Book Reviews : William Casey Moreton’s The Search and Dana Donovan’s Eye Of The Witch

Book Reviews: William Casey Moreton’s The Search and Dana Donovan’s Eye Of The Witch

Jim recently blogged on this site about free books offered on Kindle. He said he had not read anything that made him want to buy another book for the author who offered one book for free.

That has been my general experience too.  Most of the books that I’ve downloaded, I’ve tossed quickly due to editing and writing shortcomings.  Putting up a book that is not ready is a good way to demonstrate your writing weaknesses and to lose potential readers. But I believe the free book strategy can work, if the writer has put in the time and effort that good writing requires.  The two books below qualify.

The Search by William Casey Moreton provides a roller coaster thrill ride.  The pace kept up my interest throughout the entire book.  There was plenty of action and distinctive characterization.  His style was to follow a number of characters individually as the story lines arc toward a collision of conflicting interests and needs resulting in an explosion not everyone will survive.  Interestingly, I read a new version of the book recently uploaded by the author.  Early reviewers reported editing issues that I did not see in this version. Apparently the author recognized the problems and corrected them.

Eye of the Witch by Dana Donovan is a good book with parts that are below average and parts that are exceptionally good.  To deal with my criticism first, there is a lack of continuity.  The book appears to be set in the future but it includes vocabulary of the past, which provides a jolt to readers (or at least to this reader) “boom box” and “video tape” are technologies that are already outdated in the present.  I don’t believe they will be widely used in the future.  Parts are repetitive. One character eats a lot and frequently.  He is described as eating a meatball sandwich, then a turkey, then candy bars and on and on.  I think it's an attempt at humor.  Detectives interview a witness/victim/suspect, asking a few questions. Then they do the same with another person, a third person and then a fourth.  Next they interview the first person again, briefly again and the round robin starts again.  In this mystery the author does not “play fair.” Unlike Christie, Sayers and Tay in the past and Hart, Grafton and Pickard in the present the solution depends on a series of unlikely events and relationships which are impossible to guess from the information given in the book.

What the author does quite well includes: a powerful opening that induces the reader to care about the detective, a strong entrance of the witch and a clear, compelling description of the magic involved in this paranormal setting.  I wish the author had devoted the time she spent developing her ideas about magic to developing knowledge of writing mysteries.  Despite its faults, I can recommend this book due to the author’s skill and her strengths.

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