Manhattan Grimoire

by Sandy DeLuca

A crippling blizzard, grisly discoveries in an old church in Harlem, a small apartment building cut off by the mounting storm, its tenants trapped with a vicious killer that may or may not be human, and an unholy manuscript stolen from a dead sorcerer that could very well hold the secrets to opening the gates of Hell.

MANHATTAN GRIMOIRE, the terrifying new novel by Sandy DeLuca

Gina has seen strange visions since childhood. Her mother was considered insane for having the same affliction, and before her disappearance, Gina's sister Allie was obsessed with black magic and "saw" things too. It eventually led her to a depraved conjurer known as Mojo DeCanne, a man who possessed a book of demonic spells Allie stole and hid in Gina's apartment in the days before she vanished. Now, as Manhattan braces for the worst snowstorm in decades, and Gina's visions become worse, blurring the lines between nightmare and reality, Mojo DeCanne has come looking for what is his. In order to solve the mystery of her sister's disappearance and the meaning behind her own shattered life, Gina must first survive the night and somehow stop an unimaginable evil from fulfilling its horrific destiny. Darkness falls on Manhattan. The blizzard grows worse. And the lights go out.

Genres: Horror, Audiobook

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Sandy DeLuca has been a painter since 1985. Her worked has been exhibited in college galleries, hair salons, tattoo parlors, bookstores and traditional galleries. Her art has been purchased throughout the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe. In addition, she has painted cover art and interior art for publications which have reached worldwide audiences.

She has been a writer since the late 80’s, penning nonfiction articles and photography for magazines and newsletters--throughout the 90’s. One of her claims to fame is writing under the pen name Autumn Raindancer. Two of her poetic chants were published under that pen in the popular New Age book TO RIDE A SILVER BROOMSTICK (Silver Ravenwolf).

She created GODDESS OF THE BAY publishing in the late 90’s, producing several anthologies and a string of small press magazines. From 2001 to 2003 she edited and owned DECEMBER GIRL PRESS, producing novels and short story collections.
She was a finalist for the BRAM STOKER for poetry award in 2001 and 2014.

At present she is a fulltime writer and painter. She’s written and published five novels, two poetry collections and several novellas. Her most ecent novella HELL'S DOOR, will be released from DARKFUSE in September, 2013. She is assistant curator at NEW HOPE GALLERY, in Cranston, RI and continues to exhibit her art in local venues.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The female main character, Gine, is looking for her murdered sister, Allie. Traces of blood were found in a desecrated church but the police didn't find her body. What happened to Allie? The novel is a mixture of hallucinations, eerie meetings with "dead" people or living reminding on dead (e.g. the Mojo Man), it's about strange religions, artists, human relationships, those living a Bohemian life.The novel started strong, the settings were extremely mysterious and dark (the snow storm, a house full of dead) but near the end it became a bit tedious. You lose track of what's real or fantasy. Also the denouement didn't fully convince me. But at parts and extremely exciting and intriguing read full of mystery and horror. Brilliant cover though. Recommended to everybody who likes to read an uncanny story set in New York.

[Latasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first thing I've read by this author. I downloaded the audio book a while back, so when i began listening to it, I had no idea what it was about. Sandy Deluca's writing is beautiful. It's kinda surreal and dreamy. There's a lot of the main character not knowing if she'd dreaming or is this really happening. I didn't mind it. The characters are not perfect by any means but they aren't bad people. The New York in this book is very gritty and there is a lot going on here. The villain? Well, anyone who knows me can tell you I love a mojo man! Mojo DeCanne is really evil, though. I wouldn't want to even see him! Sandy DeLuca blends all of this together into an enjoyable story. I would read or listen to more from her.
The audio version is read by Pamela Lorence. She does an amazing job! I enjoyed listening to her very much.

I requested this audio book. This review is my honest opinion.

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclosure: I received this book free as a prize, from a Meet the Author event hosted by Darkfuse.

