Review of Hurricane by Jewell Parker Rhodes

I’m a fan of fiction about powerful women, especially if the women have a mystical aspect to their power, so it’s no surprise that I love Jewell Parker Rhodes’s books about the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. For those who know about my own book-in-progress, the story of a strong priestess connected with ancient divinities will sound familiar, although Jewell’s Voodooienne and my Trojan-era heroine are separated by three millennia.

The tale of Marie Laveau begins in 19th century New Orleans in Rhodes’s first book, Voodoo Dreams. The next two spell-binding mysteries, Season and Moon, move into the 21st century with Marie’s namesake descendant and spiritual heir, an ER doctor who combines her medical and spiritual talents.

Hurricane, her most recent book (released April 12th) opens with a newly vulnerable Marie in 2005. She’s lost many of the people she has relied on, and when she’s drawn deep into the Mississippi Delta to confront a foul and destructive force, she is more alone than ever. Does the danger she faces in a town where everyone seems curiously ill arise from some ancient African spirit or a greedy oil company or corrupt politics? As Katrina threatens, the ghosts of a murdered family fill her with a burning desire to bring them justice. As usual, Marie inspires sexual attraction and intense loyalty in the men around her—or violence and a desire to destroy this powerful woman who draws her strength from the memory of racial injustice, the rites of Voodoo, and the inspiration of the smart women who came before her.

If you like your “can’t put it down” mystery reading infused with an inspiring take on what womanhood can be in all its aspects, then this is the book for you.