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Sentinels of New Orleans series

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Royal Street

Royal Street (Sentinels of New Orleans #1)-2012, art by Cliff Nielsen

SuzanneJohnson JacksonSquare 200px

"Jackson Square" short by Suzanne Johnson, art by Cliff Nielsen

The Sentinels of New Orleans series by Suzanne Johnson.

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Urban Fantasy / Romantic Urban Fantasy 

Series Description or Overview[]

✥ Thw series is follows junior wizard Drusilla Jaco who is a sentinel for New Orleans. As a sentinel, along with her mentor Gerald St. Simon, she charged with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

✥ BLURB: As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond. Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters. While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover. To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo. ~ Royal Street — Excerpt

Lead's Species[]

  • Wizard

Primary Supe[]

  • Wizards

What Sets it Apart[]

  • Fresh take on the supernatural mythos
  • The idea that the preternaturals are mostly confined to the Beyond

Narrative Type and Narrators[]

  • First person narrative told by Drusilla "DJ" Jaco, protagonist.

Books in Series[]

Sentinels of New Orleans: 

  1. Royal Street (2012) — Excerpt
  2. River Road (2012)
  3. Elysian Fields (2013)
  4. Pirate's Alley (2015)
  5. Belle Chasse (2016)

Shorts, Anthologies and Guides[]

World Building[]

Fang-tastic Fiction: Suzanne Johnson: Sentinels of New Orleans Series

Setting[]

Pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans

Places:

  • Beyond: where most Pretes live—Katrina has damaged the boundaries between the mortal world and the Beyond.
  • Royal Street: in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter, where many of the events in the story take place
  • Plantasy Island: owned by Quince Randolph
  • Napoleon House: 
  • Elfheim: elven realm
  • Uptown: 
  • Lakeview: 
  • Mississippi River: 
  • Alabama: 
  • St. Louis, Missouri: 
  • Houston:

Supernatural Elements[]

✥ Wizards, elves, vampires, Fae, voodoo, gods, merpeople, were-gator, nymph, pirate, pixie, necromancer, loup-garou, fire elves, elven magic, portals, telepathy, Vodou god, Haitian Loa, preternatural creatures from the Beyond

Glossary:[]

  • Pretes: preternaturals (supes)
  • Congresses: four groupings of wizards sentinels based on powers
  • Historical Dead: These are famous people who, although dead, are still hanging around hoping to get back to earth for one reason or another
  • Sentinals: Wizard enforcers
  • Veve symbols:
  • Elves: cold has a devastating effect on them; 

Groups & Organizations:[]

  • Sentinals: wizards who maintain order among the preternaturals (aka pretes) of the world. They are divided into four groups called Congresses, based on their powers.
  • Wizard Congresses:
    • Red Congress: use physical magic
    • Green Congress: are more witchlike, using spells and potions
    • Yellow Congress: are telepaths
    • Green and Blue Congress: use creative and intellectual powers
  • Congress of Elders: ruling body of the wizards—crotchety and über-traditional group of men who are headquartered in Edinburgh—want to maintain the status quo and keep as many pretes as possible away from mortal earth`
  • Division of Domestic Terror (DDT): the Elders' preternatural security team—Alex Warin: now head
  • Interspecies Council:
  • Tan Clan: Fire elves

World[]

✥ The Sentinels are wizards who maintain order among the preternaturals (aka pretes) of the world. They are divided into four groups called Congresses, based on their powers. Red Congress wizards use physical magic; Green Congress wizards are more witchlike, using spells and potions; Yellow Congress wizards are telepaths; Green and Blue Congress wizards use creative and intellectual powers. Each wizard is mainstreamed into the human community as a means of keeping his or her magical identity hidden.

In this world, most pretes live in the Beyond, a realm separate from mortal earth, where each group lives together in its own area—kind of like little supernatural villages. In New Orleans, some of the pretes live in Old Orleans, a realm between the mortal world and the Beyond. In order for a preternatural from the Beyond to enter the mortal world, he or she must be summoned by a wizard or cross through a transport (i.e., a portal). Some pretes are allowed to live in the mortal world, mostly werewolves and shape shifters (which are two very different creatures in this series). The series has one group of undead that is new and inventive—the historical dead. These are famous people who, although dead, are still hanging around hoping to get back to earth for one reason or another—people like Jean Lafitte and Marie Laveau, who want money and power, and Louis Armstrong, who just wants to keep making music in his favorite city. Also living in the Beyond are the gods of various cultures. The strength of their undead existence depends on how many people still remember and believe in them.

