pA young man from Maine fights for social equality in New Orleans after the Civil War while pursuing a serial killer, becoming enmeshed in voodoo, and falling in love. Much like Louisiana's famous gumbostrong, strongemLove in A Time Of Hate New Orleans During Reconstructionem is a spicy dish of varied ingredients. The main theme is the struggle for social equality between Whites, Blacks, and Creoles, but flavor is added with the subplots of politics, voodoo, murder, love, and hate. New Orleans becomes a literal battleground as carpetbaggers, scalawags, Creoles, and recently freed slaves fight against the entrenched southern plantation notion of white superiority.p