I very much enjoyed Emily Carpenter’s last novel and happily picked up this new one. “Gothictown,” set in northwest Georgia, had a slightly fantastic twist, a dark secret stemming from a communal crime committed during the Civil War. Newcomers did not know what an evil little nest they were getting into, but the evil was real, a sickness born of greed.
This new novel crosses the boundary into the world of witchcraft, NOT a territory I spend a lot of time in. The scene is contemporary Savannah, a city that has in fact been changed by, of all things, a book: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," by John Berendt. Savannah is flooded with tourists, gawking at the Mercer House or searching for the transvestite Chablis.
Young Ingrid, a psychic witch, gets a number of these into her parlor for psychic evaluation, palm readings and other relatively harmless procedures. She had been raised in the craft by her grandmother, Edie, now, sadly, deceased. Ingrid’s friend, Miles, and her sometimes lover, Boney, give ghost tours. Their income is marginal and Ingrid is worried about rising property taxes in the now booming and expensive city.
Enter Sailor Loeffler, debutante, about-to-be bride, of one of the richest, most powerful families in Savannah, plutocratic royalty. The Loefflers own Savannah Sauce, "the spicy, tangy, peppery condiment everyone in the Southeast (and further afield) puts on… well, everything." Tabasco, I guess.
Sailor, with her friends Finley, Poppy and Calla, become Ingrid’s clients. Sailor seeks help with her wedding arrangements and it seems Ingrid can call on various forces to produce rare blossoms and gowns.Soon, Ingrid meets Sailor’s brother Casimir, father Aurelian Stokes Loeffler, III, called Rill, a smooth, untrustworthy soul, and drunken mother, Scoot. There are, it seems, no rich people named Harry or Mary.
This novel is promoted partly as social satire, but while the names are humorous, these rich people are not ridiculous: they are hard, cruel, ruthless, amoral, selfish, snobbish. Sailor and Ingrid become unlikely friends. Sailor rewards Ingrid handsomely for her help and Ingrid is seduced to giddiness by the extravagance and beauty of the Loefflers' home and life.
But, of course, the old family has nasty secrets, murderous ones, and it will be learned the Loefflers and Ingrid’s family intersect in complicated and unsavory ways. As she explores their fraught shared history, Ingrid is increasingly tempted to cross her witch's ethical line, from readings, to seeking help from the goddess, to darker magic: first karma spells, where the subject gets what’s coming to him, and then baneful magic, hexes, which can bring damnation to the witch as well as death to the subject of the hex.
Carpenter has created memorable characters and some surprising twists in a lively, entertaining page turner.
