Like I mentioned in my last review, I don't feel comfortable reviewing a book that was published many years ago as an ARC. For that reason, I am not publishing a review on NetGalley for this book.

This was an interesting book with an interesting premise, but I feel like it did not live up to my expectations and the plot felt convoluted at times. Even so, I did overall enjoy it so I would give it 3 stars.

I started this book and did not finish it. I am a fan of older mystery books, so I thought I might be able to wade through the dated prose of the book. I was especially interested in the academic context of the book given it involves a professor (I am a professor!). However, I just couldn't get into it. I only made it through about 10% of the book before bailing on it.

Elihu/Pat O’Shea was a young mathematics instructor, he was used to using his mind and not his fingers. Pat didn’t like the Professor across the hall Everette Adams who was a Professor of biology. Pat thought Professor Adams had taken a objective lens but couldn’t prove it. Pat purses Everette to the parking lot, then follows him to a dead end road. Everette hits Pat in the head with a rock then takes his wallet and drives off with Pat’s car. Everette Thinks he had killed Pat. Then Pat is found by a Mrs. Pryde who is known to be a witch. Mrs. Pryde thinks Pat is her son Johnny who had been executed several years ago. Pat had a wound to his head, a wound to his arm, and a broken leg. Pat’s wife is Anabel who is worried where Pat is and starts to look for him. The police wouldn’t really help Anabel. Everette has also disappeared and Ellie his second wife doesn’t seem to want her husband or Pat found.
I didn’t care for this story. It was ok I guess but it didn’t keep my attention. It also didn’t keep my interest and I found myself bored trying to read this. I'm sure others will enjoy this.

I did not finish this story as I did not engage with the story on any level.

I had a really hard time getting into this one. The author's writing style didn't pull me in at all and the characters weren't particularly likeable. Throughout the boo (until the end when I saw the original publication date), I keep thinking that the plot would have worked better as an old movie. I'm a fan of older thrillers, but The Witch's House didn't work for me.

In the beginning, I have to say, I had really high hopes for this book. The title sounded captivating, the premise was interesting and from the first few pages I thought I might enjoy it a lot, but sadly, that wasn't the case. The more I read, the more I found myself bored and wanting to skip to the interesting stuff.

I thought the portions of the book that dealt with Pat and the 'witch' were interesting enough, but there were too many flat, one-dimensional characters introduced early on, and I couldn't find anything to like about them. I was bored by their antics.

This is the kind of mystery book that tosses out red herrings like they are candy from a parade float, but most of the mysteries are never solved. The reader still doesn't know at the end what the big deal was for most of the book and even the characters remain clueless. This book drove me half mad, and so therefore, I find it difficult to recommend.

This review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I was hoping I was going to love this book, however, that wasn't the case.
I found myself bored with it and had to skim the pages just to get through it.

I received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

2.5 stars

The writing style was a little different as this was originally published in 1963. While some parts were interesting and kept my attention, other parts were boring and I found myself skimming through it. It was a decent read but not very memorable.

It definitely started off with one heck of an action scene.so I was immediately hooked but then the rest was predictable, not bad but you just kind of knew what was coming and had to push through the scenes that were obviously filler. The characters were very descriptive and brought to life though. It's just that at some point it feels like it's all been done before and your brain starts to swim as the plot lines from the other hundred mystery/thriller titles you've read with these exact same scenes just with different character names begin swimming before your eyes.