The Book of Spirits

French witch Herculine travels to America in this second book of historical horror from Reese, who here builds unevenly on The Book of Shadows. At sea, Herculine falls in love with Celia, the slave of a cruel and sexually-abusive master. Rescuing Celia requires the help of noted witch Mammy Venus, whose coterie includes a young Edgar Allan Poe. Herculine (who is both psychologically and physiologically androgynous and disguised as a man) and Celia flee to half-wild Florida. But then Herculine hears that her mentor, Sebastiani, has arrived in New York. When she returns there, all she finds are a few books waiting in a high-class whorehouse called Cyprian House, where the sexual possibilities of being an androgynous witch are explored at great length. Then it's back to Florida to rescue Celia, who is alone because Mammy Venus has been killed in Nat Turner's rebellion-except that Cecile has run off to be among the Seminole, who are about to go to war with the United States. The author's research in this compelling sequel seems to have been thorough, as the many varied settings and particulars of the time period are vividly portrayed, but Reese's constant jumping from one situation to another may try readers' patience.