I was familiar with San Souci's juvenile work (the Short and Shivery series should be right up there with Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark), but hadn't realized that he had written any adult novels, when I came across this in a box of booksale donations.

The novel centers around Suzanne, the descendent of the Buckawai royalty, on a quest for revenge. (Buckawai being a fictional African nation as well as the Voodoo-like religion brought to the Americas by the slave trade and practiced by Suzanne's grandmother, possibly others.) Suzanne's target is David Palmer, her one-time lover, who she believes is responsible for the murder of their child and who the orishas (gods) are after for crooked business dealings involving funneling weapons and cash to right-wing revolutionaries attempting to overthrow Buckawai's socialist government (which, in turn, is attempting to nationalize Palmer Co's extensive holdings).

The novel switches focus between Suzanne, David, and Christine, David's personal assistant / CIA spy. San Souci does an excellent job in the first third of the novel of vindicating Suzanne as protagonist and outlining David as a first-class asshole, which sucked me in and set me up for a wild ride once the action gets rolling and Suzanne's behavior flips from victim to psychopath. Christine's character is steady throughout, her desire to leave the agency coupled with her desire to prove Palmer Co's black market dealings make the character interesting, while her decency provides bright spots in a novel primarily concerned with ancient evil colliding with post-industrial evil.

All in all, the novel comes highly recommended. San Souci does a wonderful job of drawing the reader in, and keeps the story rolling right into the final page. ( )