Dolores Stewart Riccio

Series: 7th in Divine Circle/Cass Shipton Mystery

Setting: Modern day, Plymouth Massachusetts

I must provide a disclaimer right up front - this is my favorite paranormal mystery series. I think of it as the trailblazer for this series started long before a paranormal mystery was the "in" thing.

Let me introduce you to the five phenomenal women who are the Divine Circle:

Cassandra, the viewpoint character, is an herbalist and reluctant clairvoyant.

Phillipa, a cookbook author and poet who reads show more the Tarot a little too accurately.

Heather, an heiress and animal lover. She makes magical candles and runs the local pet rescue.

Deidre, recently widowed who crafts dolls and magical amulets for sale in her boutique besides being a mother of four young children who now communicates with the dead.

Fiona, the eccentric librarian who dowses with a crystal and is a fount of information - the wise woman of the group with a hippie side. Don't let her "mature" age fool you!

I am including Freddie, Cassandra's daughter-in-law who has telekinetic abilities is back in this adventure with the CIA wanting to recruit her.

Cassandra gets called up for jury duty in the gruesome case of a home invasion that ended in a double murder of a mother and daughter. The two men being tried for the case seem obvious killers, but Cass being clairvoyant knows the case isn't so cut and dry as everybody thinks. Even the elderly mother of the murdered woman insists justice isn't being done and pleads with Cass to get involved. The murdered daughter starts making appearances to Deidre too. Cassandra digs into the case more.

Heather enlists Cass's time and talents to help hunt down a dog fighting ring and shut it down. Freddie even does some remote viewing to scope out the location. But during a night-time covert reconnaissance they inadvertently tip-off the operator of the dog-fight ring. Trouble is brewing with each passing day, but will it be the murderer or the dog fight operator who decides to stop the Circle's intervention?

In each book the circle helps a person in need, this time it is a domestic abuse victim who has some psychic talents of her own. Ashling levitates without thinking about it and is being haunted by her recently deceased husband. Ashling is another delightful addition and it appears she maybe back in the next book which I am looking forward to.

The characters in this series seem to get better and better with each book. I must say I really missed Tip in this one since he is away at college. This is what I mean, all of the characters become your book buddies and you want to spend time with them. So even Tip was missed as he is part of this family. It is heartwarming to see that widowed Deidre may have a chance at love again with an old high school friend who has returned to Plymouth.

Each one of the women in the circle are so well developed that you feel you could sit and have tea (or a nip of something stronger) with them and love every minute.

The dual plot is played out well, keeping the reader drawn in with each new development. Each plot has its related consequences and danger involved. Each plot touches me. for instance, what would you do and how would you feel if you thought a sadistic dog-fight ring were running in your neighborhood? You experience what a vet feels as they treat a trained fight dog and try to rehabilitate it. But you get to be one of the people snooping and getting photos to give to the police in this story as well. Even the trial of the double murder - what would you do if you were in the jury box but clairvoyantly saw what happened and nobody else knows what the truth is? Wouldn't you want justice done? You can tell the style of writing puts you in their shoes from my descriptions.

The climax is realistic and gets a cheer from the reader and the wrap up is a set up for the next adventure hinting at Cass getting involved in one of hubby's Greenpeace jobs. I can't wait.

The book is fantastic. A bit of everything from a touch of romance, suspenseful danger, adventure, a wee bit of magic, pets, cooking, family, sisterhood and close friends, varied characters of different ages and backgrounds all against the backdrop of the Massachusetts changing seasons. This isn't a book to read, it is a story to experience with these five phenomenal women.

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This is the 6th in Divine Circle Mysteries, which is a paranormal amateur sleuth novel. The setting is modern day, Norse Goddess Cruise and Plymouth Massachusetts.

Take a cruise...to the Bermuda Triangle...on Halloween...with a group of five witches who solve crimes...what could possibly go wrong?

I must provide a disclaimer right up front - this is my favorite paranormal mystery series. I think it rocks! This series started long before a paranormal mystery was the "in" thing.

Let me introduce show more you to the five phenomenal women who are the Divine Circle:
Cassandra, the viewpoint character, is an herbalist and reluctant clairvoyant.

Phillipa, a cookbook author and poet who reads the Tarot a little too accurately.

Heather, an heiress and animal lover. She makes magical candles and runs the local pet rescue.

Deidre, recently widowed who makes dolls for sale and magical amulets besides being a mother of four young children.

Fiona, the eccentric librarian who dowses with a crystal. Don't let her "mature" age fool you!

