Knowledge is Power

by Debbie De Louise

On the one-month anniversary of the death of her beloved cat, Librarian Margaret Goodley, uses her excellent research skills to cast a spell to bring Bluebell back to life. Unfortunately, there are unexpected consequences when two other women who have lost their own loved ones on the same day interrupt the ceremony.

17 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2016

About the author

Debbie De Louise is an award-winning author and a reference librarian at a public library on Long Island. She is a member of International Thriller Writers, Sisters-in-Crime, and the Cat Writer’s Association. She has a BA in English and an MLS in Library Science from Long Island University. Her published novels include the 6 books of her Cobble Cove cozy mystery series: A Stone's Throw, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Written in Stone, Love on the Rocks, No Gravestone Unturned, and Sneaky's Supernatural Mystery and Other Cobble Cove Stories, her paranormal romance, Cloudy Rainbow, her mystery thriller Reason to Die, her psychological mystery, Sea Scope, and her time-travel novel, Time's Relative. She also published a romantic comedy novella featuring a jewel heist caper, When Jack Trumps Ace and a cat poetry book, Meows and Purrs. Debbie also has a new series, the Buttercup Bend Mysteries, the first one of which is The Case of the Cat Crazy Lady. Debbie has also written articles and short stories for several anthologies of various genres. She lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter, and two cats.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knowledge is Power is a short story by Debbie De Louise. I've read two of the author's novels, and when this came up for free earlier today, I decided to download it and read it during an afternoon break.

At ~25 pages, it's the ideal read to give yourself a break from reality. Three women long for someone who's passed away. One misses her daughter. One misses her fiance. The third yearns for her cat, definitely not the cheating husband. The one who misses her cat... is a witch, and she's conjured up a spell to bring Bluebell back. Things don't go as planned. The other two women don't like the results. They had no input, and they didn't get what they would've wanted. Or maybe they did.

De Louise packs a nice punch with the three different storylines as they merge together when a creature stirs from the grave. Just enough details to show the writer's skills... not too much to get thoroughly involved in the reasons why. It's a good balance, and I recommend it for the upcoming spooky season.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three different women loose something they love: cat, lover and daughter. Margaret Goodley tries to bring her beloved Bluebell back by performing a special ritual on Donker cemetery. Barbara Carter, the woman who lost her daughter, tries to stop her. What will be the result of the ritual? Is there a happy ever after? I really enjoyed this well composed uncanny story with a fine twist at the end around the famous proverb 'Knowledge is Power'. A good, well plotted story with plausible characters. Recommended!

[Carolyn Vandine West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs Goodley misses her cat Bluebell that died just one month ago. She has found a way to return her to life if she just can get things to work out in time.
However life is strange sometimes and things are turned in a direction that no one could predict.
Lots of context in this short that is a gift not many authors have
What a great little short story. Glad I saw it on a review today and was able to snag it while it was free.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very different kind of story where a librarian manages to bring her cat back to life only to see him be killed. If the murderer had waited a bit she would have realized that the daughter she lost was also brought back to life-along with a young woman's fiance. As three of them walk away--the story ends--but which three?

In my opinion there a few lessons to be learned from this short novel-but I will let you form your own opinion on that. This is another story that could be read around a campfire late at night!