Lori Handeland, Midnight Moon

Midnight Moon

Lori Handeland

St. Martin's, Sep 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0312938497

Cassandra lived in Southern California happily married to her soulmate and raising their five year old daughter Sarah who loved ballet. That was then and this is now as she has become Priestess Cassandra, a voodoo practitioner in the French Quarter of New Orleans though she has not reconciled the religion's theory that all deaths have a purpose with her daughter's murder. She blames her drug dealing ex-spouse for that and testified against him before vanishing into the Witness Protection Program.

However, her objective for turning to Voodoo may be at hand as she is in Haiti hoping to find Master Jacques Mezareau, who it is rumored, resurrects the dead. Cassandra will pay him any price if he can resurrects her daughter unaware that he is an outlawed Egbo, a punisher and controller of slaves. She hires Devon Murphy to guide her to Mezareau's remote village. However, , Cassandra soon learns first hand how and why Mezareau raises the dead, but is unable to control this new power she has obtained, which if unchecked will destroy her loved ones, Devon and Sarah, once the MIDNIGHT MOON reaches its acme.

The latest Lori Handeland's lunar romantic fantasy (see CRESCENT MOON, DARK MOON, HUNTER'S MOON, and BLUE MOON) is a terrific entry in a strong series. The story line is action-packed but it is the fixated Cassandra, who needs to bring back her beloved Sarah just to begin living again, who makes the thriller work. Readers will feel her loss that's he still grieves and her quest that has taken her to the realm of voodoo in New Orleans and Haiti. With fabulous twists that impact the mental balance of the heroine, Ms. Handeland provides another enchanting novel that will send her elated readers howling at the MIDNIGHT MOON.

Harriet Klausner