Review – The Raven Spell (A Conspiracy of Magic, Book 1) by Luanne G. Smith (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 267 pages
Publisher: 47North
Release Date: February 1, 2022
ASIN: B093SHTLLB
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in A Conspiracy of Magic series
Source: Amazon First Reads
Rating: 3/5 stars
“After a nearly fatal blow to the skull, traumatized private detective Ian Cameron is found dazed and confused on a muddy riverbank in Victorian London. Among his effects: a bloodstained business card bearing the name of a master wizard and a curious pocket watch that doesn’t seem to tell time. To retrieve his lost memories, Ian demands answers from Edwina and Mary Blackwood, sister witches with a murky past. But as their secret is slowly unveiled, a dangerous mystery emerges on the darkened streets of London.
To help piece together Ian’s lost time, he and Edwina embark on a journey that will take them from the river foreshore to an East End music hall, and on to a safe house for witches in need of sanctuary from angry mortals. The clues they find suggest a link between a series of gruesome murders, a missing person’s case, and a dreadful suspicion that threatens to tear apart the bonds of sisterhood. As the investigation deepens, could Ian and Edwina be the next to die?”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: Previous to reading this, I had read Smith’s “The Vine Witch” which I didn’t love. I thought “The Vine Witch” was slow with characters that were hard to connect with, as a result I did not finish that series. I thought “The Raven Spell” was better, but it still had some of the same issues that “The Vine Witch” did.
This story starts with us following Mary and Edwina Blackwood. These two sister witches make their living finding shiny things on the Thames riverbank and selling them at their store. One day Mary finds a dead man, Ian, on the shore and steals his memories (as she likes to do with the dead), however…he wasn’t quite dead. This triggers a series of events in which Edwina gets pulled into the mystery Ian was investigating about the missing son of a prominent witch.
As mentioned above, this had a lot of the same issues for me as “The Vine Witch”. The story moves very slowly and is flat out boring at times. The plot is very predictable and I didn’t like any of the characters. All of the characters come off as a bit selfish, distanced and hard to engage with.
There is some beautiful description in here and I enjoyed the idea of a Victorian London with some magic added (although, let’s be honest, this has been done a million times before and better done). Edwina has a sort of peaceful aura to her that some might enjoy, but to me she just felt distanced.
It takes a long time for things to get moving in this book and I thought the way everything was wrapped up was very anti-climatic. You would have to be blind not to know where the mystery is going and I was disappointed that nothing surprising happened. The book has the very overdone…are they dead, or maybe not? ending to lead you into the next book in the series.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a mediocre read for me and I don’t plan on continuing the series. There really isn’t anything special here. The world-building is weak, the mystery predictable, and the characters hard to engage with. There is some beautiful description and a peaceful-feeling slow burn mystery with some fantasy elements if you are into that sort of thing. At this point I won’t be picking up any more books by Smith, her writing style just doesn’t work well for me.
