The Pawns

The Pawns Review – Robert Goldstein

A Chilling and Thought-Provoking Book

The Pawns is the second installment in the “Bucharest Witches” series about a coven of witches in Bucharest, Romania and a group of mortals in Burlington, Vermont who are unwittingly ensnared in a battle between two of the witches. The Pawns takes place after the events of the first book (“The Banished”) and reintroduces many of the characters from the first novel. I highly recommend reading The Banished first, but the story in The Pawns stands on its own and can be enjoyed even if you haven’t read The Banished.

Without giving too much away, the primary character in The Pawns is Travis, a powerful witch living in present-day Bucharest, Romania. Travis is a member of a coven of witches who survive by feeding from the energy generated by mortals, often killing the mortals in the process. Travis, a trained psychologist, uses his magic to develop an experimental therapy that extracts past traumas from his mortal patients’ psyches and uses the energy from those traumas to provide fuel for witches — a win-win for witches and mortals, at least in theory. Travis’ well-intentioned experiment goes awry, with devastating results. As Travis struggles to figure out where his treatment went wrong and how it can be corrected, he falls victim to a plot launched by another witch seeking revenge against Travis for a past grievance. Travis’ adversary lures him to Burlington, Vermont, where most of the events in The Banished took place. That is where a group of unsuspecting mortals become the titular “pawns” in the battle between Travis and his adversary.

The Pawns is one of those rare books that is instantly captivating, transporting the reader to a world where magic (both good and bad) exists all around us. It is extremely well written and advances the story at a brisk but steady pace. The book also effectively creates an atmosphere of dread and foreboding and includes several jaw-dropping twists that made it hard for me to put the book down.

The Pawns is also notable for its realistic dialogue and its thoughtful portrayal of each major character. I particularly love how the book describes the mortals’ reaction to the sinister forces that controlled them and their struggle to make sense out of behavior that was utterly inexplicable. I was equally impressed with The Pawns’ character development. There are no cliches here. The Pawns’ characters are complex and nuanced. The Pawns recognizes that few people (or witches) are all good or bad. While there is never any doubt that Travis is the protagonist of the story, he is far from perfect. The antagonist is equally well developed and raises some very valid objections to Travis’ experimental treatment and the harm he caused, albeit unintentionally.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Pawns and recommend it without hesitation. I also agree with another reviewer who thought The Pawns (as well as The Banished) would make a great movie or min-series. Netflix, are you listening?