Review: Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson

Royal Street is a novel by Suzanne Johnson and an Urban Fantasy from TOR.

Blurb:

As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.

While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.

To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter roux.

My thoughts:


Drusilla Jaco is a junior wizard sentinel.  She loves her city and feels that she could do more for New Orleans if given the opportunity.


So when she is sent to return one immortal undead pirate back to the Beyond - she is thrilled when it goes off without a hitch.  Well except for that pirate swearing to get even with her the next chance he gets.


But when a hurricane threatens her beloved city Drusilla is told to evacuate - leaving her boss and mentor, Gerry, to ride out the hurricane alone.


When Katrina hits New Orleans all hell literally breaks loose.  The undead are unleashed on an already battered city.  If that weren’t enough - someone is using black magic to kill the innocent and Gerry has gone missing.


Drusilla and her new partner are searching for Gerry - but time is running out...


Royal Street is an enjoyable read - but I’m not sure how people who actually went through Hurricane Katrina will feel about it being used as a back drop for a fantasy novel.


I give Royal Street 3 out of 5 stars.

Product Details
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (April 10, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765327791
ISBN-13: 978-0765327796