Suzanne Johnson: SENTINELS OF NEW ORLEANS SERIES

Author:  Suzanne Johnson

Series:  SENTINELS OF NEW ORLEANS
Plot Type:  UF
Ratings:  V4; S2; H2
Publisher and Titles:  Tor
       Royal Street (4/2012)      
       "Christmas in Dogtown" (e-novella, 10/2012)
       River Road (11/2012)
       "Christmas in Dogtown" (e-novella, 10/2012)
       Elysian Fields (8/2013)

     This post was revised and updated on 12/18/12 to include the e-novella  "Christmas in Dogtown", and the second novel, River Road. Those reviews appear first, followed by an overview of the series world-building and a review of book 1:

          BOOK 2:  River Road          

     It's now three years after Katrina's devastating rampage through New Orleans, and DJ has been working with Alex as her partner all that time—keeping their relationship strictly on a platonic level. She has stayed away from Alex's cousin, Jake, who had the misfortune of being turned into a loup-garou at the end of the first book. In this world, a loup-garou is a werewolf on steroids; most of them lack the control to live in the human world. Back then, Jake was furious with DJ, blaming her for the catastrophe, and she accepted that blame. Although they once had a romantic attraction, two have avoided each other ever since.

     Things recently changed in a big way for the supernatural world when the Congress of Elders reached an agreement with the major preternatural groups and have opened the borders between the mortal world and the Beyond, allowing unrestricted movement between two realms for the first time ever. Now there are many more pretes mingling with the humans, and their motives are not always honest or peaceful.

     The primary plot in this book focuses on a water pollution problem that was discovered by a merman colony in the bayous outside of New Orleans. Two merman clans accuse each other of the poisoning of the Mississippi that has brought illness to clan members. As part of their jobs as Sentinels of New Orleans, DJ and Alex meet with the clan leaders, who take them to the location of the bad water. Before they get there, however, they discover the badly mutilated body of a wizard on the bank of the Mississippi, and this becomes their priority case. The rest of the story follows DJ, Alex, and Jake (who has accepted a job as an Enforcer) as they follow the clues and solve both mysteries, with lots of physical and magical action and some incredible heartache along the way.

     DJ's romantic situation is even more complicated than it was in book 1. She is lustfully attracted to three men: Alex, her shape-shifting macho partner; Jake, the newbie loup-garou who is having control problems; and—believe it or not—Jean Lafitte, the long-dead, lecherous pirate who is now living in New Orleans and is determined to seduce DJ. As DJ sums it up: "Life had been much simpler when I had no social life, plus my dates weren't exactly dinner-and-a-movie guys. One had serious control issues, one seemed to be changing the rules of our relationship and was almost scaring the crap out of me more than her werewolf cousin, and the third wasn't even alive in any normal sense of the word." (p. 235)

    In book 1, DJ discovered that she has elven DNA in her family tree, and she found and began to use an elven staff that enhances her wizardly magic. In this book, she discovers that every time she uses the staff the Elven Synod (which is the elven equivalent of the Congress of Elders) is aware of it, and they are not happy that a wizard is using elven power. A mysterious new character (Quinn Randall) shows up in DJ's neighborhood about half-way through the book, and I'm betting that he has elven connections. We'll surely see this situation play out in the next book.

     This is a solid series with likable, quirky characters who exist in an inventive mythos. The plot of this book has a few bumps and some illogical moments, but it also has great suspense and well-developed characters—both primary and    secondary. Click HERE to read chapter 1.

          E-NOVELLA:  "Christmas in Dogtown"          

     My recommendation is to skip this little novella with its weak story line, shallow characters, and improbable events. In a nutshell: Resa Madere has lost her job, and she is broke. Resa's rich boyfriend "moved on when she lost her job"—the first illogical event. Why would a rich boyfriend dump his girlfriend because she loses her job due to hurricane-related cutbacks? Resa takes a temporary trip back home to Dogtown, her tiny backwoods hometown, to help her uncle run the family sausage business. Dogtown is a tiny little town—just a crossroad, really—populated by two extended families: the Madere family and the Caillou family.

     As soon as Resa arrives home, she learns that her childhood friend, Chandler (Chan) Caillou, is back in town. Their families have been trying to get them together for years, but the two have not seen each other since high school and have never been a couple. Resa's mother tells her that Chandler has come back to take over as the "gator man" for the parish after his Cousin Mike died. Resa asks how Mike died, and her mother says, "Think he drowned. Did Mike Caillou drown?" she asks the room full of relatives. As one of the few inhabitants of this tiny village, how in the world could Mrs. Madere not know the cause of Mike's death? Just one more improbability! Needless to say, romantic feelings flare up between Resa and Chan, with the romance moving from "Hello" to HEA in just a day or two.  

     I won't go into the supernatural aspect of the novella, except to say that the mythology is extremely murky and there seems to be absolutely no purpose for the existence of the supernatural creature in question—it's just there. When she learns about "it," Resa says that she's always known about "it" in her heart, BUT... the story is told from her point of view, and she has never indicated by any thought, word, or action that she believes that Dogtown's legends are true. Although the story is set in the same New Orleans world as SENTINELS OF NEW ORLEANS, no characters from the series appear. Perhaps the author plans to use the characters from this novella somewhere in future SENTINELS books, but at this point, you're safe in saving your money.

