Voodoo Heart by John Everson

I would like to thank Flame Tree Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for affair and honest review

Publisher – Flame Tree Press

Published – Out Now

Price - £9.95 paper back

When Detective Lawrence Ribaud wakes alone in a bloody bed with his wife missing, he knows this is more than just a mysterious case of murder. His wife is the latest victim in a string of bizarre disappearances. All across New Orleans, on one night each month, people are vanishing, leaving behind nothing but a pool of blood on the bedsheets… and an abandoned heart. Ribaud doesn’t believe in voodoo, but he soon finds himself moving through the underbelly of a secret society of snakes, sacrifices and obscene rituals in search of the mysterious Black Queen … and the curse of her Voodoo Heart. 

Crime and horror cross paths a lot. I think you can easily say crime is true horror without supernatural shenanigans, but it does allow us to speculate about evil; the people who have died and have not had justice and retribution for the offender. But for me you have to ensure you appreciate the horror or those impacted. If you don’t then horror is titillation and unfortunately that’s where I got to with Voodoo Heart by John Everson which left a bad taste in my mouth for all the wrong reasons.

We meet Cork aka New Orleans Detective Lawrence Ribaud at the scene of a puzzling crime. A man fell asleep next to his wife who woke up to find bloodied sheets and a human heart next to her. This is part of an ongoing series of similar disappearances which include Cork’s wife. His investigations lead into the hidden world of Voodoo and soon he finds himself a target.

I was hoping in 2020 authors would learn that if you’re going to use either a location or certainly a religion like Voodoo then you do your homework; and this felt incredibly shallow. New Orleans is a city where people party and there is voodoo and sometimes bad things happen. I never really felt I explored the real place or culture of the place the bit the native rather than tourists would see.

The depiction of voodoo I felt was weak – there is a lot of dry exposition, but it’s very much used here as something often more evil than good; not quite how current practitioners like to use it. It wasn’t sensitively used, and Everson seemed more interested in some of the sexual practises for spectacle. The treatment of female characters was dated - the detective lusts over many who also want him, and a lot of women are described sexually. Cork’s missing wife feels mechanical and he’s not that bothered. For a short novel it meandered a lot.

I think authors can explore crime and horror sensitively but this is very much not horror to my tastes