The Ophelia and Abby series attempts to embrace quirky characters as it's shining draw. To be honest the elderly Abby never worked for me as a convincing quirky character - there's something about her that can irritate or overwhelm. She's charming and she's wise, but she's a little cliche. We now have an aunt introduced, her sister from the mountains, and even if she is cliche as well, she works much better as a quirky player.

She downright amused me with her eagerness to jump into the crime-solving gig. On the lookout for crime, excitement, and her moonshine drinks, she adds lots of charm. Ophelia is uneven in her relationships still, which is unfortunate. Tink is still a fun introduction that brings a maternal instinct out of Ophelia, who needed another dimension of believability as a character.

The mystery works well not because it is intricately layered, but because it tugs on the heartstrings as we wonder about the characters abilities and what's going on with them, what guilt may rise for Tink, what Ophelia needs to keep discovering about herself to save the day.

When the culprit is revealed, one comes out of the blue, one is obvious. The idea behind it is rather cheesy but the build-up mystery climbing toward it works well enough.

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5th book in the series - and still a lot of fun! I thought by now, the series might get repetitive and stale, but it stays fresh & fun.

We get to meet 91-year old Aunt Dot - who's a hoot!! Can't wait to meet 100-year old Aunt Mary - next book I guess ... but it's not out yet, sigh!

Found this first book in the library just about a month ago, and quickly reserved the other 4 so I could read them all back to back. The 5th one was just published in Sept 07 - 9 months ago, so I have quite a wait I guess before meeting Aunt Mary! ah well! ( )

This was a fast, easy & entertaining read.

Ophelia's soon to be adopted daughter Tink (Titania) has been kidnapped after Tink has a series of terrifying visions (ghosts with missing body parts reaching out to her and asking for help). To add further to Tink's visions, her puppy T.P. comes running out of the woods with a new ball (a human skull)!

Abby's Aunt Dot (who talks to the Faeries) comes to visit from Appalachia and near drives Abby & Ophelia crazy.

The new library helper is too good to be true...Cobra turns back up...and Darci aids & abets the craziness.

Although I knew from the beginning what was going on...this wasn't as violent as the others I read in the series, so I rated it higher. I like the bits of information on the paranormal that is presented in the book, and there was a piece of information regarding purification that is actually quite important in real life that I had forgotten about.

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great book, didn't see that ending coming! ( )

Full review at: http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2009/05/mystery-monday_25.html ( )