Hurricane

February 7, 2011
In the third volume of Rhodes's voodoo-inspired series (after 2009's Moon), an environmental disaster brews in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina threatens. Dr. Marie Laveau, a descendant (and perhaps reincarnation) of the legendary voodoo queen, awakens from a nightmare, goes for a drive to clear her head, and finds a crime scene: John and Mimi L'Overture and their baby have been shot and killed in the village of DeLaire. She reports the murder to brothers Deet and Aaron Malveaux, respectively deputy and sheriff of DeLaire, and meets their ailing Nana, a voodooienne who's foreseen Marie's arrival. When Marie returns to work, a bullet meant for her kills one of her colleagues, so Marie returns to DeLaire to catch the killer and explore the next stage of her spellbinding destiny.

February 1, 2011

Voodoo sorceress Marie Laveau gets into more black magic and menace in the Louisiana Bayou.

Doctor Marie Laveau: She turns men's heads, talks to the dead and wanders into her most dangerous misadventure yet in the third novel in a trilogy by Rhodes (Yellow Moon, 2008, etc.). In her latest outing, Laveau is swept out of her usual haunts in New Orleans. Her dead muse is the ghost of El, the head nurse at Charity Hospital in the Big Easy, who since being murdered has visited the voodooienne regularly, becoming her mother figure and protector. El draws Marie first to a gruesome family homicide and then further south to a fortress of a town deep in the boondocks. In DeLaire, La., Marie finds the familial peculiarity that bonds Deet and Aaron Malveaux, the town's sheriffs who share more than a brotherly bond. Even more disturbing than the secretive brothers is their powerful prophet of a grandmother, Nana, who is using a pharmacy full of drugs to bear the pain of her cancer. With visions that rival Marie's, the old woman is a disturbing mirror and an unwinnable challenge for Laveau's own magical healing properties. "A Voodoo Queen with full power can heal anything," the old woman croaks. "Faith healing, faith-healers. Some kiss poisonous snakes; some, use prayer; some, like Christ, raise the dead. But every healing has a cost." The plot runs a bit amiss in the last half, belatedly drawing in the cast of characters from Marie's day job at the hospital and leaning a bit heavily on the metaphysical elements that anchor this particular trilogy. But like any good last act, Rhodes and her feisty heroine pull out all the stops in the end, combining spiritual possession, a voodoo ceremony and a ferocious storm for a set piece worthy of any Hollywood production.

Less sexy and more spooky than its predecessors, but a fine entry in a solid supernatural series.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 15, 2011
Rhodes told the potent story of Marie Laveau, the nineteenth-century voodoo queen of New Orleans, in a historical novel, Voodoo Dreams (1993). She then switched to crime fiction (Voodoo Season, 2005; Yellow Moon, 2008) to portray Laveaus descendent and namesake, a voodooiene and tough New Orleans ER doctor. In the third installment, a nightmarish vision impels Marie to head to bayou country, where she discovers a triple murder, a dying voodoo healer, and a creepy enclave of the walking ill. An intrepid detective of two worldsone tangible, the other intangible, Marie has coalesced into the sort of smart, tough, and cranky sleuth to whom mystery readers become devoted. As Marie tangles with adversaries both human and spiritual, Rhodes unspools a hair-raising tale that entwines medicine, shamanism, corporate crime, family ties, and our troubled relationship with nature. With a gripping and provocative plot about the dark side of healing and the environmental devastation of Louisianas essential delta wetlands, Rhodes has fashioned a mystery with great reach and impact. One unanswered question remains: Will we see more of Dr. Marie Laveau?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)