Blake, Adrienne. Witchy Way to Murder. CityOwlPress, 2023.

Thank you, LibraryThing and CityOwlPress, for the free ebook galley of Witchy Way to Murder by Adrienne Blake.

(Unfortunately, for over a week, Goodreads has been refusing to let me log in. Changing my password makes no difference—no matter how many times I do it. No matter that I contacted Goodreads about this issue and have had an email correspondence about it. In short, I can’t post reviews there anymore—and until this situation, Goodreads was my most-used app. Fortunately, I now have StoryGraph. I am also posting this review on Medium.)

Witchy Way to Murder by Adrienne Blake combines two genres: mystery and fantasy. It’s a whodunnit/detective story set in a slightly different reality in which humans are accustomed to Fae folk and magic.

This fantasy world includes witches, a diverse variety of Fae folk, and werewolves. The protagonist is half witch and half goblin—which is what makes this book truly original. I wouldn’t expect a main character to be a goblin or half goblin. This feels like the beginning of a series (and funny thing—looking it up on Amazon shows that it is indeed the first in the series Dark Encounters).

I appreciate that a couple characters are queer—a human and a goblin. But I wanted more.

The paranormal mystery novel is full of rich details about setting and characters. I also like background info like when Dionne reflects on how they got their private eye office (renting from a half-troll, half human). Great world-building and magic.

Once the initial dream scene is over, it’s clearly a quirky and humorous novel... never mind that the snarkiness isn’t my cup of tea. Snarkiness reminds me of the Midwest and perpetual playground bullies. Empathy-challenged people who are out of touch with their emotions. However, I’m sure this book/series will appeal more to people in their twenties and thirties, especially Midwesterners. (And based on a few ebooks I’ve read in the same genre, the snarkiness is common.)

The protagonist used to be a cop, and one of the major characters is a cop who used to be her coworker. We need to stop writing, producing, and publishing copaganda. There’s waaaay too much of that. The system is broken and rooted in slavery.

The pixies are interesting—I especially like when they’re eating the muffin and drinking the sugar water, offerings. They remind me of hummingbirds. Well, talking humanoid hummingbirds.

“Gyp”? If that’s what I think it is, it’s a racist term against the Roma. Please don’t use words like “g*ped” or “G*psy.” They are slurs. Use Roma when referring to the people.

The observation that a woman has a bruise she’s trying to hide—followed by “I wonder what she did to Redcap to deserve that” really needs to be rephrased in a way that isn’t victim-blaming. Obviously she didn’t deserve to be physically assaulted by a murderous mobster. At minimum, “deserve” should be in quotation marks.

Ha, this book contains the phrase “the goblin market”! As in... Christina Rosetti. I’m guessing this was a deliberate reference. ( )

Well, this was a fun read.
I enjoyed the first installment and I am hoping to get my hands on the following!
The book has a little bit of everything and the mystery adds to the plot nicely. While characters come from the fantasy world, your imagination is put to the test, and you will be pleasantly surprised by the story and the development of the characters.
I definitely recommend this book! ( )

This first-in-a-series novel is a lot of fun! Set in Philadelphia with both "normies" and various paranormal folk, it features mostly goblins as the main characters. This took me a while to get used to, since my mind usually conjures up small, misshapen creatures rather than attractive people who may or may not tend toward green skin, but it works.
The mystery was decent--I actually didn't guess who did it--although it did seem fairly obvious once the murderer was revealed. I think I might not have been paying close attention.
As some others have noted, some Britishisms did make their way into the story which seemed a little odd, and occasionally pulled me out of the narrative.
This is an interesting mix between cozy paranormal mystery and more gritty urban fantasy with a potential for romance, likely a triangle.
The touches of humor, the FMC's relationship with her mom, and the goblin mob succession issues have me intrigued enough to pick up the next installment. ( )

Withchy Way to Murder by Adrienne Blake was a fun read. The world-building was interesting. The characters were well drawn. I would recommend this book.

Several goblin gangs and their mythical compatriots inhabit Philadelphia, PA, ruling the city’s crime. The police are hampered by the no-magic rules, but not our private detective, Dionne Cruz, half witch and half goblin. Dee-dee and her full-goblin partner Harrison, can investigate areas using magic to detect secrets and foul play. But now, RedCap has kidnapped Harrison and their warlock neighbor Derek. After they are found, someone murdered the baddest goblin of them all, RedCap, known for his ubiquitous red cap. Was it his half-brother and partner Jordan? Was it his office manager and lover Emily? Was it a rival gang? Was it someone from his muscle crew? Dee-dee and her cop friend Liam, fully human, put themselves in harm’s way to discover the killer’s identity. And you haven’t lived ‘til you’ve attended a goblin funeral.

How does Dionne cope with her stressful life? She manages with the help of a friendly Jinn and advisor named Patsy, who dreams of being a cheerleader, and Mrs. Cruz, Dionne’s mother, who keeps the homefires burning, and the stove heated up for coffee and breakfasts for everyone on demand.

This book is highly entertaining, with lots of interesting characters and many twists. Witchy Way to Murder is supposed to be the first book in a new series, and I hope the author follows through with more books about Dionne and Harrison. ( )