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Voodoo Hideaway
The door wasn't supposed to be there. Elrod knew it, but he pushed it open anyway. Now he's caught up in a world of mob money, loaded guns, and fabulous lies.
Should he trust the pretty jazz singer with the big plans? Or his own instincts, which tell him to bolt out of town on the first bus headed west? By the time he figures out the real scheme, he's knee-deep in something that can only end up badly, and there's no way out except to ride the voodoo to the bitter end.
Vance Cariaga's Voodoo Hideaway is a classic noir novel spanning fifty years and featuring a cast of memorable characters, all caught up in a web of lies and intrigue that sends them on a collision course to a bloody showdown. The story combines the best elements of crime fiction and sci-fi, with a healthy dose of humor tossed in, building tension chapter by chapter until the explosive finale.
Should he trust the pretty jazz singer with the big plans? Or his own instincts, which tell him to bolt out of town on the first bus headed west? By the time he figures out the real scheme, he's knee-deep in something that can only end up badly, and there's no way out except to ride the voodoo to the bitter end.
Vance Cariaga's Voodoo Hideaway is a classic noir novel spanning fifty years and featuring a cast of memorable characters, all caught up in a web of lies and intrigue that sends them on a collision course to a bloody showdown. The story combines the best elements of crime fiction and sci-fi, with a healthy dose of humor tossed in, building tension chapter by chapter until the explosive finale.
372 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 20, 2021
4 people are currently reading
438 people want to read
About the author
Vance Cariaga
4 books5 followersVance Cariaga is a London-based writer, editor and journalist. After spending more than 30 years writing and editing for newspapers and magazines, much of Vance’s focus is now on fiction. His debut novel, "Voodoo Hideaway," was published in 2021 by Atmosphere Press.
A short story collection titled "Money, Love and Blood" was published in 2017. Two of his flash fiction pieces — “Black Sky” and “Five Minus 4 = Uno” — are included in "With One Eye on the Cows," an anthology of short stories published in 2019 by Ad Hoc Fiction. Another flash fiction piece, “The Whole Bird,” is included in the anthology "Restore to Factory Settings," which was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2020. Vance’s short story, “Saint Christopher,” placed second in the 19th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition.
As a journalist, Vance's reporting earned awards from the North Carolina Press Association, the Green Eyeshade Awards, and AlterNet.
The North Carolina native lives in southeast London with his wife and two daughters.
A short story collection titled "Money, Love and Blood" was published in 2017. Two of his flash fiction pieces — “Black Sky” and “Five Minus 4 = Uno” — are included in "With One Eye on the Cows," an anthology of short stories published in 2019 by Ad Hoc Fiction. Another flash fiction piece, “The Whole Bird,” is included in the anthology "Restore to Factory Settings," which was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2020. Vance’s short story, “Saint Christopher,” placed second in the 19th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition.
As a journalist, Vance's reporting earned awards from the North Carolina Press Association, the Green Eyeshade Awards, and AlterNet.
The North Carolina native lives in southeast London with his wife and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 15, 2021
Possible spoiler alert.
Vance Cariaga’s debut novel, “Voodoo Hideaway”, is a compulsively readable page turner. For a first outing, this book rocks from start to finish and is the perfect escapist read coming out of this global pandemic. The book is neither overly slim nor unduly burdensome, and is written to capture readers early and hold them hostage until the last sentence. Words are not wasted with this gem. It has that “goldilocks - just about spot-on” quality with both the development and intersection of characters in this well-organized work of 361 pages. There are many reasons to sing Cariaga’s praises, with plot twists only exceeded by sharp and unforeseen turns. Hang on to your hats folks.
The protagonist is Elrod, a down on his luck vagrant hanging out in an area known as “LoDown”, who steps back in time 50 years only to eventually learn that he has become unwittingly involved in a criminal conspiracy with a cast of nefarious characters from both time periods who hold largely amoral interests. But of course, like all good noir, ambiguity and decency blend in throughout this book.
Cariaga knows how to spin a good yarn and can string words together back to back with the best of them. Most telling is the fact that “Voodoo Hideaway” doesn’t feel like a pure crime noir or traditional science fiction story, because it isn’t. It’s the best of both genres shrewdly spliced together with gritty characters and ingenuity. More aptly, it’s a period piece from the late 1940s with a breezy but cynical vibe to it, that seamlessly swings back and forth via time travel to the dawn of the internet age at the tail end of the Clinton presidency.
From the prologue to the epilogue, the novel is gripping, and at no point along the way does it disappoint. Admission up front here. I loved the 1960’s single season “Time Tunnel” TV show as a kid and, more recently, revered the Starz Network epic “Outlander”. So, Cariaga hooked me from jump street. But even if time travel is not your thing, the usual suspects of vengeance, greed, corruption, politics, organized crime (read: gangsters) and of course, violence permeate the novel, and taken together, are satisfying enough.
