Title: The Witch of Criswell: An Ariel Moravec Occult Mystery
Publisher: Sphinx
Author: John Michael Greer
Pages: 180pp

Ariel Moravec is the black sheep of her family. A shy, curious bookworm, she has no interest in a career, particularly not the kind of cut-throat corporate job that her parents pursue. Ariel isn’t really sure what she wants, but her parents refuse to give her the time and space to figure that out. Instead, they exile her for the summer to live with her estranged grandfather Bernard and issue an ultimatum: get herself sorted out, or she’s on her own. With that in mind, Ariel reluctantly moves in with her grandfather, an old man she barely remembers — a very odd old man who once worked as a spy and is now … a mage? A mage who works for a paranormal research institute and helps out people with unusual problems. Problems with the Unseen. Problems that Ariel quickly realizes are very real, no matter how much the rational world might deny their existence ….

I have read a number of Greer’s fiction and nonfiction books, and I have to say that The Witch of Criswell is one of my favorites. First, Ariel is wonderful. She’s thoughtful and quiet and observant. She listens and pays attention. She asks questions, but trusts people who clearly have more experience than her. She doesn’t take unnecessary risks, but she’s not a coward and will do what she has to do to protect innocent people. In other words, she is just the kind of person who would be open to the possibly of the Unseen, and be willing to embrace this new knowledge, even though it upends everything she thought she knew about the world.

Her grandfather Bernard Moravec is the epitome of the classic mentor. He’s patient and knowledgeable, but can also admit when he doesn’t know something. He has a network of allies who are skilled in areas he lacks, and he calls on them as equals.

Then there’s the world that Greer has built. This is, for lack of a better phrase, a real-world occult mystery. This is not an urban fantasy. No slinky, snarky, kickass heroine in tight leather running around with vampires and throwing lightning bolts from her fingertips. This is real-world magic, based on Greer’s many years of practice. This magic (as Bernard explains at one point) is subtle. It’s pepper in your shoes and tea leaves and prayers and carefully-constructed wards and ribbons around tree branches and paying attention.

The tension builds slowly but steadily over the course of the novel. The revelations come one after another as Ariel and her grandfather work their way through the mystery, examine the evidence (both mundane and occult), and finally bring all of the parties together and confront the malicious witch who has been haunting Criswell.

To date, Greer has written three Ariel Moravec novels: The Witch of Criswell, The Book of Haatan, and The Carnelian Moon. I can’t wait to read all of them, and I hope Greer continues the series.

Highly recommended to fans of Greer’s other work, as well as The Secrets of Doctor Taverner by Dion Fortune, Diary of a Soul Doctor by Caitlin Matthews, and Bookshop Witch by T. Thorn Coyle.