Tag Archives: New Orleans

Oct18

Wander in the Dark- by Jumata Emill- a Review

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New Orleans. Mardi Gras. The Garden District. Two half-brothers, estranged. Families with issues. A private school. A murder. A perfect storm of ingredients that lead to a great read full of mystery, danger, and anxiety for the protagonists.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books in exchange for an impartial review.

Marcel and Amir are half-brothers who share a father and not much else. Marcel is the elder of the two and his father cheated on his mother with Amir’s mother. This led to their father leaving Marcel’s mother and his subsequent marriage to Amir’s mother. Family dynamics have been problematic since that time. The boys are now in high school and don’t communicate with each other.

Until the fateful night of Amir’s 16th birthday party when Marcel shows up at the invitation of Amir’s best friend, Chloe.

He and Chloe eventually leave the party and head to her house. A few hours later, Marcel wakes to the horrifying sight of Chloe’s lifeless body. Her room ransacked and her being stabbed panics Marcel and he runs. A Black young man found in the home of a dead white girl is always going to go sideways.

And indeed it does when he’s seen on a security camera leaving the house via the front door.

From this point, the story moves into trying to resolve the question of who really killed Chloe.

Amir is sure his brother is innocent and he’s on a quest to clear his brother’s name.

Along the way, we meet a cast of characters who all have something to hide. The family dynamics of several of the characters enter into the story. There’s also the discovery of a reprehensible game being played online at the private school. That part of the book absolutely turned my stomach and made my blood boil.

Amir and Marcel’s family dynamics are also an integral part of the story and I was rooting for a good resolution to that part of the story as well as the solving of the murder.

I loved this book. Lots of twists and turns and some parts kept me guessing which I love. The growth of the characters is super well done by the author.

Throughout the days as I was reading this, I found myself thinking about getting back to the story of Marcel and Amir when I should’ve been focused on other things. These characters were both well drawn and they seemed very real to me.

The New Orleans setting also appealed. It’s one of my favorite cities and I could picture all the places in the book which added to my enjoyment of this story.

Highly recommended. To be released Jan 29, 2024.

Jun14

Blood Memory by Greg Iles- a Review

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I picked this up from our local library book sale a few months ago.  It was published in 2005.  It is a thriller set in New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. The type story as well as the setting immediately appealed to me since I live within a few hours drive of New Orleans and I love, love that city. Natchez is also a lovely, southern town. The racism in the story is a bit unsettling but it’s definitely true to some areas of the south—I’m not proud of that, but facts are facts. We do seem to have a lot of people who are unkind to others down here based solely on their skin color. I hate it and it makes me uncomfortable reading some of the language used.

The book itself is very intriguing. The premise is great with the heroine having a unique job as a forensic odonatologist. She inspects bite marks for criminal cases and I love that as a career choice for a character. I wasn’t sure I was going to like her from the blurb of the book since she is involved in an affair with a married man. Not only that, she and he jeopardize their careers with working together on various cases where she is not hired on officially as a consultant. He is a homicide detective who brings her into cases to help him look good as she has a good eye for details. She is also a functioning alcoholic. She has a family full of secrets. Her father was murdered when she was a small child.

I did end up liking her. The author piled on the trauma with this gal. She was messed up and even though she put on an appearance of being strong, she was an absolute mess.

As the story progresses, we learn exactly why she is a mess. It’s truly a miracle she wasn’t in a padded room of some sort with all that happened in her life.

The story is good. Complex and satisfying. She grows and learns and her character arc is well done. She makes some bone-headed moves a few times in the story and so does her homicide detective lover, but overall, it was an excellent read. It’s close to five-hundred pages, but it is really a pretty quick read with the page-turning plot.

Feb26

Risky Whiskey by Lucy Lakestone – review

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This was a quick read with many things to like but also many things to wonder “what the heck?” 

First, the likes:

1. quirky, fun heroine with a unique view of life and a sad nuclear family history but an aunt who is supportive.

2. Hero who is strong and a rock for the heroine.

3. Unique premise with the cocktail convention location and bartenders as the main characters as well as the side characters.

4. Witty dialogue.

5. Wide cast of interesting characters.

6. Balance of danger and humor.

7. Good sense of place in descriptions of New Orleans. I’ve been there many times and the author was able to evoke the atmosphere well. 

The dislikes:

1. This reader figured out the culprit almost as soon as the person was introduced.

2. The red herrings didn’t fool this reader.

3. This reader was thrown out of the story by thoughts of how these people were functioning with the amount of liquor they ingested. I mean, they were at a cocktail convention in New Orleans and so drinking would be expected but they were also working and it seemed they were always buzzing.

4. Too much description of what everyone was wearing. Some is good but everyone’s outfit a number of times was too much for this reader.

5. The way the culprit tried to accomplish his crime was ludicrous. It would have been physically impossible. As someone who has experience with the weapon of choice (not that I’ve tried it on a person!), there is absolutely no way for someone to run and use that weapon. Can’t be done. I was laughing so hard at how insane it was. Definitely took me straight out of the story. 

