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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Blessed are those who seek the truth, September 8, 2007
This review is from: The Beatitudes: Book I (Paperback)
New Orleans is a city of secrets; something Hannah "Scrimp" Dubois and her best friend and colleague Earlene "Pinch" Washington have taken for granted. Until the secrets include the murders of ten foster children and the existence of the mysterious White Army, reborn from Le Armee Blanc in medieval Europe. The good guys can no longer be taken for granted, the bad guys seem to multiply with every step the two take to get closer to the truth, and friends are found in unexpected places, and unexpected forms.
Lyn LeJeune has written an intriguing paranormal mystery in the best setting possible, New Orleans and the surrounding parishes of southern Louisiana. Voodoo and Christianity survive side by side and both are factors in the solution to the mystery of who killed ten unfortunate children and left them for discovery with religious relics near their bodies. Scrimp and Pinch must travel avenues, both earthly and not, to find the answers before their enemies win the day. The ending is never a given, not until the final confrontation, and Scrimp and Pinch are two characters you root for, no matter how dark it seems.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The stars aligned, May 4, 2008
This review is from: The Beatitudes: Book I (Paperback)
There is a duality to everything, calm and chaos, life and death, good and evil, sin and penitence, and hungry and full. And Hannah Dubois, our Dante, finds herself, like we all do, caught within life's juxtapositions. She journeys through all terraces of purgatorio with a guide as beautiful and patient as Beatrice.
We are connected to Hannah through her struggles to keep the love of her life safe, to sate her hunger with the delicious foods of New Orleans (and even as a reader, we can smell and taste these Cajun victuals thanks to the writer's descriptive language), and we travel with her to help her solve the mystery of the deaths of the foster children, fighting against le Armee Blanc.
I took Hannah's lead and we traveled through the suffering city. I followed her on an enigmatic path throughout New Orleans, learning the history and culture, and rejoicing in the details of this city, taught by only one who has lived there. There I meet strange and beautiful characters who present Hannah, and myself, of a view of the entire world order and remind us of where our moral compass points.
"...but already my desire and my will were being turned like a wheel..." as I anticipate the next novel of Lyn LeJeune.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ghosts of New Orleans, September 29, 2007
The Beatitudes: Book I
In my view the relationship of Pinch and Scrimp could have been more as Spartan women rather than the hint of Sappho. It was their friendship that was a shield against the outside world of sin and corruption. To me their friendship was more like Ruth and Naomi or Damon and Pythias. It was a true bond of pure love and friendship.
Pinch's death indicates that she died with her shield, as benefiting a Spartan woman. And even in death, she is ready for more.
I would have preferred Scrimp's answers to her interrogators to have been more laconic.
Of all of the feminine weapons available to women, the deadliest and sharpest are their tongues.
And in reality, New Orleans has become the New Sparta. The women of New Orleans are sending their children out everyday to face death in the streets.
Female authors usually leave me cold. Well, with possible exception of Taylor Caldwell, Mary Stewart, Mary Shelly, George Sand, Ursula K. Le Guin, Rachel Carson, Harper Lee, Carson McCullers and perhaps a few dozen more. As a rule female authors get to involved with the minutia of completely useless boring details.
As a native New Orleanian, born and reared there until I left for military service in 1959.
I really appreciated Ms. LeJeune attention to the details and the minutia of life in New Orleans.
I could smell the exhaust fumes of the busses, the strong aroma of the impossible black, steaming cup of coffee and chicory. The walk from the library to Mother's down Poydras St. is an actual walk to a great place to have lunch. The sights, sounds and the smells of the many local neighborhoods within New Orleans are dead on accurate! Now I will have to include Lyn LeJeune in my list of female authors that I consistently read.
If you are planning a trip to New Orleans - read this book as tour guide to the city. The Ghosts of New Orleans are still walking the streets.
Turn any corner and there they are.
If you just want a good scary, tightly written yarn about sin, corruption, and voodoo with redemption - turn off the TV, turn off the cell phone and invite Ms. Lyn LeJeune and her friends Pinch and Scrimp in for a visit. I promise you that if Pinch likes you - she'll come and visit - often.
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