Offsetting these darker qualities, there was a playful characteristic to the writing with a comedic edge that served the book well. Nightclub jazz is the perfect musical backdrop for this cunning tale as 1949 predates rock and roll and country would not work for this cultured and urban setting. You can almost smell the perfume, see the multitude of cigarette lighters surrounding you, and sense the boozy darkness of the Hideaway nightclub, a key venue for the story.
The book is divided into two parts, “Voodoo” and “Time”, and for the life of me, I couldn’t tell you which one I preferred. And no, I don’t always like the end of the book more than the beginning and middle sections. Cariaga hits all the right buttons early and often and builds suspense along the way with the outcome not clear until the final pages. The conclusion, or what you might think is the ending (do we really know?), is blazing and suspenseful. The smoke still has not cleared in my mind.
Many first-time authors seem to try just a bit too hard. In this case, the prose was not overdone, the billiard ball dialogue seemed artful, and even the book cover was very telling and apropos. Perhaps, you can judge a book by its cover, at least in this case.
One significant and admirable quality of the book is the author provides a gift to the reader – the capacity for the reader to remember the characters and connections, and their relevance to the story without having to go back and re-read portions of the book to figure out what transpired before and who did what. Okay—yes, I have to do that too often with overly complex books! Sorry – but not sorry!! All told, you may enjoy Jade and Red, despise Fat Sal and Lionel, and feel sorry for Elrod. But you will completely lose yourself reading this book. Immersion and distraction are the whole point of reading anything at my age (61 by the way).
The conclusion of Voodoo Hideaway does not seem to be the end of this clever story and a sequel seems to be in the offing. I will put “Voodoo Hideaway” on my bookshelf, hope others (of all ages) have the good sense to invest in this literary jewel, and will remain optimistic the author will be inspired to continue. Let’s all hope so.
Vance Cariaga’s debut novel, “Voodoo Hideaway”, is a compulsively readable page turner. For a first outing, this book rocks from start to finish and is the perfect escapist read coming out of this global pandemic. The book is neither overly slim nor unduly burdensome, and is written to capture readers early and hold them hostage until the last sentence. Words are not wasted with this gem. It has that “goldilocks - just about spot-on” quality with both the development and intersection of characters in this well-organized work of 361 pages. There are many reasons to sing Cariaga’s praises, with plot twists only exceeded by sharp and unforeseen turns. Hang on to your hats folks.
The protagonist is Elrod, a down on his luck vagrant hanging out in an area known as “LoDown”, who steps back in time 50 years only to eventually learn that he has become unwittingly involved in a criminal conspiracy with a cast of nefarious characters from both time periods who hold largely amoral interests. But of course, like all good noir, ambiguity and decency blend in throughout this book.
Cariaga knows how to spin a good yarn and can string words together back to back with the best of them. Most telling is the fact that “Voodoo Hideaway” doesn’t feel like a pure crime noir or traditional science fiction story, because it isn’t. It’s the best of both genres shrewdly spliced together with gritty characters and ingenuity. More aptly, it’s a period piece from the late 1940s with a breezy but cynical vibe to it, that seamlessly swings back and forth via time travel to the dawn of the internet age at the tail end of the Clinton presidency.
From the prologue to the epilogue, the novel is gripping, and at no point along the way does it disappoint. Admission up front here. I loved the 1960’s single season “Time Tunnel” TV show as a kid and, more recently, revered the Starz Network epic “Outlander”. So, Cariaga hooked me from jump street. But even if time travel is not your thing, the usual suspects of vengeance, greed, corruption, politics, organized crime (read: gangsters) and of course, violence permeate the novel, and taken together, are satisfying enough.
Offsetting these darker qualities, there was a playful characteristic to the writing with a comedic edge that served the book well. Nightclub jazz is the perfect musical backdrop for this cunning tale as 1949 predates rock and roll and country would not work for this cultured and urban setting. You can almost smell the perfume, see the multitude of cigarette lighters surrounding you, and sense the boozy darkness of the Hideaway nightclub, a key venue for the story.
The book is divided into two parts, “Voodoo” and “Time”, and for the life of me, I couldn’t tell you which one I preferred. And no, I don’t always like the end of the book more than the beginning and middle sections. Cariaga hits all the right buttons early and often and builds suspense along the way with the outcome not clear until the final pages. The conclusion, or what you might think is the ending (do we really know?), is blazing and suspenseful. The smoke still has not cleared in my mind.
