Hellbent and Heartfirst

Jacyn Boaz takes a sabbatical from the University of Texas at Austin’s anthropology department to do post-Katrina volunteer work for Oxfam in Biloxi, Miss. She hooks up with a Texan drifter and self-styled magic expert, Jimmy Wayne Broadus, a swaggering hunk who’s hunting a child-eating lamia (and whose magic toolbox includes an imp in a mason jar). After some heavy drinking and lovemaking, Jimmy Wayne heads to La Batre, Ala.; Jacyn joins him as he consults a voodoo warlock and a pretty witch for lamia-destruction advice. After lamia confrontation, the scene shifts to Nashville, as this strange and jarring romance from Sims (Falling Upwards ) roughly spools out. (Apr.)