Voodoo Child - Softcover

Reaves, Michael

3.77

52 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812519930 ISBN 13: 9780812519938

Publisher: Tor Books, 1999

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As a Louisiana parole officer, Lia St. Charles is used to tough customers, but the man in front of her doesn't fit the description. Shane LaFitte had been a priest of vodun--a healer, not a killer--until he was put away for the brutal ritual murder of his beloved wife. Something about his case just doesn't make sense. And now a ruthless drug lord who controls the New Orleans street trade has opened a door to the Invisible World beyond, summoning monstrous forces for a dreadful day of reckoning. To work this terrible evil, he needs the sacrifice of an innocent, a very special child. Only Shane LaFitte has the power to stop his old enemy--but first he must convince Lia not to put him back in prison for trying...

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Review:

The air was suddenly charged with a bright actinic glare: she could see millions of raindrops, each one separate and distinct, frozen on their fall to earth. Lightning, she thought ... and surely it was thunder that followed immediately, even though the groundshaking rumble sounded eerily like the laughter of some grimly amused giant or elemental... But a thunderbolt didn't explain the vision Lia saw against the clouds, stark in the bright light, frozen like those myriad drops of rain: the vision of a gigantic gaunt man, towering as high as the clouds themselves, wearing black vestments, a stovepipe hat and small, round glasses. She could see the clouds dimly through him, and it seemed, as he moved, that his tattered coat was full of stars.

That's a Voudoun (voodoo) god. Pretty impressive, eh? This loa (spirit-god) and a few others join a male houngan (Voudoun sorcerer-priest) from Haiti, a female probation officer, a male jazz musician, a female ER doctor, and a little girl as the cast of good guys in Voodoo Child. Add to that crew one powerful bad guy--another sorcerer named Mal Sangre (Bad Blood) who hopes to win favor with some very bad loas with a sacrifice of thousands of human beings. You now have a potent brew for a supernatural thriller. And what's the obvious locale for a big voodoo showdown? New Orleans.

It's a surprisingly light novel for one with such heavy themes--rather like a crime or caper tale. The language is fluid, the plot is well paced and suspenseful, and the fact that the characters are two-dimensional doesn't detract that much. You'll learn a lot of fascinating Voudoun and Creole words, too. Some readers may long for a glossary, but if you're patient and wait a page or two, Reaves will give you each word's meaning in context. --Fiona Webster

From the Publisher:

"Voodoo Child tears at the border between magic and mundane, raising the everyday struggles we all face to dramatic proportions." --Charles de Lint

"A delectably spicy read." --Publishers Weekly

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