The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp

The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp --- 367 pages including an Author's Note and Acknowledgements.

Google Preview:

The fate of New Orleans rests in the hands of a wayward grifter in this novel of gods, games, and monsters.

The post-Katrina New Orleans of The City of Lost Fortunes is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane's destruction, a place that is hoping to survive the rebuilding of its present long enough to ensure that it has a future. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known--a father who just happens to be more than human.


Jude has been lying low since the storm, which caused so many things to be lost that it played havoc with his magic, and he is hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind. A world full of magic, monsters, and miracles. A world where he must find out who is responsible for the Fortune god's death, uncover the plot that threatens the city's soul, and discover what his talent for lost things has always been trying to show him: what it means to be his father's son.

*****

If you enjoy the urban fantasy of Neil Gaiman or Jim Butcher, you might want to give new author Bryan Camp a try. If you love New Orleans, the fabled Crescent City, you should definitely give Bryan Camp a try!

Click HERE to read the review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the New Orleans Review.

Click HERE to read the review from Locus.

Miss Julia Weathers the Storm by Ann B. Ross

Miss Julia Weathers the Storm by Ann B. Ross --- 277 pages

Miss Julia has been known to roll her eyes when her good-natured husband Sam gets one of his bright ideas. This time Sam is bound and determined to rent a big beachfront house on the Isle of Palms, a barrier island off the coast of Charleston SC, and invite all of their family and close friends to join them for two weeks of sun and sand. However, she is reluctantly persuaded to go along, especially since her close friend LuAnne Conover needs a refuge while she considers whether to divorce her husband, who, she has just discovered, has been involved in a relationship with another woman for years.

Miss Julia’s longtime housekeeper, Lillian, also needs a respite from taking care of her loquacious great granddaughter Latisha, while Lillian has surgery to remove a bunion from her foot. So Latisha goes to the beach along with the rest of the crowd: Lloyd Springer, Miss Julia’s late, unlamented first husband’s natural son; Hazel Marie and Mr. Pickens and their family; Binkie and Coleman Bates and their daughter; Etta Mae Wiggins, who manages one of Miss Julia’s properties; and LuAnn.

After a few days of fun the weather takes a turn for the worse as a hurricane begins to wend its way up the coastline. Clouds roll in and the waves get higher and stronger. That’s when hundred dollar bills begin the wash ashore from a suspicious boat. Latisha’s been out every day picking up sea shells but none of the cash. Three strangers appear on the beach, asking questions about the money, and showing an unusual interest in Latisha’s shells. When the island is evacuated because of the hurricane, Miss Julia and her guests have to pack up and leave in a hurry, but are then caught in a traffic jam as thousands of tourists and locals flee inland.

Finally they make it home to Abbotsville, but Miss Julia is worried that someone has followed them from the beach in a big, black SUV with tinted windows --- someone who seems to be tracking Latisha. This 18^th book in the long running cozy mystery series may be wearing a little thin around the edges, but the center still holds.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from the Wilmington NC Star News.