Adding sci-fi elements to a historic setting, this is a fun read - but read to me perhaps like a short story that had been extended a little too much - it lacked anything to grip me into the book. Nevertheless - I'd read future writings by the author - the prose is great and the concept brilliant

I really struggling to get into this as i found it very slow. However, I did enjoy the writing and the characters were full of life. Sadly though, not for me.

First of all, the cover is absolutely beautiful. Loved the way true historical events are woven through this gothic/supernatural read. I've not read anything by Marian before but will look out for other books. Highly recommended

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of on the nature of magic. The dark gothic books right now, yes please. We are here for them. This was a creepy mystery wrapped in a pretty package.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Titan for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

"On the Nature of Magic" is a book I thought I'd love but unfortunately it didn't meet my expectations. It follows Helena, a female detective in 1902 after a mysterious case occurs in Paris of two women seeing Marie Antionette. Her assistant, Eliza, is scientific but Helena finds herself drawn more and more to the occult, which only makes their investigation all the more complicated. This is apparently a sequel to the author's earlier book, which I didn't know, and it follows some real life events as well. Unfortunately I found the writing to be a little wooden and the characters didn't have much personality, I read more than 70% of this book but never found myself gripped.

Billed as a Gothic fantasy/mystery, set in 1902, I was intrigued by the plot synopsis of this book. A brief note that this is book 2 in a series featuring the same main characters, Helena and Eliza, but I had not read book 1 prior to reading this title.

Helena and Eliza set out to uncover some strange occurrences experienced by two teachers on their holiday in France. Unsure what exactly happened on the grounds of the palace of Versailles, the detectives set out to uncover whether this was an actual experience of a time travel shift, some other ghostly encounter, or something based more firmly in a scientific explanation. Mixed in with this mystery is another, this one based in a fantastical burlesque show in Paris, where the actresses appear to contort and disappear in ways that are not entirely human.

The two main characters, Helena, who has more of a mystical bent and often studies the occult and her Tarot cards, and Eliza, the more practical, down-to-earth of the two, would seem to be well-suited opposites using their skills to investigate and solve the mystery together. However, there are a whole host of other characters pulled into the storyline with confusing narratives, plot additions, and just seemingly random facts that are tossed in, which made a muddled tale. Nothing about the story felt particularly "Gothic" to me; the team does investigate in the tombs underneath Paris but it's all very vague and rambling, so I wasn't sure that was even the "Gothic" part. At times, the dialogue itself was confusing and I had to read, reread and sometimes reread sections to try to figure out the point of view/narrator of a specific paragraph of dialogue. The mystery part never really seemed to know what it wanted to be - it wasn't exactly a ghost story, and the mystery was sort of explained/solved but not exactly and a lot of loose ends were left dangling.

I very much wanted to enjoy this book, but it was sadly off the mark on a number of different levels for me. It felt like it needed a much stronger single narrative, as well as some intensive editing to make the characters, story and timeline more clear. Overall rating of 2-1/2 stars for some nicely done world-building/place-setting details from the turn of the century, but not much else.

Sometimes fantasy when set in our work is now very much in our face. You know it’s all real. But when looking at the supernatural and thinking of it more as the uncanny then it’s about things just not feeling quite right. Our world but not quite as you know it. When reading Marian Womack’s engrossing fantasy tale On The Nature of Magic I was delighted that this is a story that plays with reality in lots of unusual ways.

It’s 1902 and Great Britain is still getting over the end of the Victorian age and worries what is to come. Spiritualism continues to be popular; still threaten as both science and scam. Elsewhere the world is seeing new technology spreading from telephones to now the moving picture. It’s a world in flux Helena Walton-Cisneros and her friend Eliza is setting up a unique detective agency that is designed to help women get solutions to problems that in current society many men will ignore or even make fun of. Their first case are two academics who believe they have travelled in time while visiting Versailles. To establish the truth Helena and Eliza investigate in both London and Paris and uncover new technology, magic and once again a strange magic sect known as The Golden Dawn who seek power.

A word used early on in the book really sums up the effect Womack creates in this tale - liminal. This is a tale less about very obvious black and white occult detective adventures and more an unsettling uncanny occult thriller where there may be a simple explanation but we constantly feel something else just on the periphery.

