OPAL FIRE

Amy Rubinate portrays Stacy Justice, a vivacious small-town reporter, with bubbly, sometimes saccharine tones in this cozy mystery. Rubinate uses pauses and clear, youthful diction to capture Stacy's zany attitudes--whether she's hunting a news story, managing her cousin Cinnamon's bar, or tending to her Great Dane. When her cousin's bar burns down around Stacy, she realizes someone wants her dead, and the high jinks begin. Rubinate's delivery of Stacy's on-again-off-again decision making about magic, witches, and life is funny and compelling. While the story is heavy on laugh-out-loud humor and light on plot, Rubinate makes it all work. G.D.W. [Published: MAY 2013]