Title:   The Witching Tree
Author:   Alice Blanchard
Genre:   Mystery/thriller
Rating:  4 out of 5

As legend has it, if you carve your deepest desire into the bark of a Witch Tree, then over time as the tree grows, it will swallow the carvings until only a witch can read them.

 Until now.

 Detective Natalie Lockhart gained unwanted notoriety when she and her family became front and center of not one, but two sensational murder cases. Now she’s lost her way. Burned out and always looking over her shoulder, Natalie desperately thinks that quitting the police force is her only option left.

 All that changes when a beloved resident–a practicing Wiccan and founder of the town’s oldest coven–is killed in a fashion more twisted and shocking than Natalie has ever seen before, leaving the town reeling. Natalie has no choice but to help solve the case along with Detective Luke Pittman, her boss and the old childhood friend she cannot admit she loves, even to herself. There is a silent, malignant presence in Burning Lake that will not rest. And what happens next will shock the whole town, and Natalie, to the core.

I’ve read the first book in this series, but I missed the second. I did enjoy this one, but it felt far too much like an advertisement for Wicca or I would have rated it higher. Seriously. You cannot tell me every single person in a group is good/peaceful/gets along with everyone (or, alternately, bad/racist/horrible/whatever adjective of choice) and expect me to believe you. If I leave out the pro-Wicca-all-of-us-are-peaceful-angels slant (which accounts for a good third of the book), this was an enjoyable mystery and thriller. But as is, the town of Burning Lake comes off a little too good to be true.

Alice Blanchard is an award-winning author. The Witching Tree is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

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