Secondhand Spirits: A Witchcraft Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Juliet Blackwell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Witchcraft Mystery | Publication Date: July 7, 2009

Love the vintage- not the ghosts

Lily Ivory feels that she can finally fit in somewhere and conceal her "witchiness" in San Francisco. It's there that she opens her vintage clothing shop, outfitting customers both spiritually and stylistically.

Just when things seem normal, a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area. Lily has a good idea that some bad phantoms are behind it. Can she keep her identity secret, or will her witchy ways be forced out of the closet as she attempts to stop the phantom?

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Signet (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 045122745X
• ISBN-13: 978-0451227454
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Juliet Blackwell is the pseudonym for a mystery author who, together with her sister, wrote the Art Lover's Mystery Series as Hailey Lind--including the Agatha-nominated Feint of Art and the IMBA bestsellers Shooting Gallery and Brush with Death. The fourth in the series, Arsenic and Old Paint, will be released in fall, 2010.
Juliet's new paranormal Witchcraft Mystery series begins with Secondhand Spirits (July, 2009), about a witch with a vintage clothing store in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. The second in the series, A Cast-Off Coven, will be released June, 2010. Juliet also has a new Haunted Home Renovation series starting in 2010.
A former anthropologist and social worker, Juliet has worked in Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Italy, the Philippines, and France. She is a California native and currently resides in a happily haunted house in Oakland, where she is a muralist, portrait painter, and recipient of the overly zealous attentions of her neighbor's black cat, who seems to imagine himself her new familiar. Juliet is two-term president of Northern California Sisters in Crime.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kept Me in Suspense - Turning Pages Like Mad!, July 13, 2009

By 

Bridgitte Hokinson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secondhand Spirits: A Witchcraft Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Secondhand Spirits: A Witchcraft Mystery

I LOVED Secondhand Spirits! I got through most of it in a day since every chapter end kept me turning. The book is set in San Francisco and the descriptions of the city brought me right back to places I've been many times - described well so that those who've not been will want to make the trip someday. Lily and her friends, Maya and Bronwyn, are characters that remind me of some of my own friends - absolutely lovable. Oscar, Lily's goblin/potbellied pig familiar, also has his own place in my heart and I couldn't imagine laughing nearly as much without having him as a part of the story. I laughed throughout the book. I even cried! The research for the series and the depiction of the paranormal escapades throughout is quite impressive as well.

Finished the book and now I want more! I didn't realize that the book had just been released and finding that I will have to wait to read A Cast-Off Coven is killing me, but good things come to those who wait! Secondhand Spirits is an enjoyable and admirable story that will draw you into a world of magic, spirits, witchcraft, vintage clothes, friendship and Lily finding a true place in life. I highly recommend Secondhand Spirits to any mystery lover!

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Series Debut, September 13, 2009

By 

Mary Kate (Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Secondhand Spirits: A Witchcraft Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Secondhand Spirits is a well plotted and well written mystery that held my attention from cover to cover. The first in a planned series, Secondhand Spirits is the story of Lily Ivory, a powerful witch who has spent much of her life both hiding from and running from what she is. At age 31, she decides it's time to settle down and she chooses to do so in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco where she opens a vintage clothing store. As the story progresses, we learn that Lily is more than just a powerful witch; she is also a strong, admirable and very likable woman.

Nor was Lily the only character I liked. In fact, while the plot of Secondhand Spirits was fresh and absorbing, what really stood out for me were the well-drawn, fully-dimensional characters. Blackwell has created a book that's just chock full of darned interesting people. I enjoyed meeting them, but more than that, I was (and am) intrigued by them. They have hinted-at-histories that promise to be woven into future entries in the series and I look forward to seeing what Blackwell has in store for each of them.

Comments:
* I found Secondhand Spirits to be somewhat darker than the cover seemed to suggest. (For me, this was not a drawback.) While there are moments of humor - many of them involving Lily's newly acquired familiar, Oscar - the story has a rather more serious overall tone and themes that I feel place it on the grittier side of cozy.
* The vintage clothing aspect didn't interest me on its own, but the way Blackwell made it an important part of the plot did. I can see its potential for driving the story in future entries as well.
* I'll admit that I was pretty sure who the `bad guy' was long before he/she was revealed (and I was right), but it didn't matter because I was enjoying the book and was involved with the characters.
* Secondhand Spirits is enriched by wonderful descriptions of San Francisco, its various neighborhoods and by snippets of the city's history.
* The descriptions of witchcraft were detailed and sometimes complicated. I have very little knowledge of the subject, but this "felt" real, making the story work that much better for me. Early on, I did think some of the descriptions of cleansing spells, etc. went on a little too long and slowed the story down a bit.
* Occasionally, the vintage Mustang should probably have been referred to simply as "the car". :-)

I like mysteries and I like stories with a paranormal aspect but I haven't had a lot of luck finding books that combine the two to my satisfaction. Secondhand Spirits did. I'm definitely on board for the sequels.

Recommended.

***(I'd like to read more paranormal mysteries and if anyone would like to offer a recommendation or two - perhaps as a comment? - I'd appreciate it. Some time ago, I tried the first volume in both Victoria Laurie's Psychic Eye series and in Madelyn Alt's Bewitching mysteries and didn't care for either of them.)***

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a little dark, July 17, 2009

By 

bobsmom "kn" (west chester, pa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secondhand Spirits: A Witchcraft Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoyed this book and I've never seen a similar plot line. I found it very interesting and wonder how much research into real witchcraft and urban legends was done. I must warn readers that the cover implies a breezy fun read, but it was a little darker than the cover art might make you think. I am looking forward to the sequel.