Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent Magical Mystery Investigation....
Review: I was immeadately impressed by the author's realistic portrayal of Wiccan ritual magic. It was the 'blurring' of the line between the real and the fantasy in the story that appealed to me. The intelligent, and realistic reaction of the cop, and the rest of the police at the station, made this a very 'real' mystery story, with extraordinary characters, in a real world.
This is a rich story, with rich characters, and rich world...this is not a story to be missed.
I read this book on recommendation from my brother...I am so impressed, I am buying all the books for my collection.
Rating:
Summary: a creepy, damn good read
Review: I know I'm a bit slow, but I just recently picked up this excellent book. As a reader, I'm very picky. If something doesn't hold my interest, I'll put it down. As an example, Anne Rice bores me to tears. I've yet to finish one of her books, because I lose interest after about 100 pages. This book, however, gripped me from the outset, and I plowed through it in less than a day.The characters are a lot of fun. I really enjoyed getting to know Rowan, his wife (don't have the book in front of me and blanking on her name), and especially Ben. Even through the creepiness of the story, they remained beacons of normalcy through the vignettes that Sellars described. And the story...wow! Although I couldn't put it down, it definitely had me checking under the bed when I went to sleep. If you can accept a bit of the supernatural in your story, then it makes the book that much more eeire and enjoyable. The deeper I got into the book, the more furiously I started turning the pages. By the climax, my heart was pounding as if I was in the story! In short, if you can accept a bit of the supernatural and enjoy a good murder mystery, do yourself a favor and pick up this book. Just don't read it late at night!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst books I have ever endured
Review: This is not a book. It is a bound collection of garbage. If it were possible for me to give this book no stars, or require that stars be given to me for completing the Herculean task of completing this lousy bit of pagan preaching, I would. The attributions (intoned, queried, admonished, etc.) are distracting. The use of the word 'vermilion' to describe blood is just plain wrong. Vermilion is reddish brown. When blood is exposed to the air, it oxygenates and is red. Blood red. Brown only seen after the blood dries. Yet, Sellers is fond of referring to freshly spilled blood as vermilion. Perhaps he's color blind as well as an incompetent writer? Every character is paper-thin and one form of a cliché after another. His wife is Irish. His wife has green eyes and red hair. His wife has a fiery temper. *groan* His penchant for capitalizing any and every word he can is irritating at best, and more often than not, distracting. The dialogue is awkward, and full of exposition. Oh, and the only thing Rowan doesn't do, is fly. THANK THE HEAVENS! I don't think I could handle it if he was any closer to a pagan Superman... After the first two chapters, I knew I was going to be bashed over the head with one more "pagans are good people, dammit" bit of soapbox exposition as often as possible. I read this book for an urban fantasy entertainment. Not to be preached at by as unlikable a character as Rowan Gant. Do yourself a favor. Buy something else. Anything else. Quickly.
Rating:
Summary: I must read the rest of the books in this series!
Review: I'm a big fan of mysteries where weird (at least to skeptical non-pagan readers like me) things happen. The pagan detective concept is not new: Rosemary Edghill's edgy Bast is my fave, although Mercedes Lackey's Di Tregarde is pretty cool too (much more along the lines of fantasy), but Rowan Gant is great because he's just this nice guy with a normal day job, a house, a wife, cats and a non-mainstream religion who happens to be able to use his religious experience to help a cop friend with a case. He's not singlehandedly fighting crime or anything outlandish like that. Very convincing.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I have ever read
Review: In purchasing the book, it was clearly on a whim. Then it took me a few months before I opened it. Then finally I sat down to read this remarkable novel and was glued to my chair and the book for like the next two weeks reading it. I was so involved with the realistic approach that I and others that I know deemed it necessary to find these locations that are in the book. Thank Goodness we live in St. Louis. Mr. Sellars your words inspired me to look past the here and now and to look further behind the scenes to really find the true meaning of things. I sincerely could not wait to read the next book. "Never Burn a Witch". More on that review later. Thank you so much for giving my mind something to hunger for.
Rating: 
Summary: Real Story - Real Conflict - Real Action
Review: This was the first "real" witch story I've read that used correct terms and didn't make sparks fly out of wands and turn the bad guy into a toad or something worse. M.R. Sellars kept his facts straight and led his reader down the path, briars and all. A terrific story line only got better with the addition of Rowan Gant as a witch. Given the society we live in today, are witches acceptable main characters? It would seem so. Mr. Sellars plotted a real story with believable conflict. I applaud his efforts. Witches and mundane alike should flock to the bookstores and devour the Rowan Gant investigation series. Mr. Sellars explains enough of the pagan background for those who need the history and is factual enough for those who already know and want to see how he weaves paganism as a subplot. Good job, M.R. Sellars. I'll be back for more.
