“Six months before, history professor Max Corbett had left his position at Tulane and left New Orleans. Now, only ten weeks after the devastation of Katrina, he reluctantly returns for the funeral of Gabrielle, his former lover, who perished in the flooding. That most haunted of cities is even more dark and tragic and full of horror than ever, post-Katrina, with its vacant buildings, darkened streets, untamed lawlessness and the new ghosts of the storm victims, witnessed by spray-painted legends on the houses indicating where bodies were found.
Max has not got over Gabrielle, death or no, so when a mysterious old man named Ray tells him there is a way he may be able to contact Gabrielle once more, he listens. All he has to do is drink a "harmless" potion and follow a map to various historic sites to gather the city's magic to him, then find the Conjure-man Matrisse who will get a message to Gabrielle in exchange for the magic. Max does not believe in this madness, of course, but it doesn't help that he drinks after the funeral and also is curious about hints of aspects of Gabrielle he never knew. He ends up on a trek through New Orleans, the Katrina-blasted present and also to points in the past, following the Map of Moments and also strange clues to Gabrielle's past--both of which lead him into dark magic and extreme danger.
Max is an immediately sympathetic protagonist, a simple professor who is thrown into a world of magic and death and violence. The plot is fast-paced and full of action. The historic moments create a new mythology which actually blends well with and seems right for the city's grim and exotic past. The descriptions of New Orleans right after the hurricane are very convincing and add to the darkness and the horror Max finds himself confronting while chasing his own ghosts--and being chased by others who seek his violent death. It was a quick, exciting and absorbing read.”
aprillee wrote this review Wednesday, May 20 2009.
(
reply |
permalink )
