Witch Way to Murder by Shirley Damsgaard

Looking for an unusual, well-written mystery set in Iowa? Look no further than Witch Way to Murder by Iowa author, Shirley Damsgaard. Ophelia Jensen is a small town librarian with some special talents, and I don’t mean finding odd facts on the Internet. Ophelia has psychic abilities she wishes she didn’t have.

Ophelia’s Grandmother, Abby, encourages her stubborn granddaughter to face her past and reach out to people and her own talents, but this is tough for a woman who’s best friend was murdered four years ago. It doesn’t get any easier when a handsome stranger comes to town filled with questions, and the two of them trip over a dead body. That’s one too many for Ophelia, and she’s determined to figure out what’s going on.

This is a fast paced read with an engaging heroine who grabs you from page one. I enjoyed the humorous elements in the story and loved the way all the characters, even the secondary ones, were fully developed. I suspected who the villain was part way through the book, but the author kept me in suspense about whether I was right.

It was a fun read, and I tore through Damsgaard’s second Ophelia and Abby mystery titled Charmed to Death in one sitting. Her third book in the series, The Trouble with Witches was released on August 29, 2006 and the fourth book in the series, Witch Hunt will be released on May 29, 2007.

Calamity Jayne by Kathleen Bacus

If you were hunting for a spare tire in your car trunk but discovered the dead body of a prominent local attorney instead, you’d run away screaming. Tressa Jayne Turner, known to family and friends as Calamity Jayne, has done just that, leaving behind an envelope full of cash. She reports the crime, but the only problem is that no one believes her story: not the police, not her family, and not her childhood nemesis “Ranger” Rick Townsend. Disaster has always followed Tressa Jayne the way cats follow catnip, so this seems like yet one more blonde moment in a life full of blonde jokes. The trouble is, she’s telling the truth. The murderer thinks she stole his money, and he demands she return it. Since the police won’t investigate the murder, Tressa Jayne does. In Calamity Jayne, Knoxville, Iowa resident, Kathleen Bacus delivers a hilarious mystery tale which is light, yet suspenseful. Readers will root for funny, sweet Tressa Jayne, hoping someone will finally take her seriously before it’s too late.