2012 [original release], 2013, mystery, 326 pages,

The Good Witch of Morgan’s Peak is billed as a mystery, but is much more. The story is set in a small Pennsylvania town and centers on happenings at a recently purchased lakeside estate. Estelle Staab is a widow of five years, is also the real estate agent who closed the deal on the estate, and has a really strange relationship with her dead husband. I do not wish to address the storyline since this is a mystery, one which I enjoyed and do not wish to spoil.

The feel of the story is authentically Pennsylvanian down to the architecture. The atmosphere though, has more of a Brothers Grimm feel to it. The dialogue is refreshingly working class for something concerning women with arcane ‘powers’. This is the only fiction book in which I can recall reading the word ‘crap’ used in dialogue. The theme of an ‘underlying world order’ that is not visible to the common person, which this book shares with vampire and werewolf fiction, is present, but not overwrought.

I am not a mystery reader by preference, but by trade. The methods of crafting such an oblique plot intrigue me, so I read writers such as Sheri Broadbent for their plotting technique. I also read female authors for areas they tend to be strong in as a gender, such as setting descriptions, which Sheri does an excellent—and not overly detailed or effusive—job with. It is nice to read a domestic scene written by an author that can tell what kind of wood the end tables were made from.

Sheri’s unique touch is to let you inside of a woman’s head with a minimum of feminine bullshit. Guys, you only get this kind of insight when women are writing for women. When Estelle looks in the mirror, horrified at the reflection, and faces the onset of middle age with the stoicism of a soldier—only to go and grab a box of fudge—the reader is treated to a classic moment in every woman’s life.

Another aspect I like about the story and characters is that they are sensible middleclass people with a foible here and there. Seeing the supernatural through the eyes of a character goes more smoothly when that character is at least normal. The narrative trajectory flows smoothly over the 13 chapters of the book. The chapters might have been shorter but I sense a numerological scheme here. The strongest and most consistent aspect of Sheri Broadbent’s narrative style is her use of the character interactions to tell the story. The narrative hand in The Good Witch of Morgan’s Peak is all but invisible.

There is a Book Two of the Estelle Staab series available, and another in the works. Sheri Broadbent’s website can be accessed through our network page.