Wickedly Dangerous

Blake's innocuous first novel, the first in a projected series, suggests that Baba Yaga, the child-eating witch of Russian folklore, has gotten a bad rap. In Blake's version, Baba Yaga is a title held by gorgeous human witches who maintain the balance between humans and the supernatural. One Yaga, going by the name Barbara Yager while traveling through contemporary upstate New York, stumbles upon an ongoing missing-children case that appears to have magical causes. Recently bereaved smalltown sheriff Liam McClellan serves as her love interest and co-detective, and some stock evil developers and wicked fairytale meanies try but fail to provide an air of menace. Blake's tendency to keep adding new characters to a meandering and predictable plot consistently mars the fun of her competent heroine and charmingly described countryside. Agent: Elaine Spencer, Knight Agency. (Sept.)