Review--Synchronized Sorcery by Juliet Blackwell

 

As witch and vintage store owner Lily Ivory steps into her new role as leader of the Bay Area's magical community, she's faced with a mysterious death of magical proportions...

Strange things are happening in Lily Ivory's San Francisco. First, she finds a vintage mermaid costume which dates from the 1939 San Francisco's Treasure Island World's Fair - and which gives off distinctly peculiar vibrations. Next, she stumbles upon a dead man in the office of her predecessor, and as the community's new leader, she feels compelled to track down the culprit. Just when Lily thinks things can't get any stranger, a man appears claiming to be her half-brother, spouting ideas about the mystical prophecy involving San Francisco and their family...

When the dead man is linked to the mysterious mermaid costume, and then yet another victim is found on Treasure Island, Lily uncovers ties between the long-ago World's fair and the current murders, and begins to wonder whether the killer might be hiding in plain sight. But unless Lily can figure everything out in time, there may be yet another body floating in San Francisco Bay.

 

 

Synchronized Sorcery is what I believe is the last book of Juliet Blackwell’s Witchcraft Mystery series. While each book is a sort of standalone mystery, some plot elements of the background story carry over from book to book. While some of those events aren’t quite what you’d call resolved, I do not see any mention of further books for the series and this one published in 2021! So this might in fact be the end!

Lily and Sailor have just returned from a wonderful honeymoon! I’m honestly wondering how long they were gone based on all the countries they visited! And holy cow thinking of the cost for that trip is insane! Lol. But that’s my real world realities sneaking in as I read. Lily and Sailor had brought Oscar with them to help him look for his mother who is trapped in a stone gargoyle form. 

But naturally, Lily returns to all kinds of chaos and problems after her trip! Besides the usual bills and other business related items, Lily is filling in for Aidan while he heals as the magic leader of the Bay Area. But when Lily heads to his office to meet with her friend who was covering for her while she was away, she finds a dead body. And so begins another murder mystery that falls into Lily’s lap. 

If things weren’t crazy enough, Lily sees someone who looks strikingly familiar who was on her plane ride home that comes to San Francisco. She has a face-to-face encounter with him at the very murder scene she walked into. She suspects that this man might be the half brother she only recently learned about. 

This was an incredibly fun book to read! I’m only sad that the series might be over after all this! What I found to be very interesting was the inclusion of the World’s Fair just before WW2. St. Louis had a World’s Fair as well earlier so naturally we learned a lot about that one in school! So I was interested in learning different bits and bobs about this one! There was also involvement with Nazis before WW2 would really start. So the history involved in this one was very interesting! It’s been so long since I studied these particular parts in history so I enjoyed getting a refresher in a sense!

The mystery elements were once again very well done! It’s so nice with cozy mysteries because everything is well thought out and you don’t have to over think and over analyze everything like you might with the hardcore mysteries. It’s why I always enjoyed the cozy variety, especially when you add the paranormal to the mix!

I also really enjoyed seeing Mel Turner make an appearance in this one! Mel is the heroine of Blackwell’s other paranormal mystery series and since Mel and Lily live fairly close to one another we get the occasional crossover which I love!! I just need to get caught up in that series now as I believe that one has ended as well.

I have to admit that I once again didn’t get the whodunit! I think I need to read more mysteries again as I haven’t been doing well with my whodunit guesses on these last two! Lol. But it was still logical to who did do it when all was revealed. 

Synchronized Sorcery was yet another delightful read! I’m just sad that it might actually be over for good now. It ended well enough with only one little loose end left unresolved but it didn’t affect this particular story. One can imagine how that one would’ve been resolved and all would be well! But for now, I would say things end pretty happily for Lily as is! A truly entertaining and delightful mystery series from start to finish and one I cannot recommend enough for the cozy mystery reader!

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars