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Witch
When children start going missing in three small towns on the outskirts of Kansas City, KBI field agents Rick Holland and Lucy Stuart are assigned the cases. While searching for the first child, the team stumbles across the body of a young woman. The circumstances of her death are eerily similar to a cold case that Agent Holland has been working on for years, a case that holds special significance for him.
Can this 31-year-old unsolved murder have a connection to the missing children? Holland begins to think maybe it does, and he and Stuart enlist the help of Dr. Maggie Fry, a specialist in folklore and oral history, who happens to believe she is the reincarnation of a 17th century witch.
After a series of unexplainable events, the agents must suspend their disbelief and travel into the bizarre and frightening world of witchcraft in order to discover what happened to the children and grapple with their own personal demons.
Can this 31-year-old unsolved murder have a connection to the missing children? Holland begins to think maybe it does, and he and Stuart enlist the help of Dr. Maggie Fry, a specialist in folklore and oral history, who happens to believe she is the reincarnation of a 17th century witch.
After a series of unexplainable events, the agents must suspend their disbelief and travel into the bizarre and frightening world of witchcraft in order to discover what happened to the children and grapple with their own personal demons.
- GenresMystery
666 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2016
23 people are currently reading
361 people want to read
About the author
Jill Benson
9 books6 followersJill Benson is originally from Springfield, Missouri and has spent most of her adulthood in the Kansas City area. Both a Kansas University and Missouri State University (formerly SMSU) graduate, she loves the art of writing and telling a story.
"Since I was a child, I have always loved tales about ghosts, witches, vampires—all that fun stuff. If it makes my skin crawl, I love it. I am a proud fan of horror and supernatural tales, everything from Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King—and anything in between."
Jill has written and produced two murder mystery dinner theatre productions, and along with her husband, two movie shorts. This is her first novel. Jill resides in Lexington, North Carolina with her husband, Steve and their six wonderful dogs.
"Since I was a child, I have always loved tales about ghosts, witches, vampires—all that fun stuff. If it makes my skin crawl, I love it. I am a proud fan of horror and supernatural tales, everything from Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King—and anything in between."
Jill has written and produced two murder mystery dinner theatre productions, and along with her husband, two movie shorts. This is her first novel. Jill resides in Lexington, North Carolina with her husband, Steve and their six wonderful dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 29, 2017
Witch is a crime novel with a hint of witchiness (yes, I know that’s probably not a real word). As I’m not a huge fan of crime novels, my favourite parts of this story were the characters themselves. I particularly loved quirky old lady, Ettie and her daughter, Maggie. I was fascinated by the witchcraft side of this story. The witch’s ladder, ancient rituals and the comparison made between witchcraft and Native American beliefs was intriguing.
As the missing person count increased throughout this story, I was relieved the story didn’t get too bogged down in police procedure. Yes, there was plenty of investigating, but the witchcraft side of the story was prominent enough to keep my interest. In fact, I found the later part of the book hard to put down, and spent all of yesterday evening reading the second half of this book, as I needed to know how it ended before bed, especially as the tension increased nearer the end.
This is rather a long book, and although I didn’t find it slow moving, I did struggle with the number of characters. Some are introduced as the story progresses, so just when I thought I’d got the hang of who everyone was, someone else would enter the story to send me brain into overload. I’m sure this won’t be a problem for normal people, but due to my short-term memory issues it did take a while for me to get into the story.
This will be enjoyed by crime fiction lovers, but with a dark fairy tale feel to it, a little like Hansel and Gretel, I think this will also be enjoyed by fans of supernatural novels and dark fairy tales.
As the missing person count increased throughout this story, I was relieved the story didn’t get too bogged down in police procedure. Yes, there was plenty of investigating, but the witchcraft side of the story was prominent enough to keep my interest. In fact, I found the later part of the book hard to put down, and spent all of yesterday evening reading the second half of this book, as I needed to know how it ended before bed, especially as the tension increased nearer the end.
This is rather a long book, and although I didn’t find it slow moving, I did struggle with the number of characters. Some are introduced as the story progresses, so just when I thought I’d got the hang of who everyone was, someone else would enter the story to send me brain into overload. I’m sure this won’t be a problem for normal people, but due to my short-term memory issues it did take a while for me to get into the story.