       WORLD-BUILDING       

     The Sentinels are wizards who maintain order among the preternaturals (aka pretes) of the world. They are divided into four groups called Congresses, based on their powers. Red Congress wizards use physical magic; Green Congress wizards are more witchlike, using spells and potions; Yellow Congress wizards are telepaths; Green and Blue Congress wizards use creative and intellectual powers. Each wizard is mainstreamed into the human community as a means of keeping his or her magical identity hidden.

     In this world, most pretes live in the Beyond, a realm separate from mortal earth, where each group lives together in its own area—kind of like little supernatural villages. In New Orleans, some of the pretes live in Old Orleans, a realm between the mortal world and the Beyond. In order for a preternatural from the Beyond to enter the mortal world, he or she must be summoned by a wizard or cross through a transport (i.e., a portal). Some pretes are allowed to live in the mortal world, mostly werewolves and shape shifters (which are two very different creatures in this series). The series has one group of undead that is new and inventive—the historical dead. These are famous people who, although dead, are still hanging around hoping to get back to earth for one reason or another—people like Jean Lafitte and Marie Laveau, who want money and power, and Louis Armstrong, who just wants to keep making music in his favorite city. Also living in the Beyond are the gods of various cultures. The strength of their undead existence depends on how many people still remember and believe in them.

     The Sentinels are ruled by the Congress of Elders, a stereotypically crotchety and über-traditional group of men who are headquartered in Edinburgh. They want to maintain the status quo and keep as many pretes as possible away from mortal earth. Here, DJ, the series heroine, explains the organizational structure: "Willem Zrakovi was the head wizard for North America—each continent had one grand poobah that served on the Council of Elders and above them all was a single First Elder. Below them were the heads of the four congresses, then the sentinels, then the licensed wizards. The enforcers were a group unto themselves, part FBI prete team and part assassins." (River Road, p. 134)

     The heroine of the series is Drusilla Jaco (aka "DJ), a Green Congress wizard who is forced to become the Sentinel of New Orleans when her mentor, Gerald "Gerry" St. Simon (Red Congress), disappears during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Her love interest (one of them, anyway) is Alexander (Alex) Warin, a shape-shifting Enforcer (a chow-pony mix) who works for the Elders, mostly as a terminator of out-of-control pretes. As is almost always the case in paranormal fiction, DJ has a second possible love interest—Alex's non-magical cousin, Jacob (Jake), who owns a nightclub in the French Quarter.

          BOOK 1: Royal Street          

     The titular location—Royal Street—is in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter, where many of the events in the story take place. As the action begins, DJ is meeting with Jean Lafitte in an attempt to trick him into going back to the Beyond. (Lafitte can't be killed by any ordinary means; the only way to get rid of him permanently would be for everyone to forget him, and since he is such an unforgettable man, that will never happen.) When she is successful, he gives her one of those "I'll be baacck!" shout-outs as he fades away. You can be sure that he makes good on that threat. Soon thereafter, the Elders order DJ to evacuate because Katrina is bearing down on New Orleans. Leaving Gerry behind to protect the city, DJ heads to her grandmother's home in Alabama where she waits out the hurricane and worries about Gerry, who disappears about a week after the storm. The elders order DJ back to New Orleans when they discover that Gerry has gone missing and that Katrina has damaged the boundaries between the mortal world and the Beyond, allowing marauding pretes to stream into New Orleans. When DJ reaches her house (luckily in an unflooded neighborhood), Lafitte is waiting in ambush. Just in the nick of time (but much to DJ's annoyance), a tall, sexy, well-armed man bursts in and shoots Lafitte, forcing him back to the Beyond. The rescuer introduces himself as Alex, her new partner, and informs DJ that together they will be co-Sentinels of the city. The Elders (and Alex) suspect that Gerry has gone rogue, while DJ is sure that he has fallen victim either to the storm or to a villainous prete.

     The plot follows DJ and Alex as they search for Gerry and investigate a series of voodoo-related murders of National Guardsmen. At each murder scene, the perpetrator has drawn a voodoo véve, and soon those drawings show up on the doorsteps of all of the wizards in New Orleans, including DJ's. As DJ reads through Gerry's journals, she begins to realize that Alex and the Elders might be right—that Gerry may have gotten himself involved in a dangerous bargain with Baron Samedi, a voodoo god who is trying to build up enough power to take down the Elders. She also makes a stunning discovery about her own genetic heritage. As the conflict is resolved, both DJ and Alex are put into situations where they must choose between the safety of family and the greater good of the Elders' laws.

     The love triangle develops as the story moves along, with a love-hate relationship growing between DJ and Alex, a flirtation developing between DJ and Jake, and ripples of jealousy pulsating between the two men. During the climactic resolution, Jake has a life-changing experience, so we'll have to see how that affects his love life.

     This is an inventive new series with a fresh take on the supernatural mythos. The idea that the preternaturals are mostly confined to the Beyond is interesting, although the details of the world-building are not completely spelled out in book 1. For example, why do the Elders allow some pretes to live in the mortal world, but not others? The concept of the historical undead is fascinating, and it opens up lots of possibilities for future story lines. Maybe Elvis can stop in for a visit (kind of like Bubba in the SOOKIE STACKHOUSE series). Johnson certainly captures the look, feel, and even the smell of post-Katrina New Orleans. Her descriptions of the devastation in the flooded neighborhoods are horrifying in their detail. The three main characters are solid—if not as inventive as the mythology. Actually, the most fascinating character is Lafitte, and you can bet that he'll be turning up in future books. Click HERE to read chapters 1-3.