Book Review: Tempter

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Tempter     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Nancy A. Collins
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Horror
Gauntlet, Sep 2001, $5.00, 222 pp.

In the 1970s, Alex Rossiter was a rock and roll icon on a par with Hendrix and Joplin. Thanks to drugs, Alex crashed and burned, fading into oblivion unable to get a gig or a recording contract anywhere. He recently resurfaced in New Orleans where he has developed an interest in voodoo and is initiated into a local hanfou by Papa Belovded. Not long afterward, Alex obtains a gig at the Gris-Gris Club.

Alex meets an old friend Jere Sloan and the woman he loves Charlotte "Charlie Calder. Charlie instantly wants to share sex with the musician. They go home, leaving Jere behind. Alex's brief elation dissipated once he reads "The Aegrisomnia" and becomes involved with the One-Who-Tempts, a shade residing between the living and the dead. The malevolent spirit tempts Alex to surrender his soul and destroy everyone he cherishes.

Nancy A Collins does for voodoo what Anne Rice has done for vampires. The characters are fully developed making them seem authentic though pawns in a cosmic chess game played by essences much older than mankind. TEMPTER is a temptation that horror fans will want to repeatedly reread.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner