Jennifer Skully, It Must Be Magic

It Must Be Magic

Jennifer Skully

Harlequin HQN, Jun 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0373771975

Thirty one years old Lili Goodweather works as a sales clerk in a florist. She also has a special skill that few people possess; she can talk to the animals. Her neighbor, bottom line financier widower Tanner Rutland, scoffs at her ability to communicate with animals when his twelve year old daughter Erika and his father Rascally Roscoe insist she can. They want Lili to discuss with the other member of the family Fluffy the cat what traumatized him

Lili agrees to talk to the scaredy cat only because Erika's aura showed plenty of brown stress in her normally optimistic yellow. After a few minutes she realizes the traumatized Fluffy witnessed a homicide. Tanner thinks this is foolishness but for his daughter's sake he agrees to team up with Lili in investigating the homicide his daughter's cat swears he saw; at least that is what Lili claims. On the one hand he hopes she is proven a fake because of his pragmatic beliefs; though that also means she is a killer based on what they found in the Redwoods; yet on the other hand he hopes she can speak with the animals as he and his daughter are falling in love with their good neighbor whose kisses cannot be that of a murderer.

IT MUST BE MAGIC is a whimsical romantic mystery with the Doolittle fantasy element bringing a fresh spin to the whodunit. The story line is fast-paced with witty asides from the animals like Einstein for instance who cannot believe a tomcat named Fluffy (think of Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue). Readers will easily accept the fanciful Lili's asides with cats and dogs as Jennifer Skully provides an entertaining tale that fans who enjoy a bit of personification will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner