is directing their path and that it is their duty to rid the earth of witches.

Brianna Louise Walker took a nosedive off of the sixth story balcony of the Riverfront Hilton handcuffed. The monogram of Christ was carved into her inner thighs by the murderer to purify her because of her profession. The second murder is even more gruesome.

Rowan Gant is back to help his best friend, police officer Ben Storm, because a serial killer is on the loose, and it's up to them to solve these murders before the next one occurs.

I found NEVER BURN A WITCH to have a very strong plot. It moves along at a fast pace and delivers lots of suspense. M.R. Sellers writes with such graphic descriptions that you feel you are there witnessing it with your own eyes. This is not a read for the faint of heart.

Fresh from the previous volume, 'Harm None,' Rowan Gant is once again drawn into a police investigation by his good friend Benjamin Storm. As a public practitioner of Wicca in St. Louis, Gant often provides support when a case seems to have occult overtones. The first young woman is tortured and thrown out of her apartment, the second burnt in a public park. In each case symbols are found and a bible is left at the site with a marked quote.

Gant quickly recognizes that truth, which is confirmed by his psychic reading of the dead. A witch hunter is loose in the city, one that uses the medieval 'Malleus Maleficarum' as his manual, just like the original Inquisition. This time Rowan is warned of the deaths by the appearance of painful stigma on his body, shaped like the chi rho symbol of Christ. The murders proceed almost inexorably, claiming not just witches, but the innocent as well.

First the killer hunts the members of a coven, but when Rowan's investigations start to interfere, the St. Louis witch is added to the list of potential victims. Rowan now must hunt the hunter if he is to survive. In single minded pursuit he seems to loose his grasp on his own powers and repeatedly finds himself in conflict with his wife Felicity and his friend Benjamin. The witch seems compelled to reach the final confrontation in the worst possible fashion.

While quite readable, I found 'Never Burn a Witch' something of a disappointment after 'Harm None.' The latter showed quite a bit of promise, but the new book is suffering from a slight case of 'sophomore slump.' I found the book very repetitious in its early going - murder, crime scene, psychic vision, murder, crime scene, etc. As there is a lot of violence in this book this goes on for too long, and with very little relief, comic or otherwise. Almost no attention is paid to the killer, and progress to the ending is unsurprising and almost inexorable.

Gant, portrayed as a man of intelligence and integrity, inevitably seems to lose all his wisdom under pressure. And if I was his wife, I'd divorce him. He keeps telling her he won't do things and then promptly goes out and does them. My final gripe, and the worst, is that other than the psychic visitations with the murder victims and the appearance of the stigmata there really isn't a lot of 'witchiness' to the story. What occult is offered is mostly in the service of furthering the violence of the narrative rather than enriching the plot.

The story line seems to indicate that another volume is in the offing. If so, I hope M.R. Sellars takes the opportunity to deepen the dimensions of the plot a bit. He does have real writing talent, and this could become a very successful series. The book is really better than three stars, but is simply not up to its four star predecessor.

Eagerly anticipating this latest offering by Mr. Sellers, I was not disappointed. The characters of Rowan Gant, Felicity Gant, and Ben Storm are devleoped even further. The anticipation literally would not let me put the book down until I was done. It is refreshing to see a Pagan author writing fiction but showing a more "real" side of Pagan beliefs and attitudes. The supernatural elements in Gants' life are only slightly outside the realm of possibilities. The characters are real and situations (sadly) all too possible in this age of serial killers and media hype. Sellers presents his characters in very real fashion, and also gives a realistic view of people who live within this faith known as Wicca, as well as giving realistic and real to life reactions of those who come in contact with many people who are of this faith, both open minded or not. I own his first offering in this series and cannot keep it in my library as it keeps getting loaned out, only to be told they are having to buy their own copy. We can only hope that Sellers will be publishing for many years to come.

