Mix of a Police Procedural and the Occult (Seriously – and Seriously Scary)

If you are prone to check a book’s genre, as I do when seeking a new read, you may do a doubletake when you view The Coven Murders. It’s listed in the occult and the police procedural genres, the latter having a focus on investigative processes. Are we talking about arresting demons? Actually, that guess is not far off, as author Brian O’Hare has penned a unique and intriguing mix of detailed detective work in pursuit of some bad guys, not all of whom may be human. And if you’re thinking that could be amusing, you’re at the wrong end of the spectrum. It’s bone chilling, truly scary, without resorting to graphic details of ritualistic murders or grotesque beasts. Not many authors can do that.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the book is the author’s writing style; it’s elegant, evocative. Consider this description from the first chapter. “An atavistic dread paralyses the coven members, shocking them into a silent, transfixed tableau,” as opposed to, ‘they were so scared they couldn’t move.’ The book is so eloquently written that literary fiction could be added to the list of genres, giving further pause to the potential reader. I will admit, however, that in a few places the flowery prose and the gruesome story seemed in discord and some ‘plain talk’ might have worked better, but that was an extremely minor concern.

The method O’Hare uses to manage the plot’s mystery is nothing short of outstanding. From the start, the reader knows more than the protagonist, Chief Inspector Sheehan, about a 21-year-old cold case – the bones of a young woman found in a shallow grave near the ruins of an abandoned church. All the time, we’re wondering, when will he and his team get the break they need? But at the same time, we as readers know there is more to the mystery because now, coven members are dying. It’s this constant, mental dissonance between willing the police forward and realizing that their path is littered with dark, evil unknowns that make the pages turn themselves long into the night.

Overall, my advice to the reader interested in crime mysteries and/or books involving the occult is, don’t be baffled by the somewhat incongruent genres of The Coven Murders. The story is, in fact, a great mix of the two and not to be missed. ( )