I’m over the moon to be helping to kick off the blog tour for Witch Dust, by Marilyn Messik 🙂
Blurb:
“A red gash of a mouth rimmed with impossibly tiny, razor-sharp teeth yawned wide, then swift as a snake, she bent and struck…”
For Sandra, daughter of illusionists, Adam and Ophelia, life’s never been run of the mill! But when Adam’s wandering eye lights on yet another conquest, it proves a chorus girl too far, and Sandra’s caught in the reverberations of her parents acrimonious parting. Coerced into restoring her depressed Mother to the bosom of a family Sandra never knew existed, she’s sucked into a situation that even for her is unnerving.
From being without a single relative, she suddenly acquires several she’d rather do without, and learns a few home truths she’d prefer not to know. Ophelia, it appears, has not been entirely honest about any number of things. There’s no doubt in Sandra’s mind, the sooner she puts as much distance as possible between herself, her newly discovered nearest and dearest, their peculiar tendencies and their failing hotel business, the happier she’s going to be.
Dire straits call for desperate measures and Sandra reluctantly rises to the occasion. A hanged housemaid, a fly-on-the-wall documentary, The Psychic Society and a quasi co-operative journalist all handled correctly should, she reckons, get the family business up and running, which will allow her to do the same – as fast as she can, and in the opposite direction. Things unfortunately move swiftly from bad to farce and then get a hell of a lot darker. One moment Sandra’s struggling to save the family’s income, the next, she’s battling to save their lives.
Turns out, some darknesses, once buried, are best left undisturbed.
My Review:
Having loved Marilyn Messik’s previous books, I was really looking forward to reading Witch Dust. I love the title. In my view there are two types of dust. The kind that sets my allergies off and the magic kind. I have a fairy tattoo on my arm sprinkling fairy dust. Similar pose to the front cover of this book.
Photo is of her ten years ago when she was very shiny and new. I need to get her hair dyed again at some point 😉
I know which version of dust I prefer “Achoo!” …Anyway, back to the topic of the book, rather than my love hate relationship with dust. I’m pleased to announce Witch Dust was yet another enjoyable read.
This is a story with funny, quirky and eccentric characters. Something I’ve come to expect from this author. I found this particular book entertaining, rather than scary. Think a hint of The Hotel Inspector and Most Haunted meets The Addams Family and you’ll get an idea of what this book is like. When I read a book that makes my family seem normal, I know I’m definitely reading about rather peculiar characters.
The reason for four stars rather than five, is that I didn’t quite fall in love with this book as much as my favourite by this author, which is Relatively Strange. I felt this book had a slower start, and because I love Stella from the previous books so much, it did take me slightly longer to warm to Sandra in this one. However, I did feel a bond with her when she discovered some home truths about her family, and I wondered if she felt similar to me when I was reading another book recently, and discovered I probably have Viking ancestry. Somehow I think I may have been a little more excited about my discovery than Sandra was about hers.
On the last page of this book, there is a section called ‘by the same author’ which has snippets of reviews for Relatively Strange and Even Stranger. Imagine my delight, when I spot part of my own review of Even Stranger at the very bottom of the page. I definitely got to have the last word when it came to this book, ha ha 🙂
4 Stars
Where to find this book:
About the Author:
Marilyn was a regular feature and fiction writer for various national magazines when her children were small. She then set up her first business, selling toys, books and party goods from home, before opening first one shop then another. When she sold both shops she moved into the world of travel, focusing on Bed and Breakfasts and Country Inns in New England, USA. Her advisory, planning and booking service flourished and she concurrently launched a publishing company, producing an annual, full-colour accommodation guide. In 2007 she set up a copywriting consultancy, to help businesses shape their messages to optimum effect.
She’s the author of the Little Black Business Book series and the novels Relatively Strange and Even Stranger. She’s been married to her very patient husband for more years than he deserves and they have two children, five grandchildren and, somewhat to their surprise, several grand-dogs. Her writing style has been described as ‘A cross between Stephen King and Maureen Lipman.’ although, as she points out, she’s not sure either of them would be remotely thrilled to hear that!
Where to find the author:
LittleMissNoSleep Daydreams of Books 
I love your tattoo!
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Thank you. I’d love to have more, but I keep changing my mind when it comes to deciding what I want, so keep putting it off 😉
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