Moon Investigations

<–Witch Hunt on Crystal Lake

Title: Restless Bones on Crystal Lake
Series Title: Moon Investigations
Author: B. Batiste
Date Added: March 26, 2018
Date Started: May 1, 2018
Date Finished: May 12, 2018
Reading Duration: 11 days
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Mystery

Pages: 170
Publication Date: March 28, 2018
Publisher: Amazon
Media: eBook/Kindle

A soggy decrepit ghost visits Hazel. And with her new ghostly admirer comes a new case and a new hidden danger.

Lola is wanted for the murder of Royce Habernath, a pirate treasure hunter whom she has fought with many times over a treasure map. In their search for the truth, Hazel, Syn and Blossom struggle with the realization, Lola is the mistress of secrets and killing someone is definitely within her wheelhouse. But when it becomes clear that Lola was framed it becomes a race to find the real murderer before Lola is sent to a prison most don’t return from. At least not whole.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Hazel may have a hidden power a queen is searching for. Whether Hazel truly has it or not the Blood Queen and her minions now know she is on Crystal Lake. And if they find Hazel, her death is certain.

Lola is one of the most interesting characters in the Moon Investigation series.  Often side characters are just that: ones on the side, but Miss Batiste puts a great deal of effort into making all of hers intriguing.  Unsurprisingly, Lola didn’t become a bad ass on a whim.  She was forged in fire and pain with pirate ancestors who became embroiled in more than what they bargained for.

I’m still waiting on Syn’s full back story, though we do find out a bit about how horrifying being a Sinth is.  All I’ll say is that it includes forced tattoos, and if you know anything about history, you won’t need the implications of that spelled out.

The second novel has quite the cliffhanger ending, and I did have some trouble keeping all of the names straight.  There are a lot of random, side characters thrown in to show how expansive and varied the magical world of Crystal Lake is in regards to its citizenry.  Everything does connect in the end when the arc of the story is resolved, but the overarching theme of the series still hangs over everyone’s head.

4 stars.