The Bewitching Grace by Jennifer Blake is a 2014 Steel Magnolia Press publication. (Originally published in 1973)

When Anne, a journalist, is writing an article about an old historical estate, one her recently married friend, Miranda, happens to reside. It also happens that a murder took place on the grounds of the estate, that was never solved- a riddle Anne would dearly love to solve.

Unfortunately, someone is determined to stymie her investigations- sending her unwelcome messages via Voodoo rituals.

The house is packed with marital tensions, secrets, and suspects- and Ann could be in danger of becoming the next victim.

Rarely do I find anyone these days with an interest in the old Gothic novels that were all the rage in the sixties and seventies, so it was nice to meet a kindred spirit the other day who was just becoming interested in the genre.

As I thought back on the names of the more prominent authors back then, I suddenly remembered that Jennifer Blake had gotten her start by writing Gothic novels.

She only wrote a handful of them before the historical romance novel kicked the Gothic suspense genre to the curb. Blake is, of course, associated with her historical romances, and more recently her foray into contemporary romances, and some fans may not even know she wrote in the genre early in her career.

I also remembered that Blake has an impressive number of her older books formatted for digital format, and I happen to have a couple of her Gothic novels on my Kindle. Naturally, I had to hunt them down and read one right away.

This book was good! Yes, yes, yes- it was written in 1973 and it capitalized on the massively popular paranormal wave of the day, with lots of Voodoo rituals, and paranormal goings on.

Basically, these books can be described as being romantic suspense novels, with a paranormal tint, and as per usual, for this genre, the male characters, even the possible love interest, is not entirely trustworthy.

Still, the tension is palpable, and while I’m not an expert on Voodoo, the descriptions seemed well- researched, and authentic.

I thought the story stood the test of time well, with only a few dated phrases, etc., and was a nice creepy murder mystery.

Overall, I enjoyed this one well enough to add another one to my TBR via the KU program. For those interested, I think Blake has most of these in the Kindle store and are all available your KU subscription too, if you have one. ( )