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"A Charmed Death" is actually the second book in Madelyn Alt's Bewitching Mystery series, the first being "The Trouble with Magic". That said, despite jumping into the series without a clear idea of how everything began and the back story behind certain characters I found myself able to follow along without much trouble. Granted I did not know the exact details that occurred in the previous book, but enough was repeated or mentioned in passing during "A Charmed Death" that a reader new to the series [like myself] could keep up, and a returning reader could refresh their memory without feeling bombarded by the repetitive. That in itself is a difficult feat and Madelyn Alt managed it superbly.

"A Charmed Death" is told from the point of view of Maggie O'Neill, a young woman nearing the big 3-0, who is still struggling to get completely out from under her mother's thumb, in the small town of Stony Mills while trying to come to terms with her abilities. Raised as a Catholic girl, her abilities and the things her friend and boss (Fellicity Dow) can do fly in the face of how she was raised. It is refreshing to stumble upon a character that is not in complete and utter denial or far too "okay" with the idea of new found powers, which seems to be the two extremes most authors place their characters at.

Maggie is comfortably situated somewhere in between the two extremes. On one hand she is a realistic person from a deeply religious and devoted family, who didn't believe in witches and things that go bump in the night since science had ruled out the possibilities as far as she was concerned. On the other hand however, Maggie has seen irrefutable proof that magic does exist, and she herself has always had heightened awareness. Her employer serves not only as a friend but as a mentor as well and helps to guide her to a better understanding of her abilities. At this point most characters are still adamantly denying what they know is real or jump in head first, Maggie however is still conflicted on her feelings about everything. She does not deny the existence of magic but its existence and her use of it does contradict how she was raised. Maggie spends much of the book struggling to come to terms with herself, what is right, and what she really believes. Maggie makes considerable progress in finding herself, yet at the end of the book it takes something drastic to give Maggie that one last push she needs in order to begin to consciously and actively using her abilities to

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