First of all, I often read the ending of a book to see whodunnit. So after reading a few chapters to assess the situation, I scrolled to the end of Sanctuary and read the last few pages. Tucking that information into the back of my mind, I read the rest of the book in order.

Without giving spoilers, it’s hard to share much about the book. But James blew me away.

If you like playing detective, you’ll have fun trying to figure out the mystery. I am amazed at how cleverly the author plants the clues in plain sight. If I hadn’t known the ending, I would never have guessed it.

At various times, characters stumble across good but inaccurate explanations for what’s happening, or right explanations with the wrong people, or variations of these. There are lots of these moments in this book. But which one is the right one? It’s not until the end of the story that everything comes together. James spins us deeper and deeper into the story until we’re like the folks of Sanctuary, unable to escape the book, even if we wanted to.

As the story goes on, the tension grows. Relationships change. Friendships are destroyed, or were these friendships at all? Or merely mutually beneficial relationships? Or even parasitic relationships, where one feeds off the other person’s secrets and fears?

There are dozens of possibilities, and as the book progresses, the author raises the stakes over and over, developing the conflicts, and people reveal their truest selves. Stripped of their veneer of politeness, they are all capable of anything.

Whenever it seems things can’t get worse, they do. And sometimes these twists and turns come from unexpected people and in unexpected–but not unrealistic–ways. There’s a lot of truth here about human nature and what we are capable of doing, especially in the name of love. Throughout the novel, the centuries-old specter of the hanging deaths of witches looms in the background. It’s painfully easy to see how a frenzied crowd might make this horror a reality once more.

Connecticut has one exception to its ban on the death penalty: Homicide by Unnatural Means. Witchcraft. If Harper is found guilty, she will be executed; the colonial-era law does not allow for a stay of execution or a repeal of the law. Yet everyone knows that Harper, the daughter of a witch, has no magical gifts. That doesn’t stop the accusations from flying . . .

At one point, a character defines magic as the “art of doing things the crooked way, not the straight.” If so, then James works magic with her book. Nothing is straight-forward, and she takes us on a very crooked path indeed.

Recommended for anyone who loves a well-written mystery! ( )

An urban fantasy set in a contemporary Connecticut small town. In this world magic is real and witches are known. However, witches are feared and operate under stringent restrictions to the extent that a misdemeanour for a mundane becomes a felony for a witch.

Sarah Fenn is the town witch in Sanctuary. A high school student dies at a party and the party house catches fire. His mother believes that he was magically murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Harper Fenn, Sarah’s non-magical daughter. She stirs up the town against the Fenns, but she herself is tainted as she was part of Sarah’s coven.

A chilling story about bigotry and small-town mob hysteria. Echoes of the Salem witch-trials abound as the town is sucked deeper into the mire.

Recommended