Something about Sandy Deluca's writing gets to me. I am not sure exactly what it is, but IT exists. This is a story of a young woman that takes place during a huge blizzard in the city of New York.

I like the way Ms. Deluca writes women. They are deeply flawed creatures, riddled with guilt and they carry the burdens of tough lives. Yet they are stronger than they appear. Stronger than they think they are. They are fascinating. I've read two books now where these females are the protagonists and I loved them both.

The atmosphere of this book is dark and spooky. Old churches in Harlem; old apartment buildings where whole floors are blocked off. Snow is burying the city outside. Can you picture it?
The scene is set.

Throw in an old spirit, psychedelic drugs, visions and nightmares, ancient books and the distortion between reality and ...not reality. The end result is something that will stick with you for a while.

This story is almost surreal at times. If you don't like that type of style, than this one may not be for you. But this story weaved a web around me and it refused to release me until I was done. Loved it!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first DeLuca book and I must say that I really enjoyed it! It reminded me a bit of the movie Jacob’s Ladder for some reason (in a good way). This was a very dark and twisted tale. It blurred the lines of reality and nightmare as our protagonist Gina tries desperately to get a grip of her sanity and find the strength to fight an old and vengeful evil. I am glad I found Sandy DeLuca and look forward to reading more from her.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author was recommended to me by a friend on a sbject of how there aren't really many very good female authors in horror genre. And sure enough, DeLuca's good, but not quite my thing. The writing reminded me of the vintage Skipp and Spector, even DeLuca's New York seems to be the filthy nightmarish abyss of the 80s and not the prettified (though still a nightmarish abyss to me) current version. Took me a while to get into this book (never really enjoyed Skipp and Spector all that much either), just because I didn't care about or like any of the characters, the damaged semibohemian youth, the various society's rejects or fringe dwellers, creepy for sure, but not particularly compelling. The book picked up some steam midway through when the detective (the one character that doesn't fit it with the rest) sets up a backstory. That's what made the book. From that point on it moves along nicely, crippling blizzard, freaky old building, dark magic, terrifying hallucinations along with some equally terrifying real occurences. Family dramas, violence and general creepiness with some seriously spooky vibes. Strong story, strong writing, very atmospheric and at times genuinely scary, for a book without any likable characters, this is probably as good as it gets.

[Lee Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5 stars*
I love Sandy's work and this is a vivid, twisted story but a majority of staccato sentences wore on me after a while. Still worth a read, but not my favorite of hers.

[Karl]

This book is 134 of 159 copies signed and numbered by Sandy DeLuca.

[Alan Ryker]

Intelligent and haunting.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story was good, loved the end, the drawback for this was that I couldn't identify with the lead character. This is really important to me especially when a story is written in the first person. This is not the author's fault. The lead just had nothing I could latch onto so I could think of her as 'me' in the story. Readers that can I think will enjoy this book immensely.

Overall an entertaining, supernatural story. After I finished, it's one of the books you grab a coffee and sit at the table and reflect on the whole story's progression to see how the author tied everything all together throughout the novel now that you know how it ends.

[Marilou Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I think mainly because the line between reality and supernatural was blurred. I never quite knew what was real or if the events happening were in the minds of the characters. That part about the not knowing made it a lot more credible and creepy for me. I liked the characters and really enjoyed their interaction.
This book was very scary and I don't recommend reading it at night, unless you want nightmares.

[Deedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

audible:I enjoyed this book.I'm still not sure what it was about,mental illness? Murder by aliens?A woman is visited by the ghost of her sister,a Mojo zombie like guy and an odd policeman,just to name a few.They all end up in her apartment building in a blizzard where all the living end up dead. Narration by Pamela Lorrence was wonderful! I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Deedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book.I'm still not sure what it was about,mental illness? Murder by aliens?A woman is visited by the ghost of her sister,a Mojo zombie like guy and an odd policeman,just to name a few.They all end up in her apartment building in a blizzard where all the living end up dead. Narration by Pamela Lorrence was wonderful! I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow

This is the first book I've read by Sandy DeLuca, and I really liked it. It almost has a dreamlike quality as your reading it. Eerie and a bit strange( but in a good way), it's very surreal and kept me flipping through pages so fast,I had to slow down and reread some portions. Now I see why this author is so highly regarded among her peers. Good one!

