We Already Dug the Grave by Emma C. Wells (2026)
Creepy time down South......
And kicks off with an opening sentence that snags you like a fish on the hook and reels you in to keep reading until the last secret (and last corpse) are laid bare.
I wouldn't go so far as to use 'Practical Magic' as any kind of real comparison here. Only in superficial similarities. This tale of witchy sisterhood is far more steeped in the evil and villainy of human beings rather than the otherworldly......with blood streaming out of murder victims and a cast of characters with countless skeletons in their closets......not to mention other random locations as well.
Milly's fled her little Tennessee hometown to eke out a day by day existence waitressing in a run down Gulf Coast tourist trap.. Her much beloved, beautiful and brilliant younger sister Frances now lives an uppercrust, pampered life as the wife of a wealthy family's scion. But there's tragedy and death in their adolescent backstories. filled with murders and disappearances......tragedies that left their mother in prison and the girls in the custody of their decidedly eccentric aunts.
But now it's Frances who's in flight from her abusive husband and his powerful, well-connected family. Milly, fiercely protective of her all too vulnerable little sister, must call upon her inherited gift of divining the future in tea leaves. And she she and Frances will also need to enlist aunts Ruth and Hattle-May., Because these two aging women have their own 'Arsenic and Old Lace' method of dealing with rotten-to-the-core men who'd make the world a better place by leaving it.
A climactic showdown finale looms closer.........and when it erupts, there's a load of shattering twists from both past and present that will alter the lives of everyone involved.......those still breathing, that is.
Author Emma C. Welles dials up the melodrama to the 'overheated' setting and I'll freely admit the book comes awfully close to the borderline of silly and absurd in its plotting and outrageous surprises. But what can I say other than I found myself immersed in the non stop swirl of bodies, secrets and supernatural peeks into a future that doesn't seem to bode well for anyone. And I simply couldn't put it down. A nice read for those dark, chilly nights......
And kicks off with an opening sentence that snags you like a fish on the hook and reels you in to keep reading until the last secret (and last corpse) are laid bare.
I wouldn't go so far as to use 'Practical Magic' as any kind of real comparison here. Only in superficial similarities. This tale of witchy sisterhood is far more steeped in the evil and villainy of human beings rather than the otherworldly......with blood streaming out of murder victims and a cast of characters with countless skeletons in their closets......not to mention other random locations as well.
Milly's fled her little Tennessee hometown to eke out a day by day existence waitressing in a run down Gulf Coast tourist trap.. Her much beloved, beautiful and brilliant younger sister Frances now lives an uppercrust, pampered life as the wife of a wealthy family's scion. But there's tragedy and death in their adolescent backstories. filled with murders and disappearances......tragedies that left their mother in prison and the girls in the custody of their decidedly eccentric aunts.
But now it's Frances who's in flight from her abusive husband and his powerful, well-connected family. Milly, fiercely protective of her all too vulnerable little sister, must call upon her inherited gift of divining the future in tea leaves. And she she and Frances will also need to enlist aunts Ruth and Hattle-May., Because these two aging women have their own 'Arsenic and Old Lace' method of dealing with rotten-to-the-core men who'd make the world a better place by leaving it.
A climactic showdown finale looms closer.........and when it erupts, there's a load of shattering twists from both past and present that will alter the lives of everyone involved.......those still breathing, that is.
Author Emma C. Welles dials up the melodrama to the 'overheated' setting and I'll freely admit the book comes awfully close to the borderline of silly and absurd in its plotting and outrageous surprises. But what can I say other than I found myself immersed in the non stop swirl of bodies, secrets and supernatural peeks into a future that doesn't seem to bode well for anyone. And I simply couldn't put it down. A nice read for those dark, chilly nights......
4 stars (****).
No comments:
Post a Comment