YELLOW MOON

A medicine woman with her feet in two worlds battles evil in present-day New Orleans.

Rhodes follows her series debut, Voodoo Season (2006), with another otherworldly tale of spirits, bad juju and the fine line between science and magic. This sequel stars Marie Levant, “the right doctor for a weird death.” She’s an ER doctor at a charity hospital who shares a bloodline with legendary voodoo queen Marie Laveau. The reluctant voodooienne is fiercely protective of what’s hers, including her toddler Marie-Claire and a pooch named Kind Dog. But the single mother has needs, too, which she pursues unabashedly in the Big Easy’s rhythmic jazz clubs. After she sees a musician possessed during a performance, she suspects something dark has invaded her city. Next she weighs in on a series of bizarre murders whose victims include a drummer, a dock worker and a prostitute with puncture marks; the three have been drained of all their blood. To unearth the truth behind the horrifying deaths, Marie agrees to help Daniel Parks, a dedicated but open-minded homicide detective who doesn’t mind Levant’s unusual methods if they help him catch a killer. “This world, the next,” he declares. “Don’t matter. Murder is still murder.” There’s a lack of depth in her primary characters, but Rhodes puts some earnest thought into the city’s dark history and comes up with a satisfying and eerie story that lies somewhere between the work of Anne Rice and James Lee Burke, who she name-checks with abandon. The visceral descriptions of supernatural possessions are matched by equally vivacious sex scenes.

A spooky, sexy novel about things that go bump in the night.