The story is as much about the dynamics of women's friendships as it is about crime solving and their Wiccan faith. In this novel Heather talks everyone into a Halloween cruise to Bermuda to lift Deidre's mood out of her mourning. She recently lost her husband and needs a diversion.

So the ladies are out for some great cruise food, entertainment and lazing about. Unfortunately this very same ship had a newlywed disappear on the cruise just a year prior and it happens again during this cruise. Cassandra gets a psychic flash of the young bride's last moments and knows their is a serial rapist and murderer on the cruise. Unfortunately the vision didn't provide the killer's identity. The ladies rally trying to protect those they fear maybe in danger while trying to unveil who the murderer is. In this novel one of the circle will be in dire danger not once, but twice.

Deidre, who was the reason for the cruise, realizes that she has developed the ability to see and even talk to the dead when she has the deceased bride from last year in her cabin. And that is just the beginning. Hang on to your socks or reading glasses. The highlighted characters on the cruise are all suspect and a bit eccentric, including a novelist with his overbearing mother.

As often happens with these five ladies, they nurture those around them. Cassandra has an affinity for teens from troubled homes and she finds Rikyu Ogata who is being raised by his uncle, Ken Ogata the Japanese Tea Master. While Fiona joins the uncle for a formal Japanese Tea, Cassandra forms a friendship with Rikyu that finds him joining Cassandra and her grown children at the holidays after the cruise.

This series has steadily built a fan base because of the expert character development. You truly grow fond of these women and feel for their individual challenges, root for them to prevail, and miss them when it is done. The plot is well thought out and brings the plausibility factor up.

The climax was an edge-of-your-seat ordeal (at least for me!) The wrap up puts a smile on your face and makes you want to pick up the next one to stay in the company of these amazing women. Give this book a try, I think you will be surprised at how good a paranormal mystery can be.

There are some recipes in the back for Halibut Spetsiota, Baked Beef Barley Mushroom Soup, and Pear-Ginger Crisp.

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First Line: An enchanting afternoon in April, windows wide open to the scent of lilac and ocean breeze freshening the house-- my spirit should have been lifting and soaring like a gull over the waves, but here was Deirdre sipping tea and dispensing gloomy suspicions at my kitchen table.

Between her herbalist business and her circle of friends, Cass Shipton has been busy. The last thing she needs is a troubled teen underfoot, but when "Freddie" McGinty shows up trailing disaster in her wake, show more Cass feels that it's her duty to help the girl understand and control the powerful gifts she's been given.

All Plymouth is talking about the recent disappearance of a local family, and Cass begins having disturbing visions of dense forests, a shallow grave, and a very sinister man. Cass calls on her circle of friends to help her find the missing family before it's too late.

So far, I've enjoyed this series which gives insight into the Wiccan way of life, a way of life that's very much in tune with nature and has a great deal more to do with common sense and compassion than most people realize. What makes Riccio's books so enjoyable is threefold: (1) Cass's "conversations" with her dog, (2) every woman in Cass's circle of friends has her own foibles; no one is perfect, and (3) it's so refreshing to have a female character over the age of forty who has a fun, healthy sex life.

The thing that I questioned in this book was the treatment of the villain. For most of the book, he's a phantom and very seldom seen. All the reader knows is someone opens a box and-- BOOM! the person is blown to smithereens. As the body count mounts, the bad guy almost becomes Super Villain, and his capture at the end is tame in comparison to the trail of destruction he'd strewn earlier.

Be that as it may, it had been two or three years since I read the first book in the series, but I had no problem getting back into the setting and characters again. Don't feel as though you have to begin at the beginning. The cast of characters and their lifestyle are well worth getting to know. show less

Third in the “Circle” Cassandra Shipton series. I almost hesitate to call these mysteries, in much the way the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books aren’t true mysteries. They’re more stories with a mystery element to them. These stories feature five women with very different personalities and lives who are best friends and Wiccan coven members. When I need a dose of good-feeling and hominess, this series does the trick for me. The author is able to evoke sights, smells, and sounds show more that put you right in the moment, and most of her moments are pleasant and cozy and idyllic. I would probably eventually gag left to read only this type of book, but I do love this series for the warm fuzzy feeling as much as for the accurate portrayal of pagan belief and practice—or at least, a plausible portrayal, given that there are no hard and fast rules and pagan worship and lifestyle can be quite varied. Anyway, this was a lovely way to open October and I heartily enjoyed it! show less