Voodoo and the Louisiana Bayou, how could I pass this up?
BLURB
A frantic phone call leads Detective Remy Steinberg racing through the night toward the one place he vowed never to return. With the life of his kidnapped daughter at stake, he willingly faces shotgun-wielding drug dealers, corrupt law-enforcement officials, and a raging hurricane.
Scouring the seedy back alleys of New Orleans for information, he goes undercover at a sinister voodoo ceremony, and struggles to understand the forces of black magic that hold his daughter hostage.
With time ticking down, he battles for his life against a high voodoo priest, but can he face the two things he fears most: the swamp that terrorized his childhood, and the ex-wife he’s never stopped loving?
Buy it Here
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EXCERPT
Detective Remy Steinberg glared at his phone. No good could come from answering this late on a Friday afternoon, but he still had ten minutes left on his shift. It was one thing to slip out when you finished your work, but to turn his back on a ringing phone . . .
“Homicide, Steinberg.” Maybe it was one of the guys in the back, playing a joke on him.
“Remy?”
Shoot. Ball Breaker Number One. What could she want? He’d mailed his child support payment in plenty of time.
“Gabrielle, what is it? I’m just leaving the office.”
“Adrienne didn’t come home from school today.”
“She’s sixteen, Gabby. She can’t be more than an hour late. Cut the girl some slack.”
“She’s seventeen, which you’d know if you paid her any attention. And she hasn’t been missing for an hour. She’s been missing for over thirty hours.”
His heart caught in his throat and he couldn’t speak for several seconds. In his job, he’d seen what could happen to a young girl in that length of time. He might not be the world’s best dad, but he was her dad just the same.
He tightened his grip on the phone. What had happened to his daughter? He wanted to believe she was getting into the same sort of mischief he was at that age, but something in his gut told him her disappearance was far more sinister.
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My Review of Voodoo on Bayou LaFonte by Susan C Miller
The title gripped me from the very beginning. I love reading about the Louisiana bayou and voodoo. Nice cover, too. The swamp, gators and snakes – I can smell the rot of vegetation, hear the slaps of the gators tails and the hissing of the snakes. I feel anticipation as I pick up the book and begin to read, knowing the story to be told is dark and horrific.
Adrienne would be kidnapped, drugged and used in a voodoo ritual, all the while Hurricane Addie is heading straight for them all. She struggles to survive, believing her father will save her. Why did they want her? What evil do they have planned for her?
Remy is a cop in Texas, not Louisiana, but when his seventeen year old daughter goes missing, someone will have to pay.
Remy describes himself as a Yankee, coon-ass, redneck cop. He has an issue with his lack of height and assumes a persona for whatever locale he lives in (in Texas he’s a cowboy, in Louisiana he’s a bayou boy). His awful experience as a child in the swamp has never left him. He wanted nothing to with Louisiana and felt the people were backward, poor and superstitious.
He knew the small town cops with their bayou attitude would be hard to work with, but it was even worse than that. Every time he turned around in his investigation he ran into a Guidry. Did they control everything? Would they even look for her? Are they corrupt? Are they involved with the drug gang, or worse – dark voodoo? With no skills and terror dogging his steps, I know he will have to go into the swamp to get her back.
Gabby’s Grandmere had practiced good voodoo, but there was dark magic taking over the swamp. Gabby felt a sense of relief when Remy arrived, knowing he would stop at nothing to get there daughter back. They both carried guilt and blame for the events that tore them apart, but she began to see him in a new light as he investigated Adrienne’s disappearance. Would this bring them closer together? Could this be their second chance? Do you believe in second chances?
They had a failure to communicate. Maybe if they talked about it things would have been different. Their thoughts go back and forth as they try to figure out what when wrong. It made Remy and Gabby seemed so real to me. How often do we keep out thoughts to ourselves, our fears and insecurities making us afraid of what may happen if we put our feelings out there, showing our vulnerabilities.
I fell in love with Reuben. He had a sixth sense or is it more? If he believed Adrienne was alive, then Remy did too. He’s a Romanian Gypsy fortuneteller. I would love for him to have his own book. What do you think Susan?
I was shaking in my boots, just like Adrienne. The stagnant, rotten smells and the sounds of tails slapping on the water, the slithering of the snakes and being all alone in the dark. I can only imagine the terror she must have felt, afraid to even step outside, especially at night. The gators are out and they are hungry. And it’s hot, so hot.
I loved what happened to Sebastian, the High Priest of dark voodoo. I laughed out loud and thought, well done. I became so proud of Adrienne and Gabby. When push came to shove, they both stepped up and showed how people can do what is necessary when they feel they must.
Even though I know how it will end, I have tears in my eyes as I read it. I do so love a happy ending.
4 Stars – Would Highly Recommend To Others
Quotes
“It’s easy to sit here and laugh at ideas you don’t understand, but I have to believe there are things in this world that defy logic.”
The gun might be more useful where he was going than a cookie.Throwing a cookie at an alligator wouldn’t be much help.
“He has to look out his window for the weather rock, tied on a string. If it’s wet, it’s raining. If it’s swinging, the wind is blowing.”
I received an ARC ebook in return for an honest review.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan C. Muller is a fourth generation Texan. She attended Stephen F. Austin State University where she majored in Business Administration. She started her first novel at age eleven, but it wasn’t until after she had worked many years and raised a family that she returned to her first love, writing. She is a member of Northwest Houston RWA, Kiss of Death online RWA, and The Houston Writers Guild. Her novel, The Secrets on Forest Bend, has won several awards.
Susan and her husband, Sid, live in Spring, Texas with their rescue dog, Buster, a 120 pound black lab of advanced age. They have two children and four grandchildren. They love to travel and have been fortunate to see much of the world. Her favorite places include Kenya, New Zealand, and the Galapagos Islands. When not writing, she can be found doing volunteer work at a local hospital. She loves to read, travel, snorkel and take long walks.
Website / Twitter / Facebook
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To get your copy of Voodoo on Bayou LaFonte or learn more about Susan C Miller, click on the cover below.
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GIVEAWAY
Susan will be awarding a $20 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
“Do you believe in Voodoo?”
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. Click on the image below to follow the tour.
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I have read several books by the prolific writer, Peter Robinson – Playing With Fire, Friend of the Devil and All the Colors of Darkness – so I was very happy to have won Children of the Revolution. The cover led me down a path to murder and wicked political machinations. They do make, to me, not such strange bedfellows. If you want a detailed, step by step, approach to an investigation of a murder, this is the book for you. Children of the Revolution is a convoluted tale that drives Banks decades back into the past to find the answers. I do like knowing the process of an investigation, but I am an action junkie and needed more mayhem with my murder. I enjoyed the journey and I am sure I will travel through the pages of another Peter Robinson novel in the near future. I love this quote:
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