Narrated by Kale Williams
Josh Lanyon’s paranormal mystery/romance Bedknobs and Broomsticks series is a little bit different to her normal fare. Mainly by Moonlight, the first book (of three), is a fun and mostly light-hearted tale in which San Francisco antiques dealer Cosmo Saville – who also happens to be a witch – finds himself suspected of murder just a few days before his wedding to the city’s Police Commissioner, John Galbraith. In the course of the story, listeners are introduced to the magical society of the Craft and its hierarchy, and to an interesting principal and secondary cast; but please note that the book sets in motion a number of plot points that will run across all three instalments, so listeners will need to listen to all three books in order to experience the whole of the story.
For years, Cosmo has been trying to locate the Grimorium Primus, the first and most powerful of the Five Grimoires and an important family heirloom, and thinks he may finally have it within his grasp when another antiquarian – and a long-time rival – indicates he has it and invites Cosmo to his shop at midnight in order to discuss it. Surprised, but expecting the approach to be merely a way of securing the highest price for the book, Cosmo arrives on the appointed night, only to find the man lying in a pool of blood within what looks like a partly drawn pentagram. Frantically looking around, Cosmo sees the stark black silhouette image of a witch on a broomstick gliding across the ceiling, but before he can think too much about it, a loud voice and bright lights announce the arrival of the police, and he’s taken into custody – but not before one of the cops recognises him as the Commissioner’s fiancé.
After a convoluted sequence of phone calls, John – who has no idea his fiancé is a witch – arrives at the station, and after listening to Cosmo’s story, wonders if perhaps Cosmo could have been set up? Cosmo dismisses the idea, but determines to go to see his mother Estelle, Duchesse d’Abracadantès, as soon as he can to get her take on events. The duchesse is next in line to be Crone – Queen of the Witches – and like many of Cosmo’s friends is not pleased by his decision to marry outside the Craft, or by his insistence on living a ‘normal’ life and not practicing witchcraft (which he does – just a little bit). He tells her about the murder and suggests it must have been committed by someone within the Craft, also mentioning John’s theory that perhaps someone tried to frame Cosmo as a way of getting to him… which Estelle laughs off, while hopefully suggesting they should postpone the wedding. When Cosmo replies that he has no intention of doing any such thing – not unless John changes his mind – Estelle drops the second bombshell of the night when she says that John can’t change his mind because of the love spell he’s been put under.
What?!
Furious and upset, it doesn’t take Cosmo long to figure out what happened. His best friend, Andi, was with him the first time he and John met, and – unbeknownst to Cosmo – cast the spell as payback for John’s abrasive and dismissive behaviour towards him. She had no idea that John would seek Cosmo out, or that they’d meet again – but that’s what happened, and now, just over a couple of weeks later and after a whirlwind romance, they’re engaged and are getting married at the end of the week. The realisation that all his “hopes and dreams of a life with John were based on illusion. Trickery. Witchcraft.” is devastating, and the prospect of losing John is even moreso, but Cosmo tells Andi to remove the spell. It’s the right thing to do even though the effects will take time to wear off and Cosmo knows that watching the man he loves gradually fall out of love with him will be heartbreaking. All he can do is hope that maybe John’s feelings for him aren’t completely down to the spell and that he really does love him… although the subtle changes in John’s manner that start to happen immediately the spell is removed don’t give Cosmo much hope.
The mystery element – surrounding the murder and the missing grimoire – is brought to a satisfactory conclusion by the end of the book, but the author also introduces some other plotlines –one surrounding the existence of a secret society that poses a major threat to the entire Craft, another around who is out to kill Cosmo – alongside the romance, which is still on rocky ground in spite of the fact that John showed no signs of wanting to cancel the wedding, which went ahead as planned. The synopsis for book two, I Buried a Witch (out in print at the end of November), indicates that in it, John finds out the truth about Cosmo, and that Cosmo’s life is still in danger, and I’m invested enough to want to find out what happens next.
I did enjoy the story in Mainly by Moonlight, although I admit there were a few things about it that didn’t quite convince me. For one thing, the fact that Cosmo and John were getting married after knowing each other for less than three weeks made my head spin (!) and because we’re in Cosmo’s head the entire time, we never get much of a handle on John or learn what it is about him that has made Cosmo fall so hard and fast. I suspect that may have been deliberate; in other books I’ve read or listened to by this author, she does a terrific job of presenting the second protagonist to the reader through the eyes of the PoV character, but John is still something of an enigma. There are also a couple of hints dropped that John may not be as entirely ‘ordinary’ as he – and we – think he is, so I’m prepared to wait to learn more about him in future instalments.
I was pleased to see Kale Williams’ name attached to this series; I like his voice and have enjoyed a number of his performances in the past, so a new audiobook from him is always going to attract my attention. As I’ve come to expect, he delivers a really good performance; he expertly captures Cosmo’s quirky sassiness and John’s more cautious nature while also clearly showing the depth of the emotion that runs between them. There’s a fairly large supporting cast which is well-differentiated, and the characters are easy to distinguish from one another and the two principals. My main quibble is that Estelle was differentiated more by means of accent (she’s French) than pitch or timbre; her voice lies in the same register as Cosmo’s, so had I not known she was a female character I may not have realised it aurally. Mr. Williams’ portrayal of the other female cast members is fine, but Estelle has more dialogue than they do, so it was more noticeable. I also wasn’t completely convinced by her accent. Mr. Williams is called upon to speak French, Gaelic and Latin in this book – so he really had his work cut out for him! – and he pulls it off for the most part, and also throws in some regional US accents as well, but a couple of the French pronunciations made me wince a bit. (I don’t speak Gaelic or Latin, so can’t speak as to the accuracy of those phrases, but I do speak French, so even minor errors stick out to me!)
Those things aside however – and I know being picky about accents is my thing! – it’s a strong performance overall, and one I very much enjoyed. Mainly by Moonlight is a fun listen, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next instalment in the series.
Caz
Buy Mainly by Moonlight by Josh Lanyon on Amazon
