The Bast mysteries: Pagan fiction about real witches

Bast, the narrator of the novels, is a youngish, practicing Wiccan living in New York City. Her given name is Karen Hightower, but the name she chose for herself, the one she considers her true name, is Bast, after the Egyptian goddess who protected women, children, and cats. Bast is like lots of single women living in the city: she has a small studio apartment in an old building, gets work where she can (usually doing layout for a freelance graphics studio), and hangs out with friends on Friday night. The main difference is that her friends are other Pagans and she practices her religion in the living room of her High Priestess or in the back garden of a feminist bookshop called Chanters Revel. She also likes to shop, but her favorite store is The Serpent's Truth, a colorful occult bookstore known in the community as The Snake.

Bast is a complex and well-drawn character, one who asks more questions than she can answer. The fact that she has doubts about many things in life (including her chosen religion) make her a sympathetic figure, and plenty of readers will be able to commiserate with her spiritual journey over the course of the series.

While each novel is a murder mystery, their strength lies in being primarily about people, from Bast and her coven to the colorful characters who populate her chosen community. It's clear that the author has intimate, first-hand knowledge of New York's Pagan society, a world that's complex and incredibly fascinating. These stories are full of rich details about how Pagans live, including the varied ways they worship. At first, the unfamiliar terms were a bit daunting, but once I let go of my need to fully understand every reference, I found myself enjoying the insights into Bast's world and intrigued by the people that populate it. I particularly enjoyed the third book, where we learn the most about traditions that are different from Bast's. The most memorable ones are Niceness Wicca ("for people who find Mr. Rogers too confrontational") and Klingon Wicca; to say the different traditions add color to the book is an understatement.

The mysteries themselves are also compelling and they all have Pagan ties, which helps keep Bast's involvement as amateur detective credible. In the first novel, Speak Daggers to Her, the victim is the lover of Bast's friend Lace; in Book of Moons, it's one of the long-standing members of the local Pagan community. In the final book, The Bowl of Night, the victim is an outspoken preacher found murdered at a weekend Pagan festival; Bast finds the body and suspicion naturally falls on the attendees.

While it helps to read the novels in order, I don't believe it's necessary; there's enough information in the later books that you can understand events without having read the earlier stories. I'd recommend starting with the last book, The Bowl of Night, if you don't want to commit to the full set. It's my favorite, largely because it provides such a broad view of different Pagan traditions.

If you're curious at all about Wicca and Paganism, or if you enjoy reading supernatural murder mysteries, you ought to give these novels a try. While they aren't chock full of action and spell-slinging, they present a much more interesting (and accurate) view of the Craft than their recent counterparts.

Photos used under license from Stock.XCHNG.