Voodoo on Bayou Lafonte by Susan C. Muller - Review and Giveaway

(Paranormal Romantic Suspense)

This review is done in conjunction with a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Susan will be awarding a $20 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A frantic phone call leads Detective Remy Steinberg racing through the night toward the one place he vowed never to return. With the life of his kidnapped daughter at stake, he willingly faces shotgun-wielding drug dealers, corrupt law-enforcement officials, and a raging hurricane.

Scouring the seedy back alleys of New Orleans for information, he goes undercover at a sinister voodoo ceremony, and struggles to understand the forces of black magic that hold his daughter hostage.

With time ticking down, he battles for his life against a high voodoo priest, but can he face the two things he fears most: the swamp that terrorized his childhood, and the ex-wife he’s never stopped loving?

My review:

Voodoo on Bayou Lafonte is Ms. Muller's third book in her Occult series, but it can certainly be read as a standalone. I'm looking forward to picking up the first two books of the series to read more about the other characters I've met in this book.

This was an exciting book... from page one to the last page of the book, the author kept the action going--and my heart was in my throat during the hurricane. Even knowing this was a romantic suspense, the author kept me on tenterhooks until the final resolution--I was THAT involved in the book and with the characters.

Remy and Gabby both had a lot of growing up to do...and it was wonderful to see them both see each other with adult eyes and to be able to appreciate the others' positive qualities.

I hope this isn't the end of the series. I really like these characters and would like to see them in other books and other situations.

Four flowers. Enjoy this excerpt:

Remy gritted his teeth and turned off his flashing light bar as he crossed the state line. His badge might carry some weight in Texas, but not in Louisiana. Those guys resented against everything from Texas except the money that rolled in.

Well, too bad. He felt the same about their whole state. Had since the day his mother dragged the family there from New Jersey.

He understood, forgave her even. When his father died, she needed some place that felt like home. Only it never felt like home to him. In fact, it felt more like purgatory. And he got out of there as fast as he could.

Unfortunately, that meant dragging Gabrielle and Adrienne to Texas with him. And Gabby had refused to do that. She’d given him an ultimatum. Come back or get a divorce. Well, he’d never much liked ultimatums. And he sure didn’t plan to ever live in that state again.

He’d gone to Texas in search of work, sure that if Gabby loved him enough, she’d follow. Only she hadn’t, and he’d refused to give up a good job and return to a hand-to-mouth existence, sponging off of family, and feeling like a failure because he couldn’t support his new baby and his wife.

The same wife who hadn’t loved him enough to come with him.

His hands tightened on the wheel until his fingers went numb. Would things have been different if he hadn’t been so bullheaded? Was Adrienne paying the price for his stubbornness?

He could beat himself up later for rash decisions. All that mattered now was his daughter’s safety.

And every minute that passed, the knot in his gut grew.

He stopped for gas, a quick burger, and to study the map. Nothing had changed. A few more fast-food joints, a few more casinos. But the swamp was still only feet off the road in places.

Another hour of driving, and he turned off the interstate, into bayou country. The lights fell away and he was left with only his headlights poking a hole in the darkness. Even the air felt heavy, like the weight on his shoulders.

How he hated this place. And now it had taken his daughter.

About the Author:

Susan C. Muller is a fourth generation Texan. She attended Stephen F. Austin State University where she majored in Business Administration. She started her first novel at age eleven, but it wasn’t until after she had worked many years and raised a family that she returned to her first love, writing. She is a member of Northwest Houston RWA, Kiss of Death online RWA, and The Houston Writers Guild. Her novel, The Secrets on Forest Bend, has won several awards.

Susan and her husband, Sid, live in Spring, Texas with their rescue dog, Buster, a 120 pound black lab of advanced age. They have two children and four grandchildren. They love to travel and have been fortunate to see much of the world. Her favorite places include Kenya, New Zealand, and the Galapagos Islands. When not writing, she can be found doing volunteer work at a local hospital. She loves to read, travel, snorkel and take long walks.

Website: http://susancmuller.com/
Twitter: @SusanCMuller
Facebook: Susan C Muller Author

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The Witch on Twisted Oak by Susan C. Muller -- Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Susan will be awarding a $20 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

*****

It’s Raining Books has asked me to share some fun, interesting, edifying, or embarrassing facts about myself. I’m not that interesting, and I don’t have anything edifying to share with you, so I better go with embarrassing. That should be easy, because you can’t take me anywhere that I can’t manage to embarrass myself.

I once sat next to a woman I didn’t know at a luncheon and we started talking about our kids. My son and his family had just moved into a new house and I told her how much they loved the house and the neighborhood, but they thought their next-door neighbor was with the Mafia. He claimed to be in investments, but he left the house each night around seven and didn’t come home till the wee hours. They had a full time nanny for their kids, but my son thought she was a bodyguard. She looked like an East German shot-putter and never did anything with the kids.

