Shirley Chance Yarbro

Shadows over New Orleans Shirley Chance Yarbro

Shadows Over New Orleans, third entry in the Beneath the Canopy series, discloses the history of pure Haitian Voodoo and the revolution which led to its perversion into New Orleans folk- style Hoodoo. The fictional account, drawing from the true, hypothesizes how upstanding people can experience the terror of having their lives entangled within the clutches of an evil having the capability to destroy them and all they hold dear. Nineteenth-century New Orleans, even to the politicians and policemen, was within the grip of Voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau. Her network of loyal spies kept her furnished with information she needed to blackmail the wealthy and thus keep her coffers filled. Every June twenty-third, on St. John's Eve, an open-to-the- public ritual was conducted on St. John's Bayou where the public was invited (further filling Laveau' s purse) to witness the dancing, eating, and Marie's dance with Papa La Bas, a python representative of Satan. However, there was more to her credit than met the eye: Maison Blanche, her cottage on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, hid many erotic secrets. And there were the 'sacred' rituals held regularly for her faithful believers at their various cottages throughout the French Quarter. . .