The Gates to the Afterlife

Book 2: The French Quarter Mysteries

by Jen Pitts

Genres: Cozy Mystery

Synopsis

Sammy knows the “Gates of Guinee” Voodoo ceremony should lead to the afterlife, not murder.  She has seven days to stop a killer from finishing this now deadly ritual.

Westcoast transplant Samantha Richardson has settled into New Orleans. With a budding romance, potential career change, and newfound family, she feels at home in the French Quarter.

Sammy is drawn into the history of the city's famous Voodoo queen as she helps her friend, Andrew, with the publication of his new book. Learning about the mysterious ritual Marie Laveau performed to reach the afterlife has Sammy's attention as well as Andrew's readers.

The book is sure to be a bestseller until it leads to murder.

With one of her best friends accused of the crime, Sammy needs to discover who is framing them. Is someone following in the footsteps of Marie Laveau? Or are they using the Gates to Guinee ritual to cover up a murder?

There are seven gates to reach the afterlife. Can Sammy stop the murderer before they kill again?

The Gates to the Afterlife is the second book in the The French Quarter Mysteries featuring West Coast transplant Samantha Richardson. Join Sammy as she explores the Big Easy by solving the mysteries of the past and present in this new modern, cozy mystery series.

Release date: October 31, 2020

Print pages: 324

Sample

“I promise to guard the key with my life. Do you want me to swear on a Bible?”

“Samantha, that is one of the few books I don’t sell here. You can swear on a copy of Murder on the Orient Express or another of your favorite mysteries.”

“I could, but I assumed you would make me swear on your new book.”

“Neither of us is a practicing Catholic, but we can both agree swearing on a Voodoo book is questionable in any religion.”

And with that Andrew Ballard did the sign of the cross and handed me a key to his bookstore, Lagniappe Books. This made three keys I received since arriving in New Orleans three months ago. My apartment key was the first while the second was to my family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. 

I had expected the first key; the second I had not.

Discovering the truth about the mausoleum key cemented my desire to make my future in New Orleans. While my West Coast friends assumed that it was finding out I was a Southerner by birth, it was the family I made in my apartment building, Thibodeaux Mansion, that kept me in the French Quarter. Andrew was a neighbor, one of my best friends, and now my boss.