In summary, good story with some issues but fun to read for the most part. Just be prepared to suspend your beliefs in that penultimate scene. 

Feb24

Why oh Why Ruin the Character of a House?

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I went to New Orleans last week and one of my friends who had read The Eisenger Element wanted to see the house I had previously taken a picture of as my inspiration for Linc’s house in the Garden District. This house is down the street from Anne Rice’s former home and I loved it the first time I saw it. We actually drove right past it this time as I didn’t recognize it.

We got out of the car when we saw Anne’s house and walked down the road. AND there was the house. Dull, drab and lifeless now. What were they thinking? It had so much character and now it’s awful. Yeah, maybe it’s more dignified but who wants to be vanilla pudding if you can be chocolate truffles with pecans??

What do you think? Improvement or disaster? Link to The Eisenger Element.

Before
After

Oct15

Pre-Order Now Up- The Eisenger Element

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Eisenger ElementI was thrilled to find The Eisenger Element up for preorder. It’ll pop right into your inbox on release day. How cool is that?  Here’s the Amazon link (which is the only one I’ve found so far).

A New Orleans trolley

A New Orleans trolley

I’m really excited to get this one out there. I love, love the city of New Orleans and the inspiration it gives me. I hope I’ve done the place justice as there’s really no place like it.

Oct5

Teaser – The Eisenger Element

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Here’s a teaser of The Eisenger Element (release date is Oct 24, 2015) and some more New Orleans pictures.

TEASER:

Wasn’t it bad enough his brother had been wrongly convicted? Now they were trying to hang a rap on him…

“You and your brother are very clever. He’s been convicted of murder himself—”

“Oh, so, in your esteemed opinion, the inclination to murder is something that’s in the genes?” Linc took a step in Emilia’s direction. “First of all, my brother was wrongfully convicted—wrongfully—and secondly, that’s one of the most inane things I think I’ve ever heard in my life.” Linc took another step toward her.

Emilia resisted the urge to back up, as she didn’t want Eisenger to know he’d gotten to her and that she was a bit frightened by the anger in his voice. She threw a grateful glance at Howard as he took hold of Lincoln’s upper arm.

“Hang on, man. No need to threaten the lady,” Howard said.

“She’s no lady and I didn’t threaten her.” Lincoln spread his arms and grinned but to Emilia it appeared to be more of a grimace than an actual smile. “I’m an innocent man standing in his own driveway being needled by an officer of the law. Maybe I need to make a call of my own to the police commissioner. Tell him all about the harassment I’m enduring based on the mere fact that I have a brother in Angola and I have a dead law partner who I couldn’t possibly have had a chance to kill. What do you think?” Linc glared at Emilia. “How do you think that phone call could affect that gold shield that I bet you have had for about five minutes?”

“You don’t have that kind of clout, mister. If you did, your brother wouldn’t be in prison now, would he?”

At that comment, Lincoln did lunge at Emilia. She whipped her gun up and aimed it directly at his chest.

Sep30

Blurb- The Eisenger Element

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Here is the official blurb for The Eisenger Element.  I’ll share a pic or two of New Orleans as well.

Blurb:

She thought she was ready for the hard cases, but that was before she met him…

Emilia Hammond recently earned her gold shield as a detective with the New Orleans police department and is working on her first assignment, eager to prove herself capable of handling her promotion. After a series of attacks on prostitutes in the French Quarter, she finds herself going undercover to investigate. In the process, she’s called to the scene of a murder at an attorney’s office. She has a good lead, a solid case, until her prime suspect turns the tables on her.

He’s trying to clear his innocent brother, and now he’s a murder suspect himself…

Attorney Lincoln Eisenger is from a prominent New Orleans Garden District family. His brother Myles is in Angola Prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Linc is determined to clear his brother’s name and bring him home. But when his law partner is killed, Linc becomes the prime suspect. Now he has to clear himself as well as his brother, all the while trying to ignore the sparks igniting between him and the spunky female detective he thought was a prostitute.

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Sep16

Cover Reveal- The Eisenger Element

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This one was hard to imagine an appropriate cover. Even the cover artist was at a loss since there is so much going on in this story. I knew I had no idea how to capture the essence of it and I’ve been thinking about it since I finished writing it a long time ago (this was my NaNoWriMo story in 2013)-  I knew a New Orleans Police Department badge was something I wanted somewhere since the heroine is a cop. The scales of Justice was also an idea since the hero is a lawyer. Jack, the cover artist, came up with the New Orleans musician in the corner to give the flavor of the city.

The first scene is the remainder of the cover. In that scene, the heroine is working undercover and the hero is leaning on a lamp post hoping to see her as he wants to assist her to get off the streets because he thinks she’s an underage prostitute. (The inspiration for this story was the Herman’s Hermits song, Leaning on a lamp post– LOL) Check it out here.

Eisenger Element