Salem,
Massachusetts, police chief John Rafferty has his hands full as bestselling
author Brunonia Barry’s novel opens. It’s Halloween in the town known for its
witch trials back in the late 1680s. Lot of weird things, and people, are out
and about, but the evening is going rather smoothly. It was fun to read about
how the town went all out to bring tourists into the town.
Then
the night does a complete one-eighty. A teenage boy is found dead at witches’ hanging
site. A mentally unstable Rose Whelan, is the prime suspect.
Rose,
once a noted Salem witch-trial historian and scholar, has a history with the
town, the witches, and murder. Twenty-five years ago, she was involved with what
became known as “The Goddess Murders,” all descendants of some of those accused
where three young women were viciously murdered and thrown into a mass grave on
another Halloween. The only survivors were Rose and one of the young women’s’
daughter, five-year-old Callie.
Callie
did not come out of the event unscathed. Hiding in the bushes where Rose pushed
her, Callie clung to a rose rosary, one that Rose shoved into her hands, so
hard that the imprint of the rose burned itself into her little palm.
Twenty-five years later that scar and still there and sometimes hurts.
After
the murders, Callie was told that Rose was also dead and she was sent to a
convent. Upon learning that Rose is indeed alive, Callie returns to Salem.
Many
believe that Rose is guilt of the teenage boy’s death, and of “The Goddess
Murders.” But proving it is another story. Chief Rafferty reopens the cold case
and tries to solve those murders and well as the current one.
I
won’t lie, The Fifth Petal is a slow
read. The story is filled with the history of the Salem Witch Trials. It’s
fascinating, but not all of it is relative to the story. In the end, I’m not
sure that the teenage boy’s murder was ever solved. For these reasons, The Fifth Petal receives 4 stars out of 5 in Julie’s world.
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