Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
Hide in Plain Sight is the second in Skye Alexander's Salem-set astrologer mystery series, and it deepens the protagonist's social geography in useful ways. A visiting psychic from California is murdered during the run-up to Halloween, when Salem is at its most crowded and the local witch-tourism economy is at peak operation.
Alexander's strength is the technical astrology material, which she handles with the precision of a working practitioner. The chart-reading scenes are part of the procedural rather than dressing on top of it. The Salem-tourism atmosphere is rendered with affection and a touch of exasperation that locals will recognize.
Three stars. A pleasant niche cozy. Recommended to readers who like their detectives in unusual day jobs.
Related reads
If you liked Hide in Plain Sight

Hidden Agenda
by Skye Alexander
The first Skye Alexander mystery. Astrologer-detective in Salem, MA. Niche cozy with more research than the genre needs.

The Lincoln Lawyer
by Michael Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly 2005 review. Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back of a Lincoln Town Car, takes a case that pulls him into something larger. The novel that launched a series and a film franchise.

Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty 2014 review. Three mothers at an Australian elementary school converge on a kindergarten Trivia Night where someone will die. The contemporary domestic-suspense novel that defined the late-2010s book-club shelf.

In the Woods
by Tana French
In the Woods by Tana French 2007 review. Dublin Murder Squad detective Rob Ryan is assigned to a child murder in the same woods where his two best friends disappeared twenty years earlier. The Edgar winner that launched the strongest contemporary literary-crime series.

Tell No One
by Harlan Coben
Tell No One by Harlan Coben 2001 review. A pediatrician receives an email containing a video clip of his murdered wife, eight years after her death. The single best Coben standalone and the one that defined the contemporary domestic-thriller register.

Down in the Flood
by Kenneth Abel
The third Danny Chaisson novel. Kenneth Abel writing Hurricane Katrina before Katrina happened.
More by this author