ORGANIZATION: The Sentinels are ruled by the Congress of Elders, a stereotypically crotchety and über-traditional group of men who are headquartered in Edinburgh. They want to maintain the status quo and keep as many pretes as possible away from mortal earth. Here, DJ, the series heroine, explains the organizational structure: "Willem Zrakovi was the head wizard for North America—each continent had one grand poobah that served on the Council of Elders and above them all was a single First Elder. Below them were the heads of the four congresses, then the sentinels, then the licensed wizards. The enforcers were a group unto themselves, part FBI prete team and part assassins." (River Road, p. 134)

In this world, the historical dead are famous people who have died and left mortal earth to dwell in the Beyond. As long as their memory lives on among humans, they maintain enough strength to move back and forth between the Beyond and mortal Earth. Prime examples are Jean Lafitte, the notorious pirate, and Louis Armstrong, the famous musician. Apparently, the Axeman is legendary enough that he can transport back and forth from the Beyond to carry out the murders. ~ Fang-tastic

Protagonist[]

✥ The heroine of the series is Drusilla Jaco (aka "DJ), a Green Congress wizard who is forced to become the Sentinel of New Orleans when her mentor, Gerald "Gerry" St. Simon (Red Congress), disappears during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Her love interest (one of them, anyway) is Alexander (Alex) Warin, a shape-shifting Enforcer (a chow-pony mix) who works for the Elders, mostly as a terminator of out-of-control pretes. As is almost always the case in paranormal fiction, DJ has a second possible love interest—Alex's non-magical cousin, Jacob (Jake), who owns a nightclub in the French Quarter. The titles of the novels are all the names of streets in New Orleans. ~ Fangtasic Fiction

Sidekick[]

  • Jean Lafitte — What: historical undead pirate — Sidekick-to: "DJ", Drusilla Jaco — About: DJ's frenemy (and wannabe seducer) — Book First Seen In: Royal Street (2012)

Recurring Characters[]

Relevant characters in the conflict (descriptions in chart):

  • Wizards: Adrian Hoffman, Geoffrey Hoffman, Jonas Adamson, Lennox St. Simon
  • Elves: Rene Delachaise, Quince Randolph, Mace Banyan
  • Vampires: Garrett Melnick, Etienne Boulard,
  • Fae: Sabine (Queen), Christof, Florian
  • Historical Dead: Jean Lafitte, Axman of New Orleans
  • Others: Alex Warin, Jacob (Jake) Warin,
Characters What About
"DJ", Drusilla Jaco junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans; part-elf; Green Congress; 80% wizard, 20% elf; forced to become the Sentinel of New Orleans when her mentor Jerry, disappears after Katrina; job: finding supe bad guys: rogue vamps, lethal weres; #3 elven non-husband: Rand;
"Gerry", Gerald St. Simon wizard; DJ’s boss, mentor, uncle Red Congress; tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond; disappears after Katrina; Elders thinks he's gone rogue, DJ thinks he's in trouble; DJ's uncle;
Alex, Alexander Warin wizard, partner, shape-shifter, warrior chow-pony mix; grenade-toting assassin assigned to Drusilla by Elders; works for the Elders as a terminator of out-of-control pretes; love interest; becomes head of DDT; DJ's Boyfriend, jealous of Rand & Lafitte; straight-arrow: right is right and wrong is wrong, and there is no in-between;
Jake, Jacob Warin loup-garou Alex's non-magical cousin; owns the Gator bar nightclub; former marine; battered war vet; 2nd love interest; works for the DDT and also Lafitte;
Eugenie beautician DJ's best friend; later: pregnant by Rand; Rand plans to take baby raise it with DJ in Elfheim, both she & DJ oppose this;
"Rand", Quince Randolph Elven Synod, Tan clan leader enigmatic neighbor; Eugenie's boyfriend; owner of Plantasy Island; Tân (fire elves); has a seat on the Interspecies Council; forced DJ to bond with him in Elysian Fields in exchange for saving her from turning into a loup-garou; presses DJ to move to Elfheim & bear his children; wants to take Eugenie baby;
Tish Green wizard Green Congress; Gerry's girlfriend; 
Jean Lafitte historical undead pirate hanging around hoping to get back to earth; wants money and power; fascinated with Drusilla;
Marie Laveau historical dead hanging around hoping to get back to earth; wants money and power
Louis Armstrong historical dead hanging around hoping to get back to earth; wants to keep making music in his favorite city
Etienne Boulard vampire regent; Jean Lafitte's friend; Vice-Regent of the vampires who was once a good friend to Lafitte but then betrayed him; heavily involved in the conspiracy that was at the heart of Elysian Fields; turned Adrian Hoffman into a vampire;
Adrian Hoffman Blue Congress Wizard; helping DJ learn elf magic; conspired against a fellow wizard and tried to get DJ killed in Elysian Fields; willingly became a vampire because his girlfriend, Terri, is one;
Willem Zrakovi: Green Congress Wizard Elder; member of the Congress of Elders; member of the Interspecies Council
Geoffrey Hoffman First Elder, Adrian's father Council of Elders and representative for the UK and European Union wizard communities on the Interspecies Council; conspired with the vampires against the elves in Elysian Fields
Jonas Adamson necromancer, Green Congress Wizard unregistered necromancer; allied with the water elves in Elysian Fields and tried to have DJ killed
Lennox St. Simon European wizard; brother of Gerry, DJ's late biological father; daughter: Audrey; DJ learns of Lennox's existence for the first time in this book;
Mace Banyan Air Elf clan leader member of the Interspecies Council; an enemy of DJ—he kidnapped and mind-tortured her in Elysian Fields
Rene Delachaise water elf DJ's ally and friend; also allied with Lafitte; son of Toussaint Delachaise, who has a seat on the Interspecies Council
Garrett Melnick vampire head of the Regents; pretended to be allied with the elves while working against them in Elysian Fields; hates DJ
Peter Jaco father DJ's father
Robert Delachaise Merman twin of Rene
Rene Delachaise Merman twin of Robert; friend of DJ's and Jean Lafitte's; Twin: Robert Delachaise;
Baron Samedi voudoo god trying to build up enough power to take down the Elders
Sabine Faery Queen
Christof Faery Prince Winter; allied with Lafitte
Florian Faery Prince Prince of Summer
Libby Nymph

