"Pure magic. The mystery turns on the convoluted history of an old master toy maker will makes his toys with such skill that they have lives of their own. It would be advisable to sit down while reading what the toys finally do." --Playboy At the fashionable salon of Ric Lazare you can have your fortune told by an amazing machine of unerring accuracy. But the Paris police think Lazare is a con man and send Inspector Picard to investigate. Inspector Picard prefers lemon tarts and prostitutes to high society; and he is unprepared for the string of murders that pulls him across the continent until he is tangled in the killer's last seductive knot. A landmark in the history of detective fiction, mystery is taken to the level of enchantment in this lyrical thriller set in the glitter of nineteenth century Paris. "Alternately dark and glittering...a first rate vaudeville turn, a comedic mask lightly stretched over enigmatic questions...a witty sendup of the detective story, an intriguing meditation on illusion and the conjurer's art, an antic fantasy done with a richness of invention that doffs a hat to Dickens... Inspector Picard's quest takes him across a vividly imagined Europe, a continent of the mind, peopled with wonderfully baroque characters. The illusion, in all its myriad forms abounds. Everywhere there are magical happenings...and everywhere, there is the magic wrought by Kotzwinkle himself." --Chicago Tribune

The Tantamount is gone. Her captain dead, her crew lost, and Nel Vaughn is broken. Alone, on a world of distractions with a bitter Kelpie who won’t let her forget. On the Fata Morgana, indifferent to any survivors, a seven-tailed Kitsune whom some call mad moves towards his own goals. Of Draugr and golems and mist. And someone else Nel believes gone. The