by Sandra Murphy & Paula Munier

This week we have a review of the latest mystery by Paula Munier, along with a fun Halloween guest post by Paula. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and a link to purchase the book from Amazon.

Home at Night by Paula Munier
Review by Sandra Murphy

Mercy Carr and her new husband are house hunting. It has to be big enough for the two of them, their search and rescue dogs, a cat, and a teenage mom with a baby whose daddy stays over more often than not (it’s a long story). There was one ideal house, but infighting with the sellers caused the deal to fall through. Now Mercy’s got her eye on a place no one else would want—Grackle Tree Farm.

When she was a teen, it was the local ‘I dare you’ house. The one friends would say, ‘I bet you can’t spend a whole night there,’ and most kids didn’t. It’s thirty acres of woods, wetlands, and a Victorian house to die for. Except that wasn’t meant to be literal, but the body in the library said differently.
That lead to rumors of a hidden fortune, the police captain shot and seriously injured, and Mercy on crutches. Plus, her dog Elvis had a few problems of his own.

It’s leaf peeping season and that means tourists. Add in the treasure hunters, costumed Halloween figures, and a masked murderer on a motorcycle, and Mercy more than has her hands full—and that’s before her mother gets involved in their house hunting.

This is book five in the series, several reviewed in KRL. Mercy is a strong woman, able to stand up to her grandmother’s gentle bossiness and her mother’s strong-arm tactics. Troy is the perfect husband for her with his love of dogs, the outdoors, and of course, her. The mystery is multilayered and complex, with clues scattered throughout to challenge readers.

This is a series I look forward to reading each year. It’s like a visit to friends whose lives are more exciting than your own.

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. She’s editor for Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Stories Inspired by the Songs of the ’60s, with twenty-two cozy stories. She also edited A Murder of Crows, twenty-one stories featuring animals and crime (no animals were harmed). She also writes for magazines, newsletters, and the occasional guest blog. Both anthologies are available at the usual outlets, print or ebook.

A Circle of Witches
By Paula Munier

Witches. Ghosts. Ghost witches. These are the things I like best about All Hallow’s Eve, that night when the veil between this world and the next is said to be the thinnest. A time when the witches come home to roost, just like in Alice Hoffman’s wonderful novel Practical Magic, a story about—you guessed it—witches. I reread it every year at Halloween, and I watch the movie version, too, margaritas in hand. So imagine how fun it was for me to set my new novel, Home at Night, during Halloween. With witches.

I come to my fascination with witches honestly. My ancestor, Mary Perkins Bradbury, was one of the women accused of witchcraft during the infamous Salem witch trials of the late 1600s. At the time, she was in her seventies, a well-respected member of the community, long married to Captain Thomas Bradbury, who insisted that his wife was “a good neighbor and a good mother to our eleven children and four grandchildren.” A petition signed by more than a hundred supporters failed, and Mary was arrested and jailed in 1692.

Paula Munier

The accusations against her ranged from turning butter rancid to raising storms at sea to joining a pack of flying witches that attacked a young man who later died of a mysterious illness. But perhaps the most bizarre charge against her was one leveled by another one of her/my own relatives: Mary appeared as a blue boar, frightening a horse so badly that its rider fell to his death. That gives you an idea what our family is like. Family feud, indeed. Note: If you’re thinking I made this all up because, well, I make things up for a living, think again. Go to the Salem Witch Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and you’ll find Mary’s name on the wall. Seriously.

Mary’s story has a kind of a happy ending. She was not hanged like most of the women accused of witchcraft. With a rich husband to finance her getaway and her many friends to aid and abet her jailbreak, she escaped the noose and the gallows and went into hiding, eventually returning home. She was in her 80s when she died in 1700. Her family sought to reverse her conviction, and in 1711, the Massachusetts General Court passed “An Act to Reverse the Attainders of George Burroughs et al. for Witchcraft.” Mary Bradbury was cleared, and her family received £20 for their trouble.

Given this family history, you can see why I’m on the side of the witches. In my new novel, Home at Night, my heroine Mercy is on the hunt for a bigger home to accommodate all her two- and four-legged friends. She thinks she’s found the perfect place, a big old Victorian manor on thirty acres of woods. Only one problem: The estate is supposedly haunted by the Ghost Witch of Grackle Tree. And there’s a dead body in the library. Okay, two problems…and counting.

I couldn’t resist writing my own ghost witch story. Coming full circle, creating and celebrating a witch who is not a demon or a devil or even a boar (although—shhh!—you may find boars in my next book), but a good wife, a good mother, a good heroine. Somewhere, Mary Bradbury is smiling.

To enter to win a copy of Home at Night, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “home” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen October 28, 2023. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Also listen to our new mystery podcast where mystery short stories and first chapters are read by actors! They are also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. A new episode goes up next week.

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PAULA MUNIER is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. Home at Night, the fifth book in the series, debuted in October 2023 and was named Library Journal’s Mystery Pick of the Month. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, awarded the Dogwise Book of the Year, won two DWAA Best Novel of the Year awards, and hit several “Best Of” lists. Along with her love of nature, Paula credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs, and a deep affection for New England as her series’ major influences. An agent and editor by day, Paula has also written three popular books on writing: Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands, as well as Happier Every Day and the memoir Fixing Freddie: The True Story of a Boy, a Mom, and a Very, Very Bad Beagle. She lives in New England with her family, four dogs, and a cat who does not think much of the dogs. For more, check out paulamunier.com.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.