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column. Or, in Source Mode: copy-paste rows.

Suzanne Johnson

Suzanne Johnson

Author[]

Suzanne Johnson

  • Website: Suzanne Johnson
  • Genres: Urban Fantasy
  • Other Pen Names: Susannah Sandlin

Bio: Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series from Tor Books. Royal Street, book one, came out in April 2012; River Road in November 2012. Book three, Elysian Fields, will be released on August 13, 2013. A longtime New Orleans resident, Suzanne is a veteran journalist with more than fifty national awards in writing and editing nonfiction for higher education, including the Robert S. Sibley Award for the best university magazine in the U.S. and Canada, for the Rice University Sallyport. Suzanne is an active member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and is a member of the Georgia, Southern Magic, and Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapters of RWA. ~ Suzanne Johnson: Bio

Cover Artist[]

Artist: Cliff Nielsen

Publishing Information[]

  1. Royal Street: 337 pages, Pub: April 10, 2012—ISBN: 978-0765327796
  2. River Road: 336 pages, Pub: June 25, 2013—ISBN: 978-0765327802
  3. Elysian Fields: 352 pages, Pub: August 13, 2013—ISBN: 978-0765333193
  4. Pirate's Alley: 352 pages, Pub: April 21, 2015—ISBN: 978-0765376978
  5. Belle Chasse: 336 pages, Pub: November 8, 2016—ISBN: 978-0765376992

Agent: Suzanne Johnson - The Stringer Literary Agency

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✥ BOOK ONE—Royal Street (2012): As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond. Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters. While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover. To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo. ~ Goodreads | Royal Street (Sentinels of New Orleans, #1) — Excerpt

✥ BOOK TWO—River Road (2012): Hurricane Katrina is long gone, but the preternatural storm rages on in New Orleans. New species from the Beyond moved into Louisiana after the hurricane destroyed the borders between worlds, and it falls to wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco and her partner, Alex Warin, to keep the preternaturals peaceful and the humans unaware. But a war is brewing between two clans of Cajun merpeople in Plaquemines Parish, and down in the swamp, DJ learns, there’s more stirring than angry mermen and the threat of a were-gator. Wizards are dying, and something—or someone—from the Beyond is poisoning the waters of the mighty Mississippi, threatening the humans who live and work along the river. DJ and Alex must figure out what unearthly source is contaminating the water and who—or what—is killing the wizards. Is it a malcontented merman, the naughty nymph, or some other critter altogether? After all, DJ’s undead suitor, the pirate Jean Lafitte, knows his way around a body or two. It’s anything but smooth sailing on the bayou as the Sentinels of New Orleans series continues. ~ Goodreads | River Road #2

