Based on the true story of the crimes at the Lalaurie Mansion, a story which has haunted New Orleans since 1834.
By turns macabre and comedic, this irreverent horror story is drenched in the excess of Antebellum Louisiana. It is based on thr real life events of an elite society woman and her barbaric treatment of her slaves, This novelization begins in the city's St. Louis Cathedral where reclusive lay sacristan Philippe Bertrand finds himself drawn to the shadowy mansion of Delphine Lalaurie. When Delphine demands that Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau give her eternal fame, four people find themselves on very different paths in search of life after death.
Excerpt
Prologue
New Orleans was coming alive. The bells of Saint Louis Cathedral chimed seven o’clock. At Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1, the gates closed to visitors four hours ago, but the old sexton voiced no objection to the woman creeping past the grave of Homer Plessy. He’d seen her before.
She slipped between the white parapet tombs and oven vaults of the burial ground, pausing for a moment by a stepped chamber engraved with the name Philippe Bertrand.
A red-and-white scarf shrouded her face. She paused, allowing the coral pink shades of twilight to silhouette her slender frame before she passed between the graveyard’s whitewashed gateposts. She was leaving this cemetery for the last time, she hoped. The sexton smiled as he closed the squeaky black iron gate behind her.
Once on Basin Street, the woman set down the lidded basket she was carrying and adjusted the bodice of her long white dress. Her mission now was to find and help a certain young man who made his living as a tour guide. At this hour, she was sure she knew where he’d be.
Over on Bourbon Street, Carl and his wife were relishing the street performers and sipping slushy hurricane drinks from plastic go-cups.
“Betcha a dollar I can tell you where you got them shoes.”
Carl ignored the hustler. He’d already fallen for that line once. He was far more interested in the scantily clad young woman who was trying to entice him into a strip club.
Carl’s wife tugged at his arm, causing him to spill a few drops of his red frozen drink on a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “I” and “Duluth,” a red Valentine heart placed between the two words. The heart matched Carl’s red Bermuda shorts.
“Come on, Carl, we’re going to be late for the haunted tour.”
Music blared from one of the nearby clubs, trumpet, sax, bass, and drums playing somebody’s request for “When the Saints.” The band charged extra for that song. Carl’s wife began to sing along, “I want to be in that number…”
The couple veered right off Bourbon Street. Ten minutes later, they were standing on Governor Nicholls Street, formerly known as Hospital Street. With them were four other tourists, each wearing little white tags to identify them as paid members of the haunted tour group. At their rear stood the woman who had walked out of Saint Louis Cemetery, her face still hidden by her scarf. She’d found the tour guide and studied him as she leaned against the gray shuttered window of a faded pink house. Carl and his wife stood in front of her.
The young tour guide kept a black umbrella in his left hand and clutched a small blue object in his right. He used the umbrella to point to the rectangular gray stucco house on the corner across the street. Tall arched windows surrounded its first and third floors. Rectangular windows with black shutters looked out from behind the wrought iron gallery on the second floor.
The tour guide fidgeted with the license dangling from his belt and did his best to conceal the blue object in his right hand. Carl’s wife took a disposable flash camera out of her purse and, without looking, stepped back. Her beehive hairdo bumped the shrouded face of the woman from the cemetery.
“Sorry.”
The mysterious woman didn’t look up or respond.
The tour guide stepped off the curb, into the street.
“We’ve arrived at 1140 Royal Street, what many believe to be the most haunted house in New Orleans. In 1833, this house belonged to Madame Delphine Lalaurie and her husband. The ineptitude of these two villains might have been comedic but for its tragic toll in human life.”
The guide paused to prevent his story from being obscured by the clopping hooves of a passing mule-drawn carriage.
“In truth,” he continued once the carriage had passed, “the suffering they caused behind those walls was so horrible, so horrific, that it pierced the fabric of immortality and still haunts this house today.”