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this book is not one I enjoyed. To be precise it's one that I felt more alienated.

This book is not a full lenghted novel but only a novella. To me it doesn't matter the size. If the book is well written it could be only 100 pages. I've never heard of Sandy DeLuca and this was my first introduction to her. Well it was not the most fruitful. Even if I didn't enjoy this book maybe I will return sometime later.

Throughout the story, Gina, sees morbid visions, demons and other bizarre manifestations. She's obsessed, or possessed, and she must find out what happened to her sister at any cost. Her sister dissappeared as she was in a strange weird cult/religion. Through this a massive winter snow storm shuts down New York City, and Mojo DeCanne comes calling for his book of spells, and with him comes lots of blood and murder.

The characters are not that good and besides Gina they are pretty futile. The good hearted policeman. The friend Rico. The strange boyfriend. And a few other characters. The ending was quick and it was quite uninteresting. Well the only good thing was a spooky atmosphere, It remind me of reading the Song of Kali by Dan Simmons.

As I said this book didn't worked for me but who am I to say it was bad or poorly written or something like that. I will try again another book by Sandy DeLuca. She's got what it takes.

[Todd Russell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd be lying if I didn't admit struggling through this short horror novel. It took me some two months to get through (which is forever for me reading a book this size). Maybe I've read one too many tales where a sibling goes looking for a missing or "vanished" sibling and discovers horror. Too much retread in order to fully appreciate the author's take. And the black magic angle just seemed hokey and forced to me at virtually every turn.

The antagonist, Mojo DeCanne (love the name!), was easily my favorite part. I like the title and cover art, too. Unfortunately, I found myself pushing through Gina's sections way too much to get to ones with Mojo (an unlikable, untrustworthy narrator is not a good combination). I just couldn't ever care what happened to Gina or her sister.

I barely finished and on several occasions almost quit reading. It's too bad because I really enjoyed DeLuca's Descent (as of this writing that book is in my top ten favorite DarkFuse titles). I'll give the author another chance, but no, this wasn't a good read for me at all. 1.25 stars. Not recommended. 2,601 Kindle locations.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute awesome read!!!

I did have a hard time at the beginning trying to figure out all the different mental crises Gina was experiencing, but the more I read the easier the understanding and the story began to roll together smoothly.

Gina's mother dies when she is younger due to demons of her own and then her sister Allie disappears. Allie's last known whereabouts are an old rundown church in Harlem. Gina is drawn to the church and starts to have dreams of Allie and other mysterious characters. One character in particular is Mojo DeCanne, a man who practices the arts of black magic.

All comes to a head, but only a few walk away.

This is a mind-bending novella that was so hard to put down.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gina has missed her sister since her disappearance. An interestingly strange, almost poetic when Gina pits her strength against all she is involved into up until now that Allie has disappeared, a twitchy magical dark fantasy novella that constructs New York as the old haunt of a mystical man known as Mojo DeCanne a Jamaican sorcerer thought long dead who’d possessed much magic that he may still be alive. Weirdness arrives alive and engulfs Gina, and basically everyone she knows because of the darkness or magic of the grimoires she believed existed.

[Kurt Criscione · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't have the heart to give a ONE star review but this was not the book i expected, the whole thing was FAR too trippy and weird and thankfully its explained away at the end but even then its not enough and the trip continues. This was the book that made me realise i HATE untrustworthy narrators.

[Matt McRoberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, it was alright. It got confusing at times. (Real rating would probably be 2.5, but you can't do half stars).

[Sally Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very well written, and scared the crap out of me reading it. I could only give it a 2 star rating though as the ending totally ticked me off and made me wish I hadn't read it.