Review: VICIOUS CIRCLE by Linda Robertson

Vicious Circle
By Linda Robertson
ISBN-10: 1439154287
ISBN-13: 978-1439154281
Paperback, 384 pages
June 30, 2009
Juno Books
Reviewed by Sabrina Williams

"Being a witch doesn't pay the bills..." Don't I know it. And it's as a Wiccan that I most enjoyed Linda Robertson's debut novel Vicious Circle. Robertson makes it easy to relate to her heroine Persephone Alcmedi, a traditional witch with a soft spot for waerewolves. While she's offering a safe place for waerewolves to kennel during the full moon, she's also taking on the responsibility of housing her feisty grandmother who has recently gotten ejected from a nursing home.

Tragically, a friend who used to kennel at Persephone's home is murdered. This leaves Lorrie's orphaned daughter, Beverley, of great concern to Seph, considering Lorrie was a single parent and her daughter is now in the care of Vivian Diamond, an esteemed but apathetic high priestess with the child rearing skills of Miss Hannigan. Of even more concern is the fact that Vivian apparently knows who killed Lorrie, and she insists on hiring Seph to avenge the waerewolf's death. In Robertson's world, waerewolves are treated as a sort of subspecies, and such a murder would brushed under the rug by authorities. Vivian knows that Persephone has broken the Witches' Rede for Lorrie in the past, and she wouldn't hesitate to use that information against her.

An even larger problem looms, however. The accused murderer, Goliath Kline, also happens to be a vampire with a nasty reputation. He does not take kindly to Persephone's investigation into his affairs and, as a result, another waere friend nearly loses her life. Persephone is desperately trying to save her friend while keeping herself alive in the midst of a vampire's ire.

Yes, it does has a bit of a Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood feel to it, but what doesn't these days? It would be easy to envision Goliath as Eric Northman or Vivian as Maryann Forrester, amongst plenty of other parallels. However, I was most intrigued by Persephone's internal conflict over how loosely she interprets the Witches' Rede. And her bad boy musician love interest is a far cry from Bill Compton. In fact, Johnny presents yet another conflict for Seph in that she's hesitant to let herself fall in love with someone so far removed from her idea of a respectable boyfriend. All told, Robertson combines an interesting mix of ritual and lore, contemporary affairs and mystery.