This will be enjoyed by crime fiction lovers, but with a dark fairy tale feel to it, a little like Hansel and Gretel, I think this will also be enjoyed by fans of supernatural novels and dark fairy tales.
December 12, 2016
Witch is a must read for any true horror fans - a compelling tale of darkness and terror that will have you looking after your children like a hawk.
November 8, 2017
Genre - Supernatural/Psychological/Crime Thriller
Publication Date - September 18, 2016
Format - Kindle
Pages - 666
Stars - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
“Writing ability is this process/cognitive-oriented approach is, therefore, defined as the ability to initiate and evolve ideas and then use certain revising and editing practices to develop them to maturity in a given context.” In her debut novel “Witch” Jill Benson has demonstrated she has an abundance of that ability. It is at times like this where I wish I had just a minuscule of that ability in order to do it any justice with my review. That being said here goes. Jill combines the occult and crime thriller genre in a most masterful and artful way. The characters are fascinating and very relatable and easy to get behind or against depending on their role in the plot. As I was reading I found myself thinking about Baba Yaga long before it is mentioned by Jill. If you are not familiar with Baba Yaga In Slavic myths, Baba Yaga is the wild woman or dark lady of magic and in Russian folklore there are many stories about her. Understanding this lore even in the most basic form as I do will go a long way in the enjoyment and understanding of this read. Although a beefy read in pages and information, I found the rhythm and cadence of the story to be symphonic, well balanced and beautifully written. I just absolutely loved this book, the format and the mixture of all the different genres. I am so looking forward to future works by Jill Benson. If psychological thriller and the occult are in your reading wheelhouse, this is a must read. There are a few topics that may be triggers to some readers including child kidnapping and pedophilia to name a few. (Full disclosure: Jill provided me with an eCopy of this book and that in no way is a reflection of my review.)
Synopsis (from back cover): When children start going missing in three small towns on the outskirts of Kansas City, KBI field agents Rick Holland and Lucy Stuart are assigned the cases. While searching for the first child, the team stumbles across the body of a young woman. The circumstances of her death are eerily similar to a cold case that Agent Holland has been working on for years, a case that holds special significance for him.
Can this 31-year-old unsolved murder have a connection to the missing children? Holland begins to think maybe it does, and he and Stuart enlist the help of Dr. Maggie Fry, a specialist in folklore and oral history, who happens to believe she is the reincarnation of a 17th century witch.
After a series of unexplainable events, the agents must suspend their disbelief and travel into the bizarre and frightening world of witchcraft in order to discover what happened to the children and grapple with their own personal demons.
Publication Date - September 18, 2016
Format - Kindle
Pages - 666
Stars - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
“Writing ability is this process/cognitive-oriented approach is, therefore, defined as the ability to initiate and evolve ideas and then use certain revising and editing practices to develop them to maturity in a given context.” In her debut novel “Witch” Jill Benson has demonstrated she has an abundance of that ability. It is at times like this where I wish I had just a minuscule of that ability in order to do it any justice with my review. That being said here goes. Jill combines the occult and crime thriller genre in a most masterful and artful way. The characters are fascinating and very relatable and easy to get behind or against depending on their role in the plot. As I was reading I found myself thinking about Baba Yaga long before it is mentioned by Jill. If you are not familiar with Baba Yaga In Slavic myths, Baba Yaga is the wild woman or dark lady of magic and in Russian folklore there are many stories about her. Understanding this lore even in the most basic form as I do will go a long way in the enjoyment and understanding of this read. Although a beefy read in pages and information, I found the rhythm and cadence of the story to be symphonic, well balanced and beautifully written. I just absolutely loved this book, the format and the mixture of all the different genres. I am so looking forward to future works by Jill Benson. If psychological thriller and the occult are in your reading wheelhouse, this is a must read. There are a few topics that may be triggers to some readers including child kidnapping and pedophilia to name a few. (Full disclosure: Jill provided me with an eCopy of this book and that in no way is a reflection of my review.)
Synopsis (from back cover): When children start going missing in three small towns on the outskirts of Kansas City, KBI field agents Rick Holland and Lucy Stuart are assigned the cases. While searching for the first child, the team stumbles across the body of a young woman. The circumstances of her death are eerily similar to a cold case that Agent Holland has been working on for years, a case that holds special significance for him.
