Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes revisits the mystical landscape of Louisiana for her fourth novel Voodoo Season, but for the first time, the celebrated author of historical fiction presents a mystery set in the here and now.
This is the story of Marie Levant, a great-great granddaughter of Marie Laveau and a medical doctor compelled by unseen forces to relocate from Chicago to her family’s native home. This is New Orleans, where the slave-holding past merges with the twenty-first century, a place where women of color are still being abused, raped, and — even more horrifying — rendered “un-dead,” zombie-like Sleeping Beauties. The Quadroon Balls of yesterday are a present reality and only Marie Levant can untangle the medical mystery.
A smart modern-day heroine, unafraid of her sexuality, Marie Levant extends the Laveau legacy of spiritual empowerment, prophetic vision, and voodoo possession. Voodoo Season is a fresh and original work of fiction that is a magical womanist tale of mystery and power.
Praise for Season:
“…Marie’s world of sex, malevolence, the undead, and miraculous rescue is alluring.”
– Booklist
“Voodoo Season is a tantalizing brew of spirituality, sensuality, and old-fashioned good storytelling — a perfect novel for anyone who loves a strong mystery beautifully told. Another winner from this great writer!”
– Valerie Wilson Wesley, author of Playing My Mother’s Blues
“Haunting and lyrical, Voodoo Season draws us into the fascinating world of ghosts and spirits, and the people they watch over. Jewell Parker Rhodes has created a terrific character in Marie Levant: strong, sensual and vulnerable.”
– Karen Siplin, author of Such a Girl
“In Voodoo Season, Jewell Parker Rhodes revisits her rich, mysterious world of New Orleans, but this time in a contemporary mystery. In this literate page-turner, a doctor hiding from her painful past is caught in a web of ritual murder and must rediscover the healing voodoo legacy she inherited from her great-grandmother, Marie Laveau. Compelling and elegantly written.”
– Tananarive Due, author of Joplin’s Ghost
“I found Voodoo Season engrossing and compelling…Jewell Parker Rhodes seems to be not only committed to fully exploring what it means to be a contemporary, dynamic woman, but also to exploring and unmasking misperceptions of Vodun/Voodoo. I admire that commitment.”
— Delroy Lindo