Don’t you just hate it when the ghost of your gambling father instructs you to retrieve a mysterious coin that he won in a hand of specter poker and then you have zombies and a possessed mob chasing you? If nothing else, it certainly makes it hard to do your work as a milliner to society ladies of New Orleans. Though it could just help you put to rest your fears and finally give in to love.
I may have said this before, but I adore Julie Mulhern and will scramble to read anything and everything that she brings to market. And Bayou Nights is most definitely no exception. I’m going to try and be objective and intelligent, but know that what I really want to do is switch to all caps and just type THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC YOU SHOULD GO READ IT NOW AND BUY A COPY FOR EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO IS ABLE TO READ.
At any rate, Bayou Nights is a dark but captivating paranormal story set in 1903 New Orleans. Hat maker Christine Lambert finds herself in possession of a fabled (and very highly sought after) piece of eight. As soon as her father instructs Christine on where and how to retrieve the treasure, a dangerous game is set in motion. Her father is now missing and Christine turns to her friend Trula (read all about Trula in A Haunting Desire) for help. Trula’s husband sends Mattias Drake to Christine – much to her annoyance. From their first meeting, Christine and Drake seem more ready to battle one another than the evil gathering around them. But Julie Mulhern crafts a cunning story. The deeper Drake and Christine sink into the mysteries and the danger, the more resolved both of them are to solve the puzzle.
But there’s so much more than a mystery, pirates, ghosts, and voodoo priestesses in Bayou Nights. The characters are truly the stars of this story; what begins as annoyance becomes a grudging appreciation and a desperate attraction that, hard as they both try, neither Drake nor Christine can ignore.
Bayou Nights is outstanding. Mysterious, evocative, and deeply satisfying in every way.
My thanks to the publisher, who gifted me a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders.
She is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean–and she’s got an active imagination. Truth is–she’s an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions.
In addition to mysteries, Julie writes historical, romantic suspense. Her first romance, A Haunting Desire, was a finalist in the 2014 Golden Heart® contest and is available now.
The Girl with Book Lungs 