The Hearth Witch's Guide to Magic & Murder is a fun urban(ish) fantasy mystery with some neat Holmes (and Watson(ish)) pastiches by Kiri Callaghan. Released 7th Oct 2025 by Sourcebooks on their Poisoned Pen Press imprint, it's 448 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
The pacing is sedate, and the murder mystery plot gets lost in the world building, which is detailed and very well done. The author teases a F/F (demi-fae/human) romance but it's lukewarm (and no spice, if that's what readers are after). It's the first book in a series, book 2 is due out Oct 2026, so much of the slow pacing is probably background and world building.
One feature of the book which will either appeal or drive readers to distraction, are the multitudinous footnotes and asides the book is absolutely loaded with. More or less every page has an additional hyperlinked comment.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 15 hours, 51 minutes and is narrated by an ensemble cast which includes the author. It's not clear how the hyperlinks, asides, and footnotes are handled during the read, but that could definitely be a factor in readers' enjoyment of the audio format.
Three and a half stars. Readers who aren't huge Holmes/Watson/Mrs.Hudson fans will be ok with the setup and execution. Rabid Conan Doyle fans will likely be frothing at the mouth. The Holmes pastiche is not a huge part of the book.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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