When I first read the inside flap of The Secret of Magic, I had high hopes for an outstanding story. The summary writer did a fantastic job of setting up the background for a historical murder mystery involving Thurgood Marshall set in 1945 post-war Mississippi. I just wish that the rest of the book had been as good as the summary.
I was glued to the first two chapters and was still quite taken with the book up to around page 75, but then I got confused about which book I was reading. The Secret of Magic is actually a book within a book and the lawyer, Regina Robichard, who ventures down to Mississippi to help resolve a murder case, uses this novel (The Secret of Magic) that she read back as a child to help her piece together what really happened to John Howard (the black war hero who was killed on his way home after the war was over). Honestly, it was all a bit too confusing for me.
The characters are typically southern, eccentric and set in their ways, and are very unhappy about a young, black woman (Regina Robichard) who also happens to be a lawyer, coming into their town and digging around for clues to a murder that the white people of the town feel is a closed case. But it is, ironically, the author of The Secret of Magic, who calls upon Thurgood Marshall for help. Regina is quite excited about meeting the author of this book that cast such a spell on her as a child. Imagine her surprise, and the reader's, when things don't turn out to be quite what they seemed at first.
The Secret of Magic was a good, solid story and a good reminder of how lucky we are to not live in a black vs. white society any longer. I just wish I had been clever enough to keep details straight as I read. (Perhaps it was because I read this the week before Christmas. I was lucky to keep up from down a week before Christmas!) I think a clearer mind might have made the story within a story a bit easier to follow.
Happy reading, everyone!
:) Dodie
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