Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic – Meghan Ciana Doidge

I downloaded Dowser #1 from Amazon because it had promise and it was free. Then I read books 2-7. Three stars for a decent book - and a fourth because it demonstrably kept me reading.

Jade is a half-witch in a milieu that includes vampires, werewolves, witches, sorcerers, and other (mostly-unspecified) magical folks. Mostly they get along. Jade is considered weak, as a witch, but she is a dowser - meaning that she has an uncommon ability to detect magic. Mostly she uses the ability to find odds-and-ends that have absorbed some magic, and make trinkets out of them. Then the trinkets start showing up on corpses that have been subjected to black magic.

It’s easier to identify the weaknesses of the book than its strengths: The reader figures out who the killer is long before Jade does. The reader also figures out that Jade’s magic is more impressive than she believes. The plotting is lazy: If Jade needs to get to the moon, someone will helpfully rent a space ship and offer her a ride. Character development is also lazy: Most characters have one or two character traits in lieu of. Too much of what we see of Jade is a chocolate haze (preferably single-origin chocolate with at least 64% cacao) alternating with concern about her shoes.

But see “Then I read books 2-7”. The book is better than the sum of its parts.