The lady next to me asked where they lived. It turned out that was her daughter’s family. Now, Houston has over four million people, and that’s not counting the suburbs, and I sit next to the mother of my son’s neighbor? She did admit she always thought the same thing about her son-in-law and the nanny.

I told you that you couldn’t take me anywhere. Once my husband came in from golf and wanted to go to our favorite Chinese restaurant for supper. Now, I’ll go anywhere, anytime, but I’d been volunteering at the hospital that day and still had on my uniform. I grabbed a sweatshirt, yanked off my white pants and pulled on yesterday’s jeans that had been draped over a stool in the bathroom. The restaurant was busy, so we had to stand in line, but it was worth the wait because the food was great. My husband got up to pay the bill at the front register while I took one last bite and wiped my mouth, Only I couldn’t find my napkin; I’d dropped it on the floor. I reached down and there were two napkins. One was burgundy cotton, like all the other napkins, the other was white. And nylon. My underwear from the day before, caught in the leg of my jeans!

There ought to be a law against my mouth. Every time I open it, I get in trouble. And there are plenty of chances to do that when you’ve volunteered at the hospital for almost thirty years. But the worst thing I ever did was help a mental patient escape.

How was I to know? She came to the front desk and asked me to call her a taxi. I know, you think I’m going to say I looked at her and said, “You’re a taxi.” No, I called the taxi and we chatted while she waited. I was very helpful—that’s supposed to be my job at the hospital, isn’t it?—and I cut her armband off when she asked me to. We discussed where the nearest bank was so she could stop at the ATM and get money to pay the driver. I still say she was one of the nicest, most level headed patients I’ve talked to in all those years.

The trouble started about fifteen minutes after she left when the head of the psychic unit came running out and wanted to know if I’d seen a woman with long blonde hair worn in cornrows. Yes, I just called her a taxi. Did she have on white shorts? Yes, she did. Was her hair pulled up on top of her head? Why yes, it was. Did she have beads in her hair? Now, I ask you, how many women wearing white shorts, and with waist-length blonde hair, worn in cornrows and pulled up on top of her head had they lost, one with beads and one without?

In my novel, The Witch on Twisted Oak, my hero, Ruben, can manage to get himself in trouble. He’s just ripped down Tessa’s shower curtain, looking for the intruder who trashed her house:

Ruben stood beside her shattered back door, a huge mountain of a man in his bulletproof vest. A gun as large as he was hung from his side. His gold detective’s badge clipped to his belt looked out of place with his jeans and t-shirt.

“I’ve phoned this in, but you can’t stay here.”

What did he mean, not stay here? This was her home. The only place she’d ever felt truly safe. “It’ll be okay. I’ll get someone out to fix the door.”

He took her arm and placed her in front of the back door. “Look at that door. You had it locked, but one good kick and he was inside.” He turned her toward him and stared into her eyes. “You can’t stay here. It’s not safe until we catch him.”

He wasn’t going to keep her from her own house. She twisted out of his grip and ran inside. Her eyes darted from side to side, seeing the destruction but not taking it in fully.

She sank to the floor in the middle of her bedroom when he caught up with her.

“Who would do a thing like this?” She held up pieces of a broken orange and gold necklace. “I made this myself. And the shower curtain he ripped down in the bathroom? I hand painted that.”

He made a strange sound and she looked up. His face was flushed. Maybe he wasn’t as cold as she thought.

What about you? What embarrassing thing have you done?

About the Author:

Susan C. Muller is a fourth generation Texan. She attended Stephen F. Austin State University where she majored in Business Administration. She started her first novel at age eleven, but it wasn’t until after she had worked many years and raised a family that she returned to her first love, writing. She is a member of Northwest Houston RWA, Kiss of Death online RWA, and The Houston Writers Guild. Her novel, The Secrets on Forest Bend, has won several awards.

Susan and her husband, Sid, live in Spring, Texas with their rescue dog, Buster, a 120 pound black lab of advanced age. They have two children and four grandchildren. They love to travel and have been fortunate to see much of the world. Her favorite places include Kenya, New Zealand, and the Galapagos Islands. When not writing, she can be found doing volunteer work at a local hospital. She loves to read, travel, snorkel and take long walks.

Website: http://susancmuller.com/

A powerful psychic is brutally murdered. Secrets are revealed. An old enemy is out for revenge.

Detective Ruben Marquez is thrust back into his childhood memories when he investigates a gruesome murder that occurs only feet from his mother's home. Is the killer somehow connected to his own past? Is the beautiful, mysterious daughter of the victim, someone he can trust? Or is her revelation that she’s a witch a sign he should stay clear. But how can he, when it appears she’s next on the murderer’s to-do list.

In the ultimate test of courage, he uses himself as bait to protect all he holds dear . . . his career, his family, and the Witch on Twisted Oak.