Short Horror Story Review – Jean Marie Ward – Cooking Up A Storm

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2015 Mammoth / Robinsons Press. Spoiler alerts In 1814 British forces attacked Washington and set fire to the original White House presidential residence, which was rebuilt as the building seen today. That actually happened. In this story, a family of black servants to President James Madison find themselves caught up in the chaotic desperate sudden retreat from Washington, and a young half-caste girl born after her mother was raped by a British officer) finds her mother is willing to avenge the destruction through voodoo, raising a terrible storm and an army of ghosts against the British forces. That voodoo is going to be involved is spelt out rather early in the story so it is then just a question of how spectacularly it will be deployed and the counter-attack is certainly spectacular. The understanding of the fate of black people is well handled but the long drawn out threats and siege stand-offs between the opposing forces without a shot being fired is less convincing. Arthur Chappell