Julia Bonatti is a professional astrologer, and if you
don't agree with astrology, treat this as another craft-
centred mystery. THE MADNESS OF MERCURY seems to inspire
chaos and change after Julia gives a reading for a client
at home. Normally she works from her own premises, but this
lady client Evandra Gamble has broken a hip. The senior is
worried about her carer Dorothy, a niece, taking advantage
of herself and her sister. But it's a non-family member
who falls to his death from the clifftop garden overlooking
the Golden Gate Bridge. Luis the gardener is inexplicably
no more.
Julia tells us about herself; she has a Masters Degree but
when her fiancé was killed in a car accident she gave up on
life for a time. Gradually she resumed business with a
column about astrology in a local paper and select clients.
She made a friend, Gale, in a mystic bookstore while
studying astrology. Julia has a black cat called Wizard and
no plans for the holidays. Oh, and Mercury is retrograde
and it's the last quarter of the moon, so wouldn't you know
something weird would happen. That's no excuse for a creepy
man to send her malicious e-mails and phone messages about
burning witches.
I enjoyed reading about San Francisco during
December and various preparations for Christmas. The wide
variety of people and lifestyles here has drawn a cultist
leader who whips up supporters to protest against any
lifestyle they don't approve of, including astrology. Julia
soon feels that she and Gale are at risk from the
intimidating cult followers, even without the possibility
of Luis's death being murder, as the elderly - perhaps
confused - Evandra maintains.
If you would like to devour the advice about planets in
opposing houses, dodgy transits and birth charts, you'll
find plenty to interest you in Connie Di Marco's engaging
book. Or you can concentrate on the dramatic crime story
and have a chuckle at the medium whose life turns upside
down due to unforeseen circumstances. THE MADNESS OF
MERCURY is lively and entertaining, well-researched with a
great sense of place. A smart read.
San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti's life is turned upside down when she becomes the target of the city's newest cult leader, Reverend Roy of the Prophet's Tabernacle. Driven out of her apartment in the midst of a disastrous Mercury retrograde period, she takes shelter with a client who's caring for two elderly aunts. One aunt appears stricken with dementia and the other has fallen under the spell of the Reverend Roy. To add to the confusion, a young man claiming to be a long lost nephew arrives. The longer he stays, the more dangerous things become. Is the young man truly a member of the family? Can astrology confirm that? Julia's not sure, but one thing she does know is that Mercury wasn't merely the messenger of the gods—he was a trickster and a liar as well.
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