Moon Investigations

Restless Bones on Crystal Lake–>

Title: Witch Hunt on Crystal Lake
Series Title: Moon Investigations
Author: B. Batiste
Date Started: December 23, 2017
Date Finished: January 6, 2018
Reading Duration: 14 days
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Mystery

Pages: 215
Publication Date: January 1, 2018
Publisher: Self
Media: Kindle

If you are a magical or mythical creature in your human form or other and need help the police can’t or won’t provide, come on down to Moon Investigations. Where help may be only a spell away. 

On the island of Crystal Lake where technology and magic are intertwined, magical gangs will rob and or curse you and dragons strut their stuff down the street, anything can happen. 

Private Investigator Hazel Moondance tries her best to help those in need. Family members of the missing, forgotten and runaways are her main clients. So, when a mother comes to her looking for her daughter Rose Stone, Hazel is determined to find her. With the help of a bounty hunter and a seasoned witch, Hazel must sort through the life and secrets of Rose. She finds a secret that leads to other unsolved cases and a ritual that could destroy the island. 

Now Hazel and her helpers must find Rose, the other missing girls and the person who took them before the night of the Emerald Stars or it will be too late.

This is an excellent witchy mystery that doesn’t rely on cliched tropes.  Of course there’s magic and mythical creatures, but it reads more like a “whodunnit?” with a variety of magical characters.

Hazel’s life is never boring between living in the midst of supernatural center and running her PI business with the assistance of her bounty hunter friend Lola who features more prominently in the second book Restless Bones on Crystal Lake.

The author has a very concise writing style that I really like. This is odd for me since I’m a long winded writer myself, and the “purpler” the prose the better, but I enjoy how such a method works for the PI type stories. There are no words wasted, and while the main character Hazel is witty, she doesn’t meander into overly snarky territory, which is becoming more and more common.

The ending/climax is a bit quick and we barely see the bad guy in those moments, but there are enough red herrings to keep you guessing. Despite the minimalist style, the world building is still intriguing. Just enough to whet your appetite and make you wonder not all what the island contains, but the rest of the world as well.

4 stars.