From the award-winning legend of speculative fiction, "a witty sendup
of the detective story" with "a richness of invention that doffs a hat
to Dickens" (Chicago Tribune).
At a fashionable salon, Parisians line up to have their fortunes told by
Ric Lazare's amazing machine. The predictions arrive with unerring
accuracy, as if the invention were imbued with some sort of wondrous
sorcery. The police, however, have a different opinion. They suspect
that Lazare is a con man. Accordingly, they've sent one of their own to
investigate. Unfortunately, the man they send is Paul Picard.
His methods are unconventional. His appetites--for lemon tarts, and for
prostitutes--are legendary. And he is no stranger to the dark side of
Paris. But Inspector Picard is entirely unprepared for the string of
murders that pulls him across the continent. As the killer's seductive
knot tightens around him, he learns once and for all that there's more
to the glimmering world of high society than first appears.
Winner of the World Fantasy Award for his novel Doctor Rat, William
Kotzwinkle reaffirms his reputation as one of the most captivating and
original American authors of the last half-century with this "elegant
entertainment" of magic and mystery in Paris (The Washington Post).
"Gaudy, decadent, smoothly polished, this beguiling novel is . . . a
feat of stage magic, well rehearsed and well performed by a fine
craftsman." --The New Yorker
"Alternately dark and glittering . . . a first-rate vaudeville turn."
--Chicago Tribune
"Pure magic." --Playboy
