Water Witch

I love Deb LeBlanc! She is a very talented writer, and I read Water Witch in 3 days! I could not put it down! She knows how to entertain her readers. I can't wait for her next book. I have read all of them. Two thumbs way up!!

Just finished Water Witch and as has been the case with LeBlancs other books, it was a no holds barred, fast paced race to the finish. I found the book to cook up a complex stew of a good story line and background setting frought with all that is creepy about the bayou in general and swamps in particular...i.e. poisonous snakes (both swimming in the water and dropping out of trees), fetid water, pitch black...and just being plain lost out there. Let's not forget bloated floating bodies, charred corpses, kidnapped children, and a madman on the loose. These are components that are very creppy to a city boy like myself. Personally, I have always struggled with authors that weigh you down with so many facts that one feels as though they are walking through glue. If indeed, you really want to know how to build a watch before asking what time it is...then LeBlanc is not for you. If however you enjoy a read that shuns the predictable while painting MAJOR pictures in your minds eye...then Water Witch (and her other titles) will find a very comfortable fit on your bookshelf. One cannot discuss LeBlanc without mentioning her obvious pentchant for character development. Be it a funeral worker who steals from the dead juxtaposed with a vengeful Gypsy King ("Grave Intent"), a horrid Pig Woman ("Bottom Feeder"...5 Strokes to Midnight), or the fanatacal Preacher in Water Witch, LeBlanc calls everyones personality traits and quirks into play to create one foible filled unforgettable character after another. When tragedy inevitably befalls them, you discover, to your surprise, just how emotionally invested you have become in these characters. As they say...timing is everything, and in "Water Witch" (as in her other tomes) the final 3 or 4 chapters is a full out pedal to the metal sojourn that has all the speed and grace of the Indy 500 coupled with the brutality and unexpected collisions of a demolition derby. One will be shocked but not surprised by the ending if you have paid good attention throughout the book. If you are looking for the obvious, one won't find it here as major characters are often kept in the shadows until (like a good Cajun gumbo) they are served up at just the right moment. I enjoy LeBlancs overall scene setting, character development, pacing, and have come to expect endings that I wouldn't expect. Thank You RPH

We are transported to a weird place where a man named Olm has called forth truly frightening spirits accidentaly. This story stuck to me and got me jumpy during the day. There is nowhere safe. There are also amazing people populating this story, especially a pair of unnaturally insightful ladies. inspired and enriching.

How does a normal woman get along when she has a supernatural ability? Say you have a sixth finger on your left hand and it really likes helping you find things? Things like missing cats or oil hidden underground... suddenly people look at you in a new light, as an object to help them amass their fortunes. So you hide away in your little house in Texas, thinking everything is going to be fine until your sister in Louisiana calls... suddenly you are flying to the bayou to help look for two missing children who are in a lot more trouble than anyone expects. Water Witch is a very fast read, at just under 300 pages, you will fly through it in only a few hours. Leblanc's prose is clean, crisp, to the point and ridiculously easy to read. Though I wouldn't call this a YA novel, I don't see any reason why the 13 and up crew shouldn't be able to read this apart from a few profanities. This is one of the few Leisure Books that I have read which has not drifted into the realms of sex and gore... not that it felt like Leblanc was holding back... instead her tale was tight enough not to ever need to go there. I won't say that the book ever scared me... because for some reason you feel from the beginning that the characters we are encouraged to love as readers, will all be okay in the end. I will say that there were some perplexing bits that were left unexplained in the end, but it really didn't bother me. I would have liked a little more explanation on where the shoes were going... but in the end it was still a satisfying read. I would recommend this more to the female reader than the male reader. I'm not 100% sure why I feel this way, I can only say that the prose seems to be the type that will connect more with a female audience. The characters feel real enough, even though we really don't have the opportunity to really get to know any of them. Even the people down at the local bar/diner/bait and tackle shop seem real enough. The only one that I was never able to get a true handle on was our bad guy. Perhaps we feel that we don't really know them because we don't get a whole lot of history on anyone. I don't believe that the book suffered from this aspect, but it read so fast that perhaps a bit more history would have slowed the reader down a bit. On the whole this was a very solid and fun book to read, you have the supernatural touch, the unwilling hero, the crazy old grandma who knows more than she's letting on, the swamps, snakes, alligators, kidnapped children, crazy preachers, and the big baddie who has foul plans for the little ones. Though I won't say this was one of my favorite books, this was a fun read that has encouraged me to pick up more books by Leblanc in the future.