Everything in the story feels liminal. Helena and Eliza we first meet in the tale watch a spiritualist who is clearly using stage tricks and yet Helena can’t work it out completely. Unnerving the far more rational Eliza. Helen and Eliza are detectives and also not yet fully established while Helena is creating her own theory of detection and yet continuing to explore her potential psychic abilities like fortune telling. Even the first case is not the standard murder or theft but one of the most unusual timeslip tales of actual history the Moberley-Jourdain incident when two Oxford academics claim they walked Versailles grounds and witnessed the past including Marie-Antoinette - how do you go about exploring that? It’s a great hook.

What the story then does is play with the history of the period and make unusual links. We get the introduction of George’s Melies the famous film director playing with this new technology creating films that have unusual effects that audiences witness for the first time. Womack cleverly again makes the liminal link of reality with the strangeness of the cinema where we can believe in magic and demons. A really smart idea and further links to other inventions start to create explanations for why things are so strange. It’s a story gently but smartly creating its own secret history of the early twentieth century.

Into this and linking to The Golden Key’s plot is the mysterious cult of The Golden Dawn. That has factions in London and Paris all seeking power. Be it in showy shaman presentations acting as scientists or stylish clubs with furniture of bone and coffins. They are decadent using drugs and rituals and any other historical items they can find. They have a sense of menace throughout as women disappear and our detectives get trailed but at the same time Womack links these events to both the suppression of women (men only can have psychic powers in the eyes of the patriarchal societies these are) but also colonisation - it’s again the Empires and France and the UK seeking a new way to control and take centre stage and not ashamed to steal other cultural ideas and beliefs to be converted to their own ends. The story has a sense of menace and while we do get some resolutions for this current problem the overwhelming sense is that Helen and Eliza will be facing more danger soon.

I really found On The Nature of Magic to be a deliciously strange occult thriller. Offering mysteries to be solved, a sense of the strange just out of our sight and a delicious alternate history idea that feels strangely plausible too all told in Womack’s hallmark poetical style. Highly recommended

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘On the Nature of Magic’ by Marian Womack.

This is a Gothic supernatural mystery that blends fiction with historical figures and real-life events; including film innovator George Méliès and the Moberly-Jourdain incident, in which two English women claimed to have seen the ghost of Marie Antoinette in the gardens of Versailles.

While not listed as part of a series, I did have the feeling that I had come into an ongoing story. After reading I discovered that its characters, Helena Walton-Cisneros and Eliza Waltraud, had first appeared in ‘The Golden Key’. However, ‘On the Nature of Magic’ worked fine as a standalone and I plan to read the first book, which is already in my library.

1902. Helena Walton-Cisneros is opening a private detective agency. She immediately takes on two cases of an uncanny nature, both coincidentally located in Paris.

The first involves looking into a claim by two English women that they saw the ghost of Marie Antoinette in the gardens of Versailles. The second case involves the murder of a young woman working at the mysterious Méliès Star Films studio outside Paris. 

As Helena and her colleague, Eliza, investigate they hear rumours of vanishings at Méliès Star Films. There’s also strange lights, spies, actors flying without ropes and apparently connections to the occult. What is George Méliès practising at his secretive film studio? Is there a connection to the haunting at Versailles?

I found this a fascinating mystery as I am always interested in novels that feature the occult, though I can be critical if an author appears not to have researched the subject. However, it was clear here that Marian Womack was knowledgeable about Spiritualism and occultism during the Belle Époque.

I especially appreciated the inclusion of Moina and Samuel Mathers, founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I hadn’t previously heard of the Moberly-Jourdain incident and was intrigued by Helena and Eliza’s investigation and solution.

Overall, an enjoyable and engaging read. I am very pleased to see that a third book, ‘Casting the Ruins’, is forthcoming in the Walton and Waltraud series of uncanny historical mysteries.

I really enjoyed this but I can see why a few other people were put off. There is a lot going on – travel, grimoires, the spiritualist movement, illusionism – and usually the first book in a series (this is a series opener?) sets out it’s stall a bit more sparsely to allow readers to find their way around. That said, I loved the slightly chaotic flow and the set up – 1900s women detectives with real historical references and characters – was exactly my cup of tea. I’ll look out for the next book eagerly.

I have a huge personal interest in the Moberly-Jourdain incident, but I really struggled to get into this book. The biggest issue I have is with the writing style - this sort of formal writing style creates distance between me and the story and makes it quite hard to hold onto a reader's attention. This, combined with the long chapters, made reading this story a challenge rather than a fun escape.

