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Picture
Perfect
Reviewed by Tim McCree
October 2005
BOOK: Picture
Perfect
AUTHOR: Cameron Dokey
NOTE: This review may contain plot spoilers.
There is an old saying that goes
something like this: A picture is worth a thousand words. For
most people, this saying is just another idiom one hears
throughout life. However, for the Charmed Ones, this saying now
takes on a more sinister meaning.
Phoebe is covering the grand
reopening of Mural House, a former artists colony from the
1920's, for the San Francisco Daily Mirror. Decades earlier,
Isabella Marshall had been an artist at Mural House. During that
time, Isabella had fallen in love with the architect of Mural
House, William Lancaster. Although the two of them had been
deeply in love at first, the relationship deteriorated when
William had become jealous of Isabella's talent and success.
However, before things could come to a head, William
mysteriously vanished. For the rest of her life, Isabella
refused to talk about him and became a recluse. Phoebe had been
reprinting
William and Isabella's letters
in the newspaper as part of the promotion of the reopening.
Soon after, Phoebe meets Lucile
Marshall, the now elderly daughter of Isabella Marshall
(Isabella had been divorced from Lucile's father before she met
William) at a reception being held at the now reopened Mural
House. Phoebe attends as a representative of the newspaper and
Paige tags along. During the proceedings, a life size portrait
of William Lancaster, that had been discovered painted over
during the restoration, is unveiled. Once she sees it, Lucile
gasps: "The evil has been released..." What does this
cryptic statement mean? How can evil be released from a picture?
What did happen to William Lancaster? How did he disappear?
Finally, how does all of this connect to a series of brutal
serial murders that are now taking place in the streets of San
Francisco?
As most of you probably know by
now, the television show is now beyond my reach, however, I am
glad that I can still enjoy Charmed through the books. I think
that the books (most of them) blow the show out of the water
when it comes to writing good stories, and this book is no
exception. So, I still get to enjoy Charmed in my own way.
As with most of the books, we
start off with a mystery and, as the story goes along, we
gradually find out what is going on. The author takes us along
as the Halliwell sisters put their magical heads together and
try to solve the mystery before anyone else gets hurt. Once
again the author had gotten the sisters down just right,
personality wise. Reading the books brings back memories of how
good the show could get when it had good writers.
Some other points:
-once again Wyatt is included,
but still no Chris.
-Darryl appears in this story,
but Leo is strangely absent (he is on business for the Elders).
This is the first time in ages that Leo had not appeared in a
book.
-the scenes with Piper
struggling to run P3 while trying to be a mother and witch are
well done. After all the trouble she went through to get the
club open, it would make sense that Piper would want to be hands
on involved. This is something that has been absent from the
show for ages now.
-Lucile Marshall is a likeable
character. Despite being about sixty years older than the
Halliwell sisters, she bonds well with them, especially Phoebe.
-believe it or not, Andy Trudeau
is actually mentioned! This was one thing that bothered me about
the books, they treated Andy like he never existed. Hopefully,
this will be a welcome change. It would be nice to see Prue and
Andy show up in a book someday. As I have said before, the books
don’t need to worry about actor availability.
-there were a couple of scenes
where the sisters actually used their brains to get themselves
out of a pickle, instead of relying just on magic. Once again,
this is a welcome change from the show.
All in all, this is another
enjoyable Charmed book. I give it a 9/10.
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