Angela Kay Austin

One Devil, Two Devils…a Story and a Sequel

Brother Devil is the sequel to Bargain with Lucifer, which was released at the beginning of this year by Class Act Books. In spite of the title, it has nothing to do with that ol’ debbil Satan but concerns a young Creole named Lucifer Deveraux, although he’s been given the nickname Le Diable by the women of Orleans Parish. The second book came about because of a question my cousin asked me when she read the manuscript: What happened to Michel, Luc’s brother, who definitely got the worst end of the deal in the story.

In trying to answer that question, I knew I had to write Michel’s story, so here it is: Brother Devil. The title comes, of course, from Luc’s nickname and the fact that Michel is his brother. Michel’s nickname is “Le Ange,” the Angel, a sobriquet given him by Luc after they come to live with their grandfather in Louisiana after their father dies in a car crash during the Millia Mila in Italy. Looking so much like his dead father, Luc garners all of his gran’pere’s love, in spite of his misbehavior and Michel, in an attempt to get attention, becomes more angelic in comparison—for all the good it does him. No matter what Luc does, he’s the one Jean-Luc cares for, so Michel grows to hate his brother. That hatred comes to a head in Bargain with Lucifer and is one of the themes in Brother Devil.

The story begins with a funeral…Michel’s wife Clarice is being buried after attempting to kill Luc and accidentally killing herself. She has not only left Michel a bewildered widower at the age of twenty-eight but also made him the nominal parent of a child who is possibly Luc’s son. Torn now between trying to reconcile with his brother in spite of his wife’s obsession with Luc and the question of the baby Michel-Clair’s paternity, Michel finds the problem partially solved when Luc returns to Texas, placing himself in therapy to save his own sanity as well as his marriage. Left with a plantation to run, a child to raise, and a sister-in-law to look after, Michel is overwhelmed by everything that has happened and only one thought surfaces in the turmoil of his mind: He’s now free…Luc is nowhere in sight…and there is an entire parish of women just waiting to be introduced to the other half of the Notorious Deveraux Boys. Married at the age of twenty and consequently stifled and frustrated in that marriage because of his wife preoccupation with Luc, Michel is ripe for a downward plunge into sexual excess and an overindulgence in the senses. He’s headed for trouble and enjoying all of it, and then… He meets a woman who looks like Clarice, and his fall is over. But is it too late for Le Ange to regain his halo? Or is he going to usurp his brother as Orleans Parish’s new diable?

Both these novels were written twenty years ago and both were “lost.” By a minor miracle, copies were found on a friend’s computer and recently, he got in touch with me to see if I wanted them back. Surprised, delighted, I said yes! They were updated, re-formatted, edited, and—voila! as Michel would say—here they are.

Bargain with Lucifer and Brother Devil, the stories of the Notorious Deveraux Boys, are available in e-book and print at Class Act Books,  and on www.amazon.com.   Trailers

Wow, this plot sounds too intriguing!  Thank you so much for visiting with us today.