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HUNTING THE WITCH
by Ellen Hart
Minotaur, December 2000
400 pages
$6.50
ISBN: 0312973195


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Patricia Kastner, new owner of the historic decaying Minneapolis Winter Garden Hotel is having a meeting with the executives of the Haymaker Club, a group of wealthy businesspeople who endow unusual charities. She hopes to turn the hotel into an elegant retirement home with a fine restaurant for the tenants and guests. Andrew Dove, President and Joe Patronelli, vice president of the club are meeting with Eddie Flynn, architect and Patricia, discussing the possibilities of finance. Dove is annoyed. His son in law, Jeffrey Chapel, CFO of the Haymaker Club arrives late. Dove is not happy. Patricia takes a phone call from her office during the tour of the building, and vaguely notices that everyone has left. Eventually, she breaks away from her phone call and finds Chapel's wife, Brenna in the lobby, looking for her husband. Patricia discovers that Eddie hadn't reset the door alarm on his way out, and then she finds Chapel's body tangled in the cables in the elevator shaft.

Restauranteur Jane Lawless is recuperating from an injury. She's at the Grand Rapids home of her ex-lover, Dr. Julia Martinsen, and beginning to get annoyed. Julia has been acting very secretive and strange lately, and the phone has been ringing constantly during the day, and then she is attacked by someone looking for Julia's records. Julia gets Jane to return to Minneapolis, promising to meet her the next day, but she seems to keep avoiding Lawless.

Jane bunks in her office at the Lyme House because she doesn't feel safe at either her house or Julia's loft. Patricia makes a play for Jane (Kastner's motto is "anything warm will do") and, despite warnings from her flamboyant actress friend, Cordelia Thorn, considers having an affair. Meanwhile, Brenna Chapel, Jeffrey's wife, has received a fax saying that her husband had been gay and if she didn't pay, the blackmailer will out him. Brenna comes to Jane for help.

Hart keeps several threads going at once. What is Julia's problem? Was Chapel, an ex-Marine officer, gay? Did his death have anything to do with his sexual preference? Who killed Jeffrey and was the murder of Father Michael related to that of Chapel? An intriguing puzzle with some very sympathetic characters.

This review is based on the UK trade paperback edition Women's Press, 372 pages (10 February, 2000)

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, May 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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