Unfortunately, I can't recommend Heather Graham's The Witching Hours. Although it sounds like everything I would love: police procedural, paranormal, set in Salem, ultimately, it's the writing that just can't be overlooked.
On first blush, the plot sounds promising: Skye and Zach are the newest members of an FBI team composed of agents with special abilities. They are brought in to work their first case, a kidnapping in Salem, without any of the rest of the team, including the team leader and his wife, who is also a member of the squad, who have all been pulled onto another investigation. I'm completely willing to accept the supernatural elements of the book, but the procedure being ignored is too much for me.
Although we are told that both Skye and Zach grew up in the area, have been to Salem multiple times, and both are very well educated on the witch trials, we are repeatedly give a travelogue of the best sight-seeing spots as well as one or the other of them giving a history lesson to the other who doesn't need it, but this seems to be the only way Graham can figure out how to get the history into the narrative to inform the reader. Yet, the history doesn't add anything to the plot, so it's unnecessary filler.
The biggest drawback for me, however, is the dialogue. Skye and Zach constantly have awkward conversations where they say things that don't make sense and frequently try to use common idioms where one of the words has been replaced, making them sound odd and throwing you out of the narrative.
As far as solving the case, the pair are most frequently simply at the right place at the right time to get their next clue.
I finished reading, but would still give this zero stars.
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