Many first-time authors seem to try just a bit too hard. In this case, the prose was not overdone, the billiard ball dialogue seemed artful, and even the book cover was very telling and apropos. Perhaps, you can judge a book by its cover, at least in this case.
One significant and admirable quality of the book is the author provides a gift to the reader – the capacity for the reader to remember the characters and connections, and their relevance to the story without having to go back and re-read portions of the book to figure out what transpired before and who did what. Okay—yes, I have to do that too often with overly complex books! Sorry – but not sorry!! All told, you may enjoy Jade and Red, despise Fat Sal and Lionel, and feel sorry for Elrod. But you will completely lose yourself reading this book. Immersion and distraction are the whole point of reading anything at my age (61 by the way).
The conclusion of Voodoo Hideaway does not seem to be the end of this clever story and a sequel seems to be in the offing. I will put “Voodoo Hideaway” on my bookshelf, hope others (of all ages) have the good sense to invest in this literary jewel, and will remain optimistic the author will be inspired to continue. Let’s all hope so.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 22, 2022
Elrod has slept in many alleys while bumming around the country, but never once in all the alleys of all the cities he’s been in, has a door appeared right out of the blue. He knew better than to go through the door, but curiosity got the better of him, and that’s when he found himself in the lobby of a swanky jazz club. The next morning, the door was gone, his money was gone, and his troubles were just beginning. Elrod found himself in the middle of a criminal conspiracy that took place in another time.
Voodoo Hideaway is the debut novel by Vance Cariaga, a writer, editor, and journalist from London. Cariaga presents the reader with a classic noir style crime drama with a rather interesting time travel twist. Elrod and the rest of the characters can only travel between the years 1949 and 1999. For the most part, Cariaga’s characters seem out of place in their own decade. Throwing them into the wrong time makes this novel a lot more interesting. With Cariaga’s descriptive writing style, you can see, hear, and smell all that his characters experience. Take the trip to the Voodoo Hideaway for some hot jazz and one cool crime story.
This review was originally published at https://seattlebookreview.com/product...
Voodoo Hideaway is the debut novel by Vance Cariaga, a writer, editor, and journalist from London. Cariaga presents the reader with a classic noir style crime drama with a rather interesting time travel twist. Elrod and the rest of the characters can only travel between the years 1949 and 1999. For the most part, Cariaga’s characters seem out of place in their own decade. Throwing them into the wrong time makes this novel a lot more interesting. With Cariaga’s descriptive writing style, you can see, hear, and smell all that his characters experience. Take the trip to the Voodoo Hideaway for some hot jazz and one cool crime story.
This review was originally published at https://seattlebookreview.com/product...
July 19, 2021
Time travel plots can get unnecessarily complex and confusing, but Vance keeps it simple and hooks the reader with a great story that's evenly spread over two very different eras. I don't usually read this kind of story, but I really enjoyed it and would love to see a big screen adaptation. Plus, there's room for a sequel, given the ending 🤔.
July 26, 2021
I got this book for a long plane ride and am so glad I did. It made the time go quickly, as the author expertly takes you on a journey that twists, turns and double crosses. The characters are entertaining and relatable and I enjoyed being immersed in their world. At 372 pages, the book is not thin, but the story moves fluidly and is hard to put down. In fact, I did not want it to end! I want more Jade and Elrod and Fat Sal and Douglas. There is an epilogue at the end, so I hope that means the author is hard at work on a sequel.
July 25, 2021
I received this in a Giveaway. It started off a little slow as you didn't really know what was going on, but it picked up. There were a few things happening during the book and it was a little confusing at time, but it was still good. Elrod got mixed up in a scheme that he knew nothing about and money was being transported through time, but someone knew about the scheme and was trying to use Elrod. This ended up being an enjoyable book.
August 24, 2021
A home run…Cariaga has created a stunning combination of mystery and sci-fi. with many twists and turns brilliantly woven together. It was so intriguing I read it in two sittings. I just couldn't put it down. It draws you into a parallel universe that gives you a glimpse into several different worlds. It was just a magical journey. I can't wait to read the sequel.
Marilyn Much
Marilyn Much
January 29, 2024
An enjoyable read with a unique plot line and memorable characters. It is so refreshing to read something that is not formulaic! The author has woven together multiple story lines within a complex but easy-to-follow plot that flows well to a satisfying conclusion.
A great caper set in New York City. The cast of likable characters are portrayed so well that I feel like I know them as real people. The vivid scenes are etched in my mind as if I watched this as a movie.
I recommend this book for pure entertainment, a fun and smart read. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author!
A great caper set in New York City. The cast of likable characters are portrayed so well that I feel like I know them as real people. The vivid scenes are etched in my mind as if I watched this as a movie.
I recommend this book for pure entertainment, a fun and smart read. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews