Rune Gate - Mark E. Cooper - 4 stars

I was looking around Amazon at different books and I ran across this one for free. I read the synopsis and saw that it was a mystery and decided it was right up my alley. I am so glad I chose this book to read. It was very engaging and had some great elements to the story such as the witchcraft, and also the fantasy mixed in.

In this story we have Alexandra Yorke who is a supposed clairvoyant has helped the police for years on their murder cases. But Alex is not just a clairvoyant, she is a witch who has struggled with controlling her powers for years. She decides to give up the police work and take a recluse on her grandparents farm until on day she gets another plea for help from her friend Anna on another case. Alex agrees and must help stop a killer who seems to be connected to witchcraft.

I really liked this plot a lot. It was so different and so much more than I initially expected it to be. It is very engaging and also very hard to put down. It was fast paced and super easy to follow. I loved the element of witchcraft in this story and not just the same old cliché story of a woman who could see the future or past and was able to help the police, there were so many more aspects to the story than that. This was wrote in much more exciting way and all the other elements leading up to solving the crime were amazing. It was really not at all what I was expecting out of the story and that made this read very refreshing.

The characters were pretty good. I think that they were developed very well and most were very likable. One of my favorites was Douglas. His inclusion into the story was not something I expected at all, but it added so much more to the overall story. His character was very intriguing to me and I fell in love with him from the start. I also really liked Alex and her overall personality. She felt like someone I could relate to on many levels. There are some exciting villains as well that are sure to make readers hate them.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery with a little extra spark to the story that is sure to please. I look forward to the sequel Chosen, and am hopeful that it is just as good as this one.