Can this 31-year-old unsolved murder have a connection to the missing children? Holland begins to think maybe it does, and he and Stuart enlist the help of Dr. Maggie Fry, a specialist in folklore and oral history, who happens to believe she is the reincarnation of a 17th century witch.
After a series of unexplainable events, the agents must suspend their disbelief and travel into the bizarre and frightening world of witchcraft in order to discover what happened to the children and grapple with their own personal demons.
December 2, 2016
I would normally have read this book within 1-2 days, it was such a page turner. But, it took me two whole weeks! I had flu & my eyes were streaming & sore... But I'm so glad, it was such a great experience having to wait, dreading & reliving previous chapters, the atmosphere was heavy with suspense & I looked forward to reading it whenever I could...
I believed in this new world & all the people in it, I loved the characters & how they grew. I did laugh on occasion, I cried too but on the whole I would have to say I shite my pants more often than not! There were some very scary chapters, There were times I couldn't breath where I was holding my breath not realising. I would have rather wee'd my pants than go into the cold dark hallway to the loo. Honestly, I loved every minute.
I won this book @ a publicity event held by "Booklover Catlady" generously donated by the author Jill Benson. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone that enjoys anything to do with the supernatural & loves suspense... A truly great read.
I believed in this new world & all the people in it, I loved the characters & how they grew. I did laugh on occasion, I cried too but on the whole I would have to say I shite my pants more often than not! There were some very scary chapters, There were times I couldn't breath where I was holding my breath not realising. I would have rather wee'd my pants than go into the cold dark hallway to the loo. Honestly, I loved every minute.
I won this book @ a publicity event held by "Booklover Catlady" generously donated by the author Jill Benson. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone that enjoys anything to do with the supernatural & loves suspense... A truly great read.
October 3, 2019
Witch by Jill Benson wasn’t for me. It sounded interesting, it had some excellent reviews, and for the most part, I was intrigued by the author’s initial description of the witch. I thought, “This will be perfect to read this Halloween season!” But at just 4% in, I DNF’d the book.
I was bored, and couldn’t connect with any of the characters. The book’s initial chapters told one short supernatural scene after another as the myriad of characters encountered the witch… but the narrative was bogged down by over-description of the scenes and characters’ backstories that weren’t necessary. The author’s narrative voice was present for every character and made them all sound the same – which was a particular problem for the two tween boys. They didn’t sound their age.
By the end of the 4th character switch, I was over it. The book and its narrative style didn’t draw me in. It was slow-paced. Someone else may appreciate this more, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I encourage you to try and push past the initial chapters if you can because I’ve heard from other readers that it gets significantly better, I just had no interest in doing so. It shouldn’t take four chapters to get into a story.
I was bored, and couldn’t connect with any of the characters. The book’s initial chapters told one short supernatural scene after another as the myriad of characters encountered the witch… but the narrative was bogged down by over-description of the scenes and characters’ backstories that weren’t necessary. The author’s narrative voice was present for every character and made them all sound the same – which was a particular problem for the two tween boys. They didn’t sound their age.
By the end of the 4th character switch, I was over it. The book and its narrative style didn’t draw me in. It was slow-paced. Someone else may appreciate this more, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I encourage you to try and push past the initial chapters if you can because I’ve heard from other readers that it gets significantly better, I just had no interest in doing so. It shouldn’t take four chapters to get into a story.
January 14, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Running in at a sinister 666 pages the author blends crime fiction with the supernatural in a manner evoking the chilling and strange tales of Poe. The crime aspect of the novel follows two detectives hunting for missing children, however the suspect is more ominous than can be imagined. A wonderfully chilling and cunning tale of the strange and supernatural in the modern world, ‘Witch’ is an unputdownable page turner and I hope to see more from this new author in the future.
December 31, 2021
Move Over Stephen King
Ms Jill Benson has a very huge witchy imagination that she has put into written word!
Grab a sweet tea, head to your fav reading nook, settle back and get ready for some well-written horror.
Oh... one more thing. You might want to add a cross to make it all a bit safer...
Ms Jill Benson has a very huge witchy imagination that she has put into written word!
Grab a sweet tea, head to your fav reading nook, settle back and get ready for some well-written horror.
Oh... one more thing. You might want to add a cross to make it all a bit safer...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews