Narrated by Kale Williams

 Josh Lanyon’s paranormal mystery/romance Bedknobs and Broomsticks series is a little bit different to her normal fare. Mainly by Moonlight, the first book (of three), is a fun and mostly light-hearted tale in which San Francisco antiques dealer Cosmo Saville – who also happens to be a witch – finds himself suspected of murder just a few days before his wedding to the city’s Police Commissioner, John Galbraith. In the course of the story, listeners are introduced to the magical society of the Craft and its hierarchy, and to an interesting principal and secondary cast; but please note that the book sets in motion a number of plot points that will run across all three instalments, so listeners will need to listen to all three books in order to experience the whole of the story.

For years, Cosmo has been trying to locate the
Grimorium Primus, the first and most
powerful of the Five Grimoires and an important family heirloom, and thinks he
may finally have it within his grasp when another antiquarian – and a long-time
rival – indicates he has it and invites Cosmo to his shop at midnight in order
to discuss it. Surprised, but expecting the approach to be merely a way of
securing the highest price for the book, Cosmo arrives on the appointed night,
only to find the man lying in a pool of blood within what looks like a partly
drawn pentagram. Frantically looking around, Cosmo sees the stark black
silhouette image of a witch on a broomstick gliding across the ceiling, but
before he can think too much about it, a loud voice and bright lights announce
the arrival of the police, and he’s taken into custody – but not before one of
the cops recognises him as the Commissioner’s fiancé.

After a convoluted sequence of phone calls, John –
who has no idea his fiancé is a witch – arrives at the station, and after
listening to Cosmo’s story, wonders if perhaps Cosmo could have been set up? Cosmo
dismisses the idea, but determines to go to see his mother Estelle, Duchesse
d’Abracadantès, as soon as he can to get her take on events. The duchesse is
next in line to be Crone – Queen of the Witches – and like many of Cosmo’s
friends is not pleased by his decision to marry outside the Craft, or by his
insistence on living a ‘normal’ life and not practicing witchcraft (which he
does – just a little bit). He tells her about the murder and suggests it must
have been committed by someone within the Craft, also mentioning John’s theory
that perhaps someone tried to frame Cosmo as a way of getting to him… which
Estelle laughs off, while hopefully suggesting they should postpone the
wedding. When Cosmo replies that he has no intention of doing any such thing –
not unless John changes his mind – Estelle drops the second bombshell of the
night when she says that John can’t
change his mind because of the love spell he’s been put under.

What?!

Furious and upset, it doesn’t take Cosmo
long to figure out what happened. His best friend, Andi, was with him the first
time he and John met, and – unbeknownst to Cosmo – cast the spell as payback
for John’s abrasive and dismissive behaviour towards him. She had no idea that
John would seek Cosmo out, or that they’d meet again – but that’s what happened,
and now, just over a couple of weeks later and after a whirlwind romance,
they’re engaged and are getting married at the end of the week. The realisation
that all his “hopes and dreams of a life
with John were based on illusion. Trickery. Witchcraft.” is devastating,
and the prospect of losing John is even moreso, but Cosmo tells Andi to remove
the spell. It’s the right thing to do even though the effects will take time
to wear off and Cosmo knows that watching the man he loves gradually fall out
of love with him will be heartbreaking. All he can do is hope that maybe John’s
feelings for him aren’t completely down to the spell and that he really does
love him… although the subtle changes in John’s manner that start to happen
immediately the spell is removed don’t give Cosmo much hope.

The mystery element – surrounding the murder and
the missing grimoire – is brought to a satisfactory conclusion by the end of
the book, but the author also introduces some other plotlines –one surrounding
the existence of a secret society that poses a major threat to the entire
Craft, another around who is out to kill Cosmo – alongside the romance, which
is still on rocky ground in spite of the fact that John showed no signs of
wanting to cancel the wedding, which went ahead as planned. The synopsis for
book two, I Buried a Witch (out in
print at the end of November), indicates that in it, John finds out the truth
about Cosmo, and that Cosmo’s life is still in danger, and I’m invested enough
to want to find out what happens next.

I did enjoy the story in Mainly by Moonlight, although I admit
there were a few things about it that didn’t quite convince me. For one thing,
the fact that Cosmo and John were getting married after knowing each other for
less than three weeks made my head spin (!) and because we’re in Cosmo’s head
the entire time, we never get much of a handle on John or learn what it is
about him that has made Cosmo fall so hard and fast. I suspect that may have
been deliberate; in other books I’ve read or listened to by this author, she
does a terrific job of presenting the second protagonist to the reader through
the eyes of the PoV character, but John is still something of an enigma. There
are also a couple of hints dropped that John may not be as entirely ‘ordinary’
as he – and we – think he is, so I’m prepared to wait to learn more about him
in future instalments.

I was pleased to see Kale Williams’ name
attached to this series; I like his voice and have enjoyed a number of his
performances in the past, so a new audiobook from him is always going to
attract my attention. As I’ve come to expect, he delivers a really good
performance; he expertly captures Cosmo’s quirky sassiness and John’s more
cautious nature while also clearly showing the depth of the emotion that runs
between them. There’s a fairly large supporting cast which is well-differentiated,
and the characters are easy to distinguish from one another and the two principals.
My main quibble is that Estelle was differentiated more by means of accent
(she’s French) than pitch or timbre; her voice lies in the same register as
Cosmo’s, so had I not known she was a female character I may not have realised
it aurally. Mr. Williams’ portrayal of the other female cast members is fine,
but Estelle has more dialogue than they do, so it was more noticeable. I also
wasn’t completely convinced by her accent. Mr. Williams is called upon to speak
French, Gaelic and Latin in this book – so he really had his work cut out for
him! – and he pulls it off for the most part, and also throws in some regional
US accents as well, but a couple of the French pronunciations made me wince a
bit. (I don’t speak Gaelic or Latin, so can’t speak as to the accuracy of those
phrases, but I do speak French, so
even minor errors stick out to me!)

Those things aside however – and I know
being picky about accents is my thing! – it’s a strong performance overall, and
one I very much enjoyed. Mainly by
Moonlight is a fun listen, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next
instalment in the series.