Title: Deep South Gold
Author: Jo Stewart Wray
Publisher: Stratton Press
ISBN: 978-1-64895-675-1
Pages: 480
Genre: Genre Fiction / Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Kirkus Indie

Voodoo and hidden Confederate gold are just a couple of elements in this Southern gothic novel.

Catherine Jane Lynch, a senior at Central Mississippi Institute for Girls in French Camp in the 1880s, greatly admires professor Huerta. But Huerta is a Voodoo priest, the husband of the infamous Marie Laveau, the most powerful Voodoo priestess in the territory. The mysterious Huerta impregnates Jane. Her son, Charles, is destined to be Marie’s successor unless Jane can save him from that fate. Then there is Jane’s mentally ill but canny stepfather, Tom Lewis Lynch, who has stumbled on a tunnel where Confederate soldiers stashed gold bars and coins during the Civil War. Deceit runs rampant. Johnny Tingle sweeps Jane off her feet but is in fact Marie’s agent. Marie, meanwhile, has gotten rid of Huerta. Jane eventually ends up in Marie’s bordello but manages to escape. Unfortunately, the fellow who rescues (and marries) Jane is morally flawed. And let us not forget “the magical little people” who supposedly live near the hanging tree and “come out at night and steal women and children to turn into slaves.” Charlie and the gold are sort of MacGuffins to keep this convoluted plot boiling. There are some compelling, extended scenes, such as the preparation of Jane’s grandmother’s body for burial, a long look inside Tom’s tortured mind, and Marie’s sensuous, naked Mardi Gras performance right on the steps of a cathedral. Wray brings real authenticity to the culture and the locale (she lives just up the road from French Camp). And her take on Voodoo is nicely ambiguous: Does Marie have actual spiritual powers or is she a con artist—or are her rituals a little bit of both? The author throws everything into the narrative pot, and the novel has the air of a compulsive tale spinner who cannot resist pulling in stuff like the magical little people and the ghostly reality of the long dead Rebel soldiers. Toward the end of the story, there are some “Wait! What?” moments involving Jane, Marie, and Charlie. Such are the downsides of a complicated plot moving at breakneck speed. A rambunctious tale of Confederate riches; readers who embrace the plot will enjoy the ride.