Back in March, when I was reading Gather the Fortunes, I shared my review of Bryan Camp’s first book, The City of Lost Fortunes. Whenever I listen to Ghost Train by my friends at Cheshire Moon, I’m reminded of The City of Lost Fortunes… you’ll have to read it to find out why. Since I listened to the song this weekend, this pair of books was fresh in my mind. This review was published in the May 2019 issue of Booklist.
Renaissance (Renai) Raines has been dead for five years now, and to be honest, her daily afterlife is a bit dull at the start of Bryan Camp’s Gather the Fortunes. As a psychopomp, she picks a name from the special radio station that lists people dying that day in New Orleans. She works with her partner, Salvatore, alternately a raven and a dog, to collect the soul and escort it to the Gates of the Underworld. Except for her daily collection task, her life is uneventful, partially because most people don’t really notice her. That changes when a boy named Ramses St. Cyr, Renai’s pick for the day, slips free of his destined death. Renai picked the name both because a god – though she’s not sure which one – offered her a favor for looking after the boy, and because the name sparked a memory from when she was alive. As the psychopomp assigned to collect the soul, Renai finds herself embroiled in a plot between assorted supernatural beings, expanding her understanding of both the afterlife and her abilities in it. This is another page turner by Camp, accented by the periodic chapter introductions that explain beliefs across various mythologies.
Camp expands on the exciting world he presented in The City of Lost Fortunes, while keeping the storyline entirely in New Orleans. It blends the supernatural appeal of Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton with the mythological lessons from Rick Riordan.