The slurping of a take-away hurricane through a plastic straw prompted the tour guide to pause once again. Carl’s wife poked him with her elbow, causing him to spill the remainder of the bright red mixture of juice, rum, and grenadine onto the sidewalk.
The mysterious woman could no longer hear Carl’s slurping, the tour guide’s voice, or the passing traffic. Her attention was focused on the thick red liquid from Carl’s cup as it poured out onto the street.
Professional Reviews
Hist-horror-ical Fiction
L'Immortalite really delivered. This is a story that had to be told! The madness of the Lalauries, Marie Laveau, and the unspeakable horrors committed by the Lalauries are legend, but one that is largely unknown. Heinan weaves a tale that is brisk, exciting, and educational. The description of the Antebellum period, New Orleans, and the society of the time are well-executed and detailed. This provides a backdrop to scenes of gore and horror that will keep you reading.
The characters, both famous and fictional, will stay with you long after you put this book down. The ending is unique, satisfying, and one to savor.
Marie P.
Couldn't put it down
I met Mr. Hienan at his book signing in New Orleans. I went home with this book and sat down at the table with a cup of coffee to "flip through" - 2 hours later I was still reading and my coffee, long forgotten was cold ! Wow, I love his style of storytelling. The history is right on and he really brought the characters to life for his readers. Now, I am generally not that much of a reader so it really has to grab me in the first few pages and Mr. Hienan did! Thanks for sharing this tale with us.
Master Storyteller
Facinating Tale of Voodoo, horror and history of New Orleans
No one suspects that the extravagant mansion of Dr. Louis Lalaurie and his lovely wife, Delphine, while holding extravagant balls for privileged guests, also hold a horrific secret behind the walls. The doctor, with the help of his wife, inflicts painful, hideous experiments and torture on their slaves -- tortures too despicable to mention."The suffering caused behind those walls was so horrible, so horrific that it pierced the fabric of immortality and still haunts this house today."
The young lay sacristan, Philippe Bertrand, finds himself drawn to Madame Delphine and her house of aberrations and macabre practices. The Catholic Church in New Orleans during this time in history is an odd mixture of African and Caribbean voodoo arts as well as Christian saints and angels. Voodoo Queen Marie Leveau attends mass regularly and devoutly. She finds a blue velvet pouch containing a relic which the Bishop notices near the altar and insists that Philippe throw out. Once Marie sees its contents she understands at once what she must do. Marie is also responsible through her voodoo magic for making Madame Delphine appear 10 years younger than her 58 years. But now she demands more - "eternal flame", and that's when things start to turn ghastly, for Marie Laveau is much more than she appears to be.
When Madame Delphine asks Marie to give her immortal fame she has no idea what this entails -- yet the voodoo Queen complies. Watching the Madame viciously horsewhip her slave girl, Elise, she goes into a rage. Phillipe is meeting with Delphine, due to her insistence upon it and he sees her young slave girl running into the parlor with her finger bleeding profusely. The evil Dr. Lalaurie had grabbed her, taken her to his attic and tried to saw off her finger. She escapes luckily while Phillipe is there; he is appalled at the lack of feeling on the part of the Madame. Later when speaking of this with the voodoo Queen he realizes that she shares his sense of something wrong going on in the mansion. Something beyond evil.
Author T. R. Heinan writes a fascinating novella about the Creole community in the New Orleans of 1833, unlike any other city or culture blend in the United States. His descriptions of the different types of bigotry and racial history, such as the "Code Noir", are nothing short of amazing. This is a story of the human condition with all of its diverse innuendoes, including a sadistic humor. In this story each of the characters search for L'IMMORTALITE`in their own fashion, some through greed, others through evil, but only the voodoo Queen knows how to achieve it -- and her python, Zombie agrees.
First Place Winner in historical fiction in the Purple Dragonfly Awards for excellence in children's literature, and named a U.P. Notable Classic.
Feel like you are in the moment nearly 100 years ago with a young girl, daughter of Finnish immigr
