The real question is: do we like these people, this place and this world? The answer, for me, is a resounding yes. The victim is nasty, the suspects are few and some easy clues are overlooked by our amateur sleuth. Like most cozy mysteries, the mystery isn’t the strongest point of It Takes a Witch. When one of the village residents is murdered it will come to no surprise to anyone who has ever read a book that Darcy straps on her sleuthing shoes to try and catch the culprit. Darcy and Harper are very new to this whole thing and learning the rules isn’t easy. Wishcrafters like Darcy do exactly what you’d think – they grant wishes. Each witch has specific powers determined by his or her bloodline.

Only the witches are forbidden to speak of their craft to mortals or lose their powers. Not so different from witches and muggles, really. In this world (a small village near Salem, Massachusetts of course) there are mortals and there are crafters. Only years later, after his death, do they discover through an aunt who they really are – they are Wishcrafters. It seems that their mother was a witch and after her untimely death when Darcy was a little girl their father decided to raise them as mortals. It Takes a Witch takes place not long after Darcy and her sister Harper discover that they have magic in their heritage. In the first book, It Takes a Witch, we meet our updated Samantha Stevens in the form of Darcy Merriweather. It would seem that author Heather Blake read my juvenile little mind when she started writing The Wishcraft Mystery Series. You know, cozy type mysteries with benign witches and general tomfoolery. I know it isn’t going to happen, both because I don’t plan on growing up and because she’s, well, fictional, so I make do with the occasional “magic-lite” book. It’s no secret that I want to be Samantha Stevens from Bewitched when I grow up.

It takes a witch by heather blake