✥ BOOK THREE—Elysian Fields (2013): The mer feud has been settled, but life in South Louisiana still has more twists and turns than the muddy Mississippi. New Orleanians are under attack from a copycat killer mimicking the crimes of a 1918 serial murderer known as the Axeman of New Orleans. Thanks to a tip from the undead pirate Jean Lafitte, DJ Jaco knows the attacks aren’t random–an unknown necromancer has resurrected the original Axeman of New Orleans, and his ultimate target is a certain blonde wizard. Namely, DJ. Fighting off an undead serial killer as troubles pile up around her isn’t easy. Jake Warin’s loup-garou nature is spiraling downward, enigmatic neighbor Quince Randolph is acting weirder than ever, the Elders are insisting on lessons in elven magic from the world’s most annoying wizard, and former partner Alex Warin just turned up on DJ’s to-do list. Not to mention big maneuvers are afoot in the halls of preternatural power. Suddenly, moving to the Beyond as Jean Lafitte’s pirate wench? It could be DJ’s best option. ~ Goodreads | Elysian Fields #3

✥ BOOK FOUR—Pirate's Alley (2015): Wizard sentinel DJ Jaco thought she had gotten used to the chaos of her life in post-Katrina New Orleans, but a new threat is looming, one that will test every relationship she holds dear. Caught in the middle of a rising struggle between the major powers in the supernatural world—the Wizards, Elves, Vampires and the Fae—DJ finds her loyalties torn and her mettle tested in matters both professional and personal. Her relationship with enforcer Alex Warin is shaky, her non-husband, Quince Randolph, is growing more powerful, and her best friend, Eugenie, has a bombshell that could blow everything to Elfheim and back. And that's before the French pirate, Jean Lafitte, newly revived from his latest "death," returns to New Orleans with vengeance on his mind. DJ's assignment? Keep the sexy leader of the historical undead out of trouble. Good luck with that. Duty clashes with love, loyalty with deception, and friendship with responsibility as DJ navigates passion and politics in the murky waters of a New Orleans caught in the grips of a brutal winter that might have nothing to do with Mother Nature. War could be brewing, and DJ will be forced to take a stand. But choosing sides won't be that easy. ~ Goodreads | Pirate's Alley (Sentinels of New Orleans, #4) by Suzanne Johnson

✥ BOOK FIVE—Belle Chasse (2016): With the wizard-elven treaty on the verge of collapse, the preternatural world stands on the brink of war. Unless former wizard sentinel DJ Jaco manages to keep the elven leader, Quince Randolph, focused on peace and not personal matters. With no one on the throne, Faerie is in chaos, with rival princes battling for power. The still-undead pirate, Jean Lafitte, is building his own army of misfits, and DJ—stripped of her job and hiding in the Beyond to avoid the death sentence handed down by the wizard Council of Elders—can’t get anywhere near her beloved New Orleans or her significant something-or-other, Alex. It's time to choose sides. Friends will become enemies, enemies will become allies, and not everyone will survive. DJ and her friends will learn a hard lesson: sometimes, even the ultimate sacrifice isn’t enough. ~ Goodreads | Belle Chasse (Sentinels of New Orleans, #5) by Suzanne Johnson

First Sentences[]

  1. Royal Street (2012) — A secluded Louisiana bayou. A sexy pirate. Seduction and de­ceit. My Friday afternoon had the makings of a great ro­mantic adventure, at least in theory.
  2. River Road (2012) — The minute hand of the ornate grandfather clock crept like a gator stuck in swamp mud.
  3. Elysian Fields (2013) — The scariest sound in New Orleans' French Quarter is silence.
  4. Pirate's Alley (2015) — I'd spent the last five minutes, contorted into the wizard version of a pretzel.
  5. Belle Chasse (2016) — Turmoil, reckoning, sacrificing the faced another sickness to die for.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

Awards[]

Read Alikes (similar elements)[]

Most similar:

Wizards, Mages, witches:

New Orleans:

Pirates:

Fae, Sea Fae, mermaids:

Notes[]

See Also[]

See Category links at bottom of page

External References[]

Books:

Free shorts & Excerpts: 

Trailer: 

Summaries:

World, Characters, etc:

Interviews: 

Suzanne Johnson articles:

Reviews, Articles:

Author, Misc:

Community, Fan Sites:

Gallery of Book Covers[]

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