Gothic supernatural stories at its absolute best! I really enjoyed this story with the eery vibes radiating off the page.

Whimsical, magical, and heavily atmospheric, On the Nature of Magic is a must read. Really recommend this one.

As always thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for this e-galley. ALLLLLLL THE VIBESSSSSS. I loved this book more for all the setting and vibes this author was able to smoosh into one book. I cannot wait to see what else this author creates! This book has a great mystery and it gets all of it wrapped up and I so hope there's a sequel it would so fun to see more from this world.
Book will be available May 23rd! 3.8 stars

At the start of the new century, two women are opening their own detective agency. Soon the find themselves involved in two cases both relating to strange happening in Paris.

There's a lot of stuff going on this book, probably too much. It's a supernatural, gothic mystery with weird cults and spiritualism, tarot, the begins of cinema, missing persons, cameos/name checks from real historical figures and events.

I found the narration to be occasionally confusing- sometimes it would switch to another person's thoughts without warning - and it felt a bit cluttered - sometimes less is more.

I thought the characters had potential and the main storyline was interesting but there were quite a few threads left hanging or just not resolved (I assume there will be a sequel).

I also wasn't a fan of the occultist, spiritualism stuff. It was far too hazy for my liking - was any of it real? Who knows, none of the main plots points related to it seemed to be explained.

Not a bad book but sadly not for me - there's only so much explanation of a tarot reading that I can tolerate.
Also, I'm still not sure where the title fits in.

I love all things Marian Womack! The Golden Key was a magical favorite of mine and this book held up to all my expectations and maybe even a bit more! I was absorbed completely from chapter one!

DNF @ 20%

I was having a hard time getting into it and just found myself not really interested in the characters or story. The writing style felt a bit dry and maybe that was the cause of it.

I do think it would appeal to the right person though!

The year is 1902 and Helena is known for finding answers to the impossible. She’s decided to start her own detective agency and has taken on two mysterious cases. In the first case, two English women claim to have seen the ghost of Marie Antoinette in the garden of Versailles. The second case is a murder of a young woman working for a film studio outside Paris.

As Helena and her associates investigate, they hear whispers of people vanishing, strange lights, and rumblings of the occult. What is going on in the film studio? Is it somehow connected to the ghost sighting? Only Helena can find the answers.

I really enjoyed this one. It is classified as a gothic paranormal book, and it delivered. Gothic books tend to be a bit slower paced, and I did find that to be the case here. One I had to be in the right mindset for reading. This book had such a great mystery that had me guessing until the final pieces were delivered. The chapters are long but do have breaks. I am noticing either very long or very short chapters and I will say my preference is on the shorter side, but not choppy. The breaks in the chapters were much needed and appreciated. I also enjoyed the historical aspects of this book as well, so I would say it is also historical fiction. It was a great mashup of genres that I truly enjoyed.

Thank you so much to Titan books, @titanbooks, and Netgalley, @netgalley, for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Vacillating between Paris and London — Helena and Eliza … Philothée and Moina. Spanning the realms of grimoires to spiritualistic fraud, supernatural, time travel, tarot, seances, visions and illusions — they all weave together in this detective story.

It’s interesting to follow the establishment of a female detective agency in the early 1900’s that’s primary goal is to support women in need — as dictated, societally women are disproportionately discredited for their intuitive gifts, esoteric tendencies and paranormal experiences. The Cabaret of Death, Hermetic Magic, astral projection the catacombs, technologies of transcendence and the Golden Dawn — the nature of magic — this delightfully dips in and out of all sorts of lovely occult occurrences. ✨🖤🔥

A mash up of history and mystery with gothic and supernatural elements where two English women claim to have seen the ghost of Mary Antoinette
Helena has started her own detective agency and takes on the case of the English women and a case in Paris of the murder of a young woman in a film studio, are these cases connected?
Helena and her colleague Eliza investigate these strange cases and hear of connections to the occult
This was very atmospheric, the story flowed nicely and the characters were very rich and well fleshed out. The mystery was very interesting because of the addition of real people from history and therefore felt fresh and different
I enjoyed this a lot and would read more from this author

The past never really stays in the past, sometimes it insists on being part of the present. When it does, it becomes a wonderful story! Two women spot the ghost of Marie Antoinette and things only get better from there. Perfect for folks who love little history with their mystery.