Charmed to Death by Shirley Damsgaard

When the lightning cracked again, the rune, Hagalaz - the symbol for the destroyer, for the crisis at hand - slipped from my numb fingers. And all I saw was the empty street. ~ Charmed to Death, page 146 ~

Ophelia Jensen's good witch granny Abigail revels in her paranormal powers. But Ophelia never asked for her bothersome psychic abilities - especially since they proved worthless when the thirty-something librarian's best friend Brian was murdered by a still-unknown assailant.

Now, five years later, another friend is gone, killed in almost identical fashion. Even dear old Abby isn't safe, distracted as she is by her fight to prevent a massive, mega-polluting pig-farming operation from invading their small Iowa town. And Ophelia can't count on her snarling, scoffing nemesis, police detective Henry Comacho, to get the job done, so she'll have to take matters into her own hands. Because a common thread to the crimes - and a possible next victim - is suddenly becoming troublingly apparent ... and it's Ophelia Jensen herself!

This is one of those cozy mystery series I read for fun. I like Abby, Ophelia and the characters that populate Summerset, Iowa. Darci's a kick and just what Ophelia needs to keep her from being too withdrawn. They balance each other. While Ophelia doesn't really want anything to do with her powers she must give in and use them to solve the mysteries surrounding her. This is the 2nd book in the series and it was just as much fun as the 1st. It's a fast read, being only 285 pages, and nice break from the more intense books populating my current reading. This time I did figure out who the killer was but I didn't figure out the "why." Book 3 is in the TBR piles somewhere and I'm looking forward to more Abby and Ophelia adventures.