The Witch of Portobello

Recently I was talking to a friend about Paul Coelho's The Alchemist which I greatly enjoyed reading some years ago. That friend later gave me a copy of Coelho's The Witch of Portobello along with a disclaimer that it was not at all like The Alchemist and I may not like it. I was intrigued by the book in the beginning. It is told as a compilation of stories from people that knew the main character, Athena. Early on the reader find out that Athena was murdered so as the book traced her life I expected clues to the murder to be slowly revealed. However that is not the case, it's just the story of Athena's life which becomes less interesting as it goes on. Athena is a sort of priestess of the Mother Goddess and much of the book lays out the system of beliefs to which Athena ascribes. I found it odd that a book centered on a woman's spirituality to be written by a man. It was too heavy on the hippy spirituality themes for my taste. I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if it had been a murder mystery as Athena started out as a very interesting character. The Witch of Portobello is well written, a fast read and I though having various narrators and interesting technique so it was worth reading but not a book I would recommend.