We meet up with Eliza and her friends again as she prepares for the biggest festival of the year, MumFest! MumFest brings people from all over the United States to the small town of New Bern, North Carolina the first weekend of October. There are carnival rides, over a hundred vendors of all types, and street performers that flock to the small town to sell their wares. Eliza has been recruited by the Sheriff to assist with a case that was growing cold. With some magical help and the ability to see ghosts, Eliza will attempt to find the missing women and won't stop until she brings their abductors to justice. This is the second book in The Java Tavern Series.
You can really see the influence of the author’s love of Buffy the Vampire slayer, and in particular the character Willow from that series, in this book. The protagonist Eliza, who runs the Java Tavern, is a witch who has a spirit guide and is helping the local sheriff solve a multiple murder crime. I enjoyed the originality of the ways Eliza tapped into her unique power and how the story dipped in and out of action and ends with a climactic finish - like a tv series! The character development is great, I could picture each of Eliza’s friends and the interaction between them all felt authentic for a group of friends and work colleagues. I could only go with three stars however as the book really needs proofreading/copy-editing. There are far too many sentences that require re-reading to make sense, which sadly interrupts the flow of reading.