Summary
Burning Lakes is a small town famous after three witches were tried and killed in the 1700s. The Witching Tree serves as a reminder of what happened. People believe that if you carve your desires in the Witching Tree, over time they’ll disappear and only witches can read them.
Nowadays, witches can form covens, practice white magic, and live peacefully among religious faith. But when Veronica Manes is found dead in a witch costume, some believe that the people of the town are cursed and trouble is never too far away.
Detective Natalie is considering retirement after solving two high-profile murder cases. Or at least she was until the killing of Veronica Manes. Natalie is good at what she does and starts to uncover secrets buried long ago but at what cost? What happens when Natalie gets too close to the truth? Should she be looking for one killer or multiple?
Don’t stare too long at the witching tree,
Defile it not or cured you will be.
Review
This book started a little slow for me. I feel like I say that all of the time, so I realize that I may be a little impatient. For me, it picked up around 60%. From there, I was on the edge of my seat. I had so many ideas of who the actual killer or killers were and why. At first, I thought I had it figured out, but as things begin to unravel, there were so many twists and turns that I did not see coming at all! Although there were some predictable moments. I was left a little shocked by how some things played out.
There was some disappointment at the end of the book when I realized that it ended with a cliffhanger. I wish it would have ended by answering all the questions I had at the start of the book, but I guess I’ll wait for the next installment. Overall I enjoyed this book and will be picking up the next novel. I give it four stars because of the way it ended. I hate reading a book and still having so many questions after it’s over.
SN: This is also part 3 of the Detective Lockhart series. I have not read the others, but I plan to check those out since I enjoyed this one so much.
Tani Reads 