Velvet Shadows

This is VERY old school gothic, by Andre Norton, who is better known for her sci-fi fantasy novels. We have a young (25) teacher at a women's finishing school who is hired to escort a wealthy man's newly discovered step-sister to San Francisco. She was raised in a dubious quarter of Paris, and allegedly was mixed up with an unsuitable young man, so her brother wants her distracted from her past and polished up to suit the social circles of San Francisco. But there are dark doings hiding in the background, centered around voodoo from the French West Indies. Drugs, kidnappings, satanic cults, voodoo curses, etc. all trap our heroine in a dark web.

This is seriously over the top melodrama, though entertaining in its way. Particularly show more notable is the significant supporting character of Mrs. (Mammy) Pleasant, who was a real life figure in San Francisco. She was a Negro woman who was active before the Civil War in the abolitionist cause, and a powerful figure in San Francisco during and after the war, being of great assistance to both slaves and freedmen. She was rumored to be both a voodoo priestess, and a keeper of many secrets of the rich and powerful, which she was not loathe to use to her advantage. Quite a fascinating character. show less

A young teacher is recruited to be the companion of a sick young woman by her wealthy brother, Alain Sauvagage. They travel to San Francisco where a plot to control Sauvage with voodoo is uncovered.
Romance is not really Norton's forte, some of the characters are based on real historic figures but there is not enough factual background to support a fairly thin plot.

re-read 3/28/2023

It's very - Gothic. The setting - San Francisco shortly after the Civil War - is interesting, but the actual events in the story are so overblown as to totally shortcircuit any suspension of disbelief. And the ending is really bad - she collapses at the climax and finds out later, through a simple report, the truth about the girl (which makes all of the previous thoughts and concerns about her rather moot). And then she runs away because she's 'unclean' (but of course it has a happy ending, it is a romance). It's fine as a Gothic Romance, which makes it a not-very-interesting book to me.