Putting the Fun in Funeral – Diana Pharaoh Francis

When Beck’s mother is murdered, she does not bother to conceal her unfettered joy. This is perhaps not the best stance to adopt when the police are quizzing her. Then someone comes after Beck with both physical and magical attacks. Magical, because the family Beck knows nothing about turns out to be sorcerous, as does she.

At the start of the book, we are given to understand that Beck’s mother was an evil psychopath. The more we find out about her as the book progresses, the worse she turns out to be. Her other relatives - once they find out about Beck and get in touch - are no prizes either - not evil, mostly, but part of a hidden dog-eat-dog magical society that is likely to wind up killing Beck.

PtFiF is a solid first book in a new series. It sets up a background that is interesting enough, and well-enough-written, that I expect to read the sequel. As a stand-alone novel, it was weak. The mother’s evil is insufficiently motivated, as are the murder and subsequent attacks. The love interest is insufficiently motivated - moving from lust at first sight to true love way too quickly. And the plot has too many instances of “Beck overcomes danger or challenge because her magic is very strong”.

The book leaves three hooks dangling for future plot lines: Although Beck and her mother were completely isolated from other magical families, we are told that some of her mother’s spells could not have been cast without help. Beck is entering a magical society in which she has several bullseyes metaphorically painted on her back. And the reason this society is the mess it is can be traced back to an old evil that is scheduled/prophecied to return.