In 1940, series protagonist Arista Kelly\u2019s forebear, Barry Kelly, is a dog breeder in California. After a neighbor poisons one of his dogs, Barry enacts revenge by killing the man. In turn, the dead man\u2019s wife puts a curse on the Kelly family, using \u201cdark magick.\u201d In the present, a man named Mateo has been hired to work on Arista Kelly\u2019s home. Something catches Mateo\u2019s eye: a suitcase containing \u201ca cache of papers and trinkets.\u201d The papers include instructions for a vision spell; since Mateo\u2019s young son has sight problems, he takes the case home with him. Upon closer inspection, the vision spell proves to be of little use to Mateo, and his possession of the suitcase starts to cause problems. Meanwhile, Arista\u2019s neighbor, a \u201cstrong, well-seasoned witch\u201d named Iris, has gone missing. When Arista and her aunt investigate, they find evidence in Iris\u2019 home of the curse that was put on the Kelly family\u2014Iris, it transpires, is the original hexer\u2019s granddaughter, and she is on her own adventure after having been possessed by Arista\u2019s uncle Fergus. There is a lot going on in the narrative as a colorful assortment of characters go about their business: Mateo\u2019s troubles with the suitcase and Iris\u2019 journey home after finding herself in Spokane are merely the beginning of the \u201crowdy commotion\u201d to come. In this world of multicolored auras, where characters have to worry about being possessed and are also concerned with, say, buying jewelry for a loved one, the reader never knows how events will develop. Dodd\u2019s descriptions can be a little too on the nose; at one point, \u201ca scowl of hatred brim[s] across\u201d the face of a villain. Still, while some elements are predictable, there is a rich world of magic and conflict to explore before the story reaches its conclusion.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1940, series protagonist Arista Kelly\u2019s forebear, Barry Kelly, is a dog breeder in California. After a neighbor poisons one of his dogs, Barry enacts revenge by killing the man. In turn, the dead man\u2019s wife puts a curse on the Kelly family, using \u201cdark magick.\u201d In the present, a man named Mateo has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}