Rating:
Summary: I'm Hooked
Review: I must admit, when I picked up the book I was leary. A practicing Witch writing a mystery novel? Intriguing idea but can he pull it off? Thankfully, Sellars does. I was hooked from the first page and I just kept the pages turning. I wanted to find out what happened to Rowan and Ben and how the whole thing tied together. Sellars uses St. Louis as his backdrop of choice but those readers unfamiliar with the territory won't be inundated with unfamiliar names and places. The books of Mr. Sellars' have as characters the energy and power of his religion as much as the people who solve the crimes. They are rich in description, wonderful in scope, and they draw you in. For this novel Rowan has to convince a hardened police officer, and then the department that he knows what he's talking about rather than being some nutcase as some people expect. In order to solve the murder of one of his pupils who was not only murdered but murdered brutally for the religion she (as well as Rown himself) practices Rowan will put himself in grave danger more than once, come up against cynics and skeptics, and see visions he would rather leave unseen. In order to stop this cold-blooded killer he has to use ever talent he has. He only hopes it will be enough.
Rating:
Summary: I wanted to like it, but [in my opinion] it stinks
Review: ... The World:
Modern St. Louis, with a Witch/Wiccan protagonist, whose depth of Craft practice is so great he can indeed perform feats such as channelling dead people and so forth. The Plot:
Rowan Gant is a Witch whose lucrative day job is invisible (he says it is a computer consultant but it never interferes with the action in the novels). Anyway, his best friend is a Big Red Indian (oops! Native American--Gant's Bad) who is a police lieutenant, and knows that his Best Friend is A Witch. So when somebody killed a woman and left Obscure Occult Signs, Rowan Gant is Called In. He Solves the Crime. The Review:
I really *wanted* to like or least appreciate this series, because of the protagonist's religion, but ... the series only gets marginally better. But before I get into details so you'll know for yourself-in all fiction, but especially speculative fiction, the reader must be able to cast aside her critical mind (at first reading) and get on the wagon of the writer's story. Now, each shortcoming in the writer's storytelling has the potential to abruptly throw the reader off the wagon into the dust. I really wanted to stay on Sellars's wagon, but ... he kept throwing me off. Every time Sellars capitalized words for no reason, I hit the dust. Every time Sellars used italics to indicate a brand name, I hit the dust. Every time he told me things I already knew " These two little examples are trivial. I was deeply offended that a person of a sometimes-persecuted minority of choice (Pagan/Wicca/Witch-you choose to be of that affiliation) would use another minority as a plot point in the book, as Sellars has done in giving his hero, Rowan Gant, a sidekick/best friend who is depicted as a "Native American"-(at one point, his "visage" is described as "red granite".)-well, to which Nation does Ben Storm belong? Is he indigenous to Missouri? A Chicamauga? A Cherokee? A Shawnee? How did he decide to become a police officer? Do his fellow officers respect him, or do they treat him as a dumb Indian? --to have these questions addressed would be a start. ... Is there any hope? He has a certain gift for narrative. Where do the wheels come off? Well, for me, its the diction: which is in this sense seeing and hearing your characters as real people. Rowan Gant is a real person--a prig who is indifferent to the spirituality of his wife and his best friend, but a real person--but the rest of Sellar's characters are cardboard. ...
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put It Down!!
Review: As a practicing witch, I am usually skeptical of books about witches and Wiccans simply because they are usually chock full of factual errors. M.R. Sellars not only gets all the details right, he does it in a totally enchanting way. Once I started to read this book, I couldn't put it down. The characters are great and the plot, WOW!!! Get this book, you won't be sorry!
Rating:
Summary: Luckily this will not be the last we see of Rowan Gant
Review: I stumbled upon this book, in all honesty I can no longer remember where, but it seemed interesting and got fantastic reviews(just as it has here.) Whatever brought me to this book, I must say, I am thankful for it. Having a little more than passing knowledge of Wicca, I was most eager to see how it was handled by Mr. Sellars. Being the type of person that is always interested in learning things outside the scope of what would be considered my specialities, this novel did one very important thing for me. It made me want to find out more. Whenever a work of fiction is able to do that, well, I chalk it up to being well written, and thought-provoking to some end. In Rowan Gant, Mr. Sellars has created an honest, engaging, thinks-before-he-acts-or-speaks character. The last trait was especially endearing for its rarity in contemporary literature. In short, he's the type of good guy that you root for. The story is subtly intense and renders the reader incapable of putting it down. I recommend this book not only as a sort of touchstone for those interested in learning about Wicca (or for those who are already well versed in its practices,) but also to those readers just looking for a good mystery that strays ever so slightly from the norm. I, too, look forward to Rowan Gant's next investigation.
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