I tried to give this book a go via ebook and audiobook and it was not for me. The elements of mystery and intrigue were interesting but i don't think that they were used well enough. This was interesting for 45% of the book seemed to fall flat in places.

I'm honoured that Syd Moore picked up on an earlier comment of mine which has influenced a particular scene in this book. For the record, Syd, I think the scene in question works VERY well...

This is the third of Moore's Essex Witch Museum mysteries. The earlier books took us on a chase around England (Strange Magic) and to London (Strange Sight) as Rosie and Sam were brought in to investigate different mysteries but now we're firmly back on home ground, with nearly all this story taking place in Adder's Fork (hence the nickname for the locals, the Forkers) where Rosie Strange has her eponymous museum, inherited from her grandfather, Septimus.

I'd been wanting to hear more about Adder's Fork and about Rosie's family and this book doesn't disappoint. Adder's Fork turns out to be a lovely English village - complete with gruesome legends and (allegedly) a buried witch - and trouble kicks off almost straightway with a proposed housing development that would destroy a local landmark, the stone known as the Blackly Be. Like an episode of Midsomer Murders, we get local rivalries, protestors, sexual undercurrents and nasty deaths - and that's even before the supernatural seems to breaking loose.

And before we begin to learn about the history of Rosie's family.

Of course in the end all these things are intertwined, and in this book - at last! - Moore finally clears up some of the mysteries she's been hinting at so far in this series. It's a tangled story and I won't drop any spoilers, but it is worth saying that - as you might have guessed - Rosie's background is a lot more interesting than you'd expect from a holidaying Benefits Fraud investigator from Leytonstone.

As ever much of the charm of the book is carried by the will they/ won't relationship between Sam and Rosie which - given Rosie's rather endearing mixture of perceptiveness and clanging inability to see what's right in front of her - has its inevitable ups and downs. Rosie continues to stand up for herself ("What proper grown-up girl couldn't handle a torch wielding mob, right?", " 'You, Strange are from a long line of witches and sluts and' she spat... 'and, and, and feminists!' ... I spent most of the joinery back contemplating... how Araminta had... made quite an insightful comment.")

I have to say she has grown on me through these stories, beginning as pretty unsympathetic - a Benefit Fraud inspector, wanting to sell off the museum, obviously reluctant to be involved in all the spookiness that had swept her up - but fighting her way though magnificently, never more so than in Strange Fascination. Rather fittingly, there's a lot more spookiness here than in the earlier books (although, as ever, Moore is careful to leave open-ended what exactly is happening) yet Rosie and Sam come through with aplomb, navigating the gallery of villagers, toffs, Essex girls and distant relatives as well as the police, forensic service and even a greasy estate agent.

All in all I think this book - and the series its part of - an absolute triumph, with its own distinct voice, humour and - at the centre - a rather sweetly romantic story.

The last word should go to Rosie. Asked whether "Some secrets are better left buried" she replies "No... I think it's better to face the strange, however painful... that might be."

And that is what this book does.

3.5*

Strange Fascination brings to a close Syd Moore’s“Essex Witch Museum” trilogy. The overarching story which links the three novels features as protagonist Rosie Strange, a sceptical, feisty benefit fraud inspector who unexpectedly inherits from her grandfather Septimus the eponymous witch museum in the small village of Adders Fork. This strange (ahem) legacy will lead Rosie to discover long-buried secrets related to her family and to rethink her ideas about the supernatural. Each of the instalments in the trilogy also sees Rosie and the museum's curator Sam Stone ending up embroiled in a criminal investigation with occult overtones. In "Strange Fascination", the 'mystery' revolves around the Blackly Be boulder, said to mark the final resting place of a notorious witch. Against the villagers' better judgment, developers try to move the boulder, leading to a flurry of otherworldly phenomena. And a very real murder.

I had enjoyed reading Strange Sight - the trilogy's second volume - and had particularly liked the well-judged balance between ingredients of supernatural fiction and the "whodunnit". In comparison, I found this instalment rather disappointing. I felt that the action took rather longer to take off, and whilst Rosie's narrative voice is as witty and endearing as ever, the constant attempt at humour drains the tension out of what could have been genuinely scary episodes. This was less evident in the previous novel, whose emphasis was more on the "crime" than on the "supernatural" element.

On the other hand, this novel cannot be fairly considered on its own, but is best assessed in the light of its predecessors. In this regard, Strange Fascination is undoubtedly effective. It teases out the secrets and enigmas of Rosie's ancestors and, thanks to some imaginative plotting, ties up all the loose ends and red herrings planted in the previous novels. Lovers of history and folklore will also enjoy the references to history of witchcraft and folk beliefs, subtly woven into plot.