When a young man dies without an obvious cause, John Rafferty, chief of police in Salem, is forced to consider that the boy’s death may be related to a cold case murder called “The Goddess Murders.” On Halloween night in 1989, three young women, descendants of women accused and executed during the Salem Witch Trials, were brutally murdered. On that night in 1989, there were two surviving victims, and a history professor named Rose Whelan.
Now 25 years later, Callie Cahill has returned to Salem, no longer the scared orphaned five year old, convinced that Rose Whelan did not kill her mother all of those years ago. Now John Rafferty and Callie Cahill will work together to solve the mystery of “The Goddess Murders.” This was a very interesting read for me. I remember learning about the Salem Witch Trials and reading “The Crucible” in high school. The fact that the entire town was stricken with hysteria amazes me. But those were different times, and we have come so far in the fields of science. I found the story to be well constructed and developed. The overall pace was steady, enabling the reader to develop their own thoughts and perceptions on the 25 year old murder. The settings were rich in details, making the locations come alive in the mind of the reader. A few of the locations were less detailed than others, however, these locations served small importance to the story line. The characters were very interesting to me, especially the character of Callie Cahill who quickly became the most prominent main character. The synopsis on the back of the novel lead me to believe that John Rafferty was the main character, however, as the novel developed further, Callie took the lead. The personalities of the characters are well-rounded and easily believable. From Rose Whelan, who suffered mental trauma, to John Rafferty and his dark past. Both of the mysteries were intriguing, though the death of the teenage boy was solved rather quickly with very little mystery, it launched further investigation into “The Goddess Murders” which ended up being the real mystery. I was completely surprised by the big revelation at the end of the novel. For some time, I had believed another character was the murderer and I never even suspected the true culprit until the very end. What I liked the least about this novel would be the lack of answers. The main mystery was solved and left very few unanswered questions, however, I was left with many questions about some of the characters themselves that I wish had been addressed. I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a compelling mystery with a touch of history and the paranormal. I received my copy of this novel from bloggingforbooks.com for the sole purpose of providing an honest review and have permission from the publishers at Broadway Books to use the image of the cover artwork featured above. |
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