Doris: A New Orleans Thriller

by Brian Striefel

Meet Sophia Giacona, a Minneapolis college student with a Louisiana problem. When Sophia left New Orleans, her crazy aunt insisted Sophia never consider children of her own. Aunt Jolene lives in a shotgun house, more accurately, the jazz club next door. Pressed for details, Jolene describes a century-old gris-gris curse placed on her grandfather. Jolene says the gris-gris still claims Giacona babies — news so impossible that it eases Sophia's mind — until lingering worries take her to a well-respected healer in Chauvin.

“Sha-baby, lotsa folks has some gris-gris in der lives,” the healer says, “but I ain’t seen nothin like this.”

Incredulous, Sophia begins a cross-country larceny spree stealing 7 gris-gris from a family who treasures them. A hospital delivery date controls her impossible timetable, and disbelief haunts every rational thought — a curse stretching clear into 1984? Sophia soon learns that New Orleans truly hasn’t changed much in a hundred years. This novel explores Creole beliefs which provided spiritual protection for many exploited people, black and white. It’s written around a fascinating African-American healer named Doris.

319 pages, Paperback

Published July 26, 2023

About the author

Brian lives 80 miles from a stoplight where passing motorists still wave. He enjoys a modern protagonist facing a puzzling backstory, real events however obscure ― novels accurate to place and time so reality blends seamlessly with fiction.

His stories encompass several genres, thrillers in a word but each offering mystery, romance, coming-of-age drama, often crime and/or magical realism. These novels explore the border between genre and literary fiction. Channel Isabel Allende's "Daughter of Fortune" and Tessaro's "The Perfume Collector"

Expect downhill thrill rides with killer endings.