I am the mother of a 3 year old, so needless to say, I don't get a lot of time to myself for reading. It usually takes me a while to finish a book. However, I finished this book in three evenings! It pulls you in at the very beginning and doesn't stop until it's done. Even then, it hints at more to come.

I liked it so much that as soon as I read the last page, I got online and ordered two other MR Sellars books.

Sellars presents Wicca and Paganism in a realistic, positive light. His descriptions are so realistic I felt I was right there with the characters. This is a fantastic read whether you are Pagan or just love a great mystery!

In his first book, "Harm None", Mr. Seller's introduced us to Rowan Gant and his cast of characters that comprised what turned out to be a really original and suspenseful mystery novel. Mr. Seller's returns with his players in the Rowan Gant Investigation "Never Burn a Witch".

Mr. Seller's continues with the mystery/suspence vein by presenting us with another serial killer and it falls on Rowan Gant, the modern day witch and consultant to the police department, to lead the police to a killer who is a self proclaimed inquisitor and executioner focusing on witches. Will Rowan and the police find him before he kills again?

Suspense, humor, drama, good character development, original plot and twists; all these were present in the first book, and continues in the second book. Mr. Seller's presents us with an excellent offering of mystery/suspense. From the opening pages to the cliff hanger ending, it's a "can't put it down" novel.

With all the thrills of a 1940's detective novel and in the tradition of the classic mystery writers, we have a new entry into mystery/suspense theater with Rowan Gant.

This is a great series of mystery books that deal with Witchcraft in a very respectable way. The main characters are witches who help the law decipher occult symbols found at a St.Louis murder site. It's a fairly realistic portrayal of wiccans. Christians won't approve, but the book gets heavily into the craft and it's tenants.

Check this one out, it was a rollercoaster ride.

I was in the middle of one of Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta mysteries when I picked up "Never Burn a Witch." After only a few pages, I put Cornwall aside until I finished this book, and the two sequels that follow it: "Perfect Trust" and "The Law of Three."

I had read and enjoyed the first book, "Harm None." With each book, the stakes grow higher for Rowan Gant. There is a real sense of place in the St. Louis setting. The positive portrayal of pagan religion makes it a fascinating read, but Sellars never lets the religious aspect overshadow the mystery.

I cannot recommend the Rowan Gant series highly enough.

I raced to the store to purchase the next M.R. Sellars book, "Never Burn a Witch". Got it home and began to read it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but, I must say not as much as the first, "Harm None". My reason for this is because of the cliff hanger at the end. Although most people like movies and books that give them just that a cliff hanger. However, I am more of a complete kind of person. The book itself was a good as the first and I enjoyed the same. Again, M.R. Sellars I thank you.

Can't wait to get to the next book.

M.R. Sellars follows up Harm None and the Rown Gant investigations in style. He portrays witches & pagans truthfully and explores all the traditional misconceptions about them. He gives us a history lesson and makes it fun. He gives us a mystery to figure out, and takes us for a wild ride. M.R. is a great teacher, a great man, and a heckuva funny guy (I've had the pleasure of meeting him and taking a class he taught with Dorothy Morrison.) Well done & keep them coming, M.R.!

Sellars' mystery series takes a few new twists in this second book. Once again we have a serial killer, but this time s/he's targeting pagans in the St. Louis area. Worse yet, whoever it is has decided that The Malleus Maleficarum is holy writ.

As before, Sellars gives us good views of who his characters are as people--and how they deal with increasing weirdness, such as the stigmata-like wound on Rowan's arm that resembles the same symbol the killer leaves at the scenes, and Rowan's increasing detachment from reality and into the alternate world of the spirits of the murder victims. These details rather push the limit of the realism of Wicca presented in the book, but it still beats flying fireballs and physical portals into the Otherworld.

Sellars leaves us with a cliffhanger of an ending, which of course led me to run and get the next book from the shelf so I could find out just what happens next. I'm really enjoying this series thus far, and I'm glad to have a good series of fiction to relax with.