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Summary
Summary
That Old Black Magic is New York Times bestselling author Mary Jane Clark's savory and suspenseful confection filled with murder, mystery, history and voodoo, in which Piper Donovan must unmask a devious killer striking in New Orleans's legendary French Quarter.
Aspiring actress and wedding-cake decorator Piper Donovan has barely arrived in New Orleans to perfect her pastry skills at the renowned French Quarter bakery, Boulangerie Bertrand, when a ghastly murder rocks the magical city. Intrigued by the case, Piper can't help but look for the "Hoodoo Killer" among the faces around her. Could it be the handsome guide eager to give her special private tours? Or the inscrutable jazz musician who plays on historic Royal Street? What about the ratings-starved radio talk-show host? Or even the amiable owner of the local Gris-Gris Bar?
Though Piper has a full plate decorating cakes for upcoming wedding celebrations, she's also landed an exciting but unnerving role in a movie being shot in the Big Easy. When the murderer strikes again, leaving macabre clues, she thinks she can unmask the killer. But Piper will have to conjure up some old black magic of her own if she hopes to live long enough to reveal the truth.
Author Notes
Mary Jane Clark spent three decades at CBS News' New York City headquarters where she began her career as a desk assistant after graduating with degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Rhode Island. She worked her way through the ranks to become a producer and writer. she is the author of the successful series: Key News and Piper Donovan.
Her novels include: Do You Want to Know a Secret? Do You Promise Not to Tell? Let Me Whisper in Your Ear, Close to You, Nobody Knows, Nowhere to Run, Hide Yourself Away, Dancing in the Dark, Lights Out Tonight, When Day Breaks, It Only Takes a Moment, Dying for Mercy, To Have and to Kill, The Look of Love and Footprints in the Sand. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Clark's suspenseful fourth Piper Donovan mystery (after 2013's Footprints in the Sand) takes the baker/actress to New Orleans, where she's thrilled to be working as a guest baker at Boulangerie Bertrand in the French Quarter. Piper also lands an acting role that requires her to play a character entombed alive in a casket. When someone goes on a murder spree in the vicinity of Boulangerie Bertrand, Piper's boyfriend, FBI agent Jack Lombardi, urges her to get out of New Orleans as soon as possible, but she remains committed to finishing a wedding cake at the bakery. As the body count rises, locals connect the mysterious clues left at the crime scenes to voodoo, and the police consider no one above suspicion, even Piper. Amid a multitude of red herrings, the roller-coaster action builds to a most startling conclusion. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, William Morris Endeavor. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Piper Donovan travels to yet another notable vacation spot to bake yet another wedding cake and gets tossed into yet another series of murders. While she ponders what sort of cake would best commemorate the nuptials of antique-shop assistant Sabrina Houghton and Leo Yancy, owner of Bistro Sabrina, Piper's staying with Sabrina's friends Bertrand and Marguerite Olivier, of Royal Street's Boulangierie Bertrand, so that she can pick up some authentic New Orleans baking techniques. What could be cozier--especially when Piper, ever the hopeful actress, gets cast as Channing Tatum's girlfriend? True, her character dies in the first reel, and the scene in which she realizes that she's been buried alive brings on traumatic memories of Piper's last brush with violent death (Footprints in the Sand, 2013, etc.). What really turns Piper's stay into a nightmare, though, is the murder of Muffuletta Mike, the neighboring butcher. Will the good people of Royal Street--Sabrina's boss, Ellinore Duchamps, her flirtatious nephew Falkner the tour guide, bartender Wuzzy Queen, street musician Cecil Gregson--band together to repel the killer or turn their backs long enough for Piper to become the next victim? Think Margaret Truman in the Big Easy with a recipe for beignets or a lesser Agatha Christie with an unusually imperiled heroine and just enough hints of voodoo for the tourist trade.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After a recent brush with death, Piper Donovan, aspiring actress and amateur wedding-cake maker, is in New Orleans hoping for a relaxing yet educational visit with the renowned pastry chef Bertrand Olivier. His Boulangerie Bertrand is in the French Quarter, surrounded by an array of small businesses antique store, muffuletta shop that are the fabric of the city. After Bertrand's wife settles Piper into the guest apartment over the shop, Piper takes a stroll, letting the magic of New Orleans envelop her. The next day the mood shifts from magical to sinister, when Muffuletta Mike is found dead, with the crime set to look like the work of one of the hoodoo spirits. Piper tries to focus on her work at the bakery and on a bit part in a local movie, but she is drawn into the mystery when another murder strikes closer to home. Before long, past secrets and current enmities in the neighborhood are exposed. Clark is skilled at providing motive and opportunity to many characters and keeping the suspense building to the end.--Muller, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist
