Book Review: Season of the Witch

By Sandy Amazeen Apr 17, 2007, 3:35 GMT

Magic, seduction and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge form the basis of this dark thriller set in present day, downtown London. Gabriel Blackstone is a professional thief, an “information broker” specializing in the business of high tech breaking and entering. When he is approached by well-known investment banker William Whittington to locate Robert, his 21-year-old son who has simply vanished, Gabriel isn’t interested. That was before his old girlfriend, now Whittington’s wife, Cecily turned up at his door bringing back memories of their time spent at Eyestorm, a psychic research organization interested in training remote viewers.

An accidental “ride” triggered by Robert’s photo allows Gabriel to relive the young man’s last moments of life, witnessing the murderer’s masked face, a face belonging to one of the two, eccentric Monk sisters. As descendants of occultist John Dee, the sisters maintain more then a passing interest in the metaphysical, especially memory and as Gabriel soon discovers, one of the sisters shares his remote viewing skills. One of the sisters will stop at nothing, including murder in the pursuit of knowledge and Gabriel will need all his skills to discover which one is responsible. Obsession and murder intertwine with love and magic to create a suspenseful read with an interesting conclusion that is contemporary goth at its best.