When young women start dying, Boston cop Samantha Ryan is the perfect person to investigate, for only she knows what the archaic symbol carved into their flesh means. The last in a long line of ruthless witches, she grew up in a coven seduced by power and greed. And now she's sure that bad witches have returned to Salem. Reluctantly, Samantha goes undercover-into a town obsessed with black magic, into her terrifying past, and into the dark, newly awakened heart of evil.
4 out of 5 stars
The Thirteenth Sacrifice is the first book in the Witch Hunt series.
At 12, Samantha was the sole survivor of her coven. Now, with much of her past repressed, she is a cop. At first, there didn't seem to be anything supernatural about the murders that were taking place, but then she noticed a symbol carved into the victims that is used in a terrifying black magic ritual. She knows that she is the only one who can stop what is taking place, so she agrees to go undercover. She has to dig into the past that she doesn't want to remember and become someone she swore she'd never be again in order to stop the evil that is coming.
I've needed a change from the usual YA books I've been reading and this book was a good change. It has the paranormal element that I like, but without the first person teen voice that I'm tired of.
Samantha was an interesting character with a good back story that they didn't fully reveal, which was kind of disappointing. I wanted to know what she repressed, but they only got to a few of the things she didn't remember. I assume that the rest will be covered in subsequent books. There was some whining by Samantha, but it seemed a little more justified within the story. The part that annoyed me, though, was that it sometimes felt like a broken record.
There was a sort of love interest. There wasn't really any romance, though. Mostly, she just felt a connection to him. He was okay but, for some reason, I just couldn't get a handle on what he was supposed to look like and I kept picturing him short and balding. There just was not much description of him outside that he was nosy and his mother had been killed.
I really liked this book. The story kept me involved and, because it wasn't really a mystery with clues, I didn't have to think about who the bad guy was. Sometimes the paranormal element made doing things or figuring things out easy for Samantha, but everything flowed well. The ending set up for the next book in 2013, and I added it to my wishlist before I even finished this one.
*Picture and description from Goodreads
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