Retro Reading: Ghost of a Potion by Heather Blake
In the final installment of the Magic Potion Mysteries, Heather Blake has sort of taken us to the other side of life and into the world of ghosts. It's quite a different take on the afterlife.
With Halloween fast approaching, Carly Bell Hartwell is dreading everything about the season since ghosts seek her out and they want her to help them cross over. For Carly, it's exhaustive and this year, she just wants to close up her potion shop, climb into bed from Halloween until November 3. Of course, that doesn't happen.
She's been forced into going to a Halloween ball with her boyfriend Dylan, since his mother has organized it at the recently renovated Ezekiel mansion. The only reason she has decided to go is her cousin, Delia Bell Barrows, had a vision of Dylan's mother standing over a body with a candlestick. Since Delia's visions are often right, Carly tells Dylan and begrudgingly decides to track Patricia's every move.
When not keeping tabs on Patricia's moves, everyone hears a scream and just as Delia predicted, Patricia is standing over the body of architect Haywood Dodd. And then Carly sees his ghost.
Since his soul can't rest, Carly runs out of the party and heads home where she hopes she'll be safe, but his spirit follows her and he seeks her help. What she discovers is that he cannot speak to her (maybe that odd grunt or howl you hear is indeed a ghost) and now she has to find the true killer.
But, along the way, she picks up the spirits of Virgil Keane (who was killed in a hit and run) and Jenny Jane Booth, who attached herself to Delia. Jenny Jane died of a stroke and wants to see her baby granddaughter and Virgil wants to see his pet dog and make sure that she has a good home.
Virgil's murder ties into Haywood's and now with only hours, both witches criss cross Alabama making sure they can do everything and anything they can for these lost souls.
Blake's handling of the lost souls is an excellent touch since most of the time the ghosts are able to talk with the psychic, but here they have to figure everything out and with the exception of Jenny Jane, there are essentially two murders that need to be solved.
She also does an excellent job with Virgil and his misfit dog, Louella. This dog is the scariest thing in literature.
Overall, it's a good read, but, the problem again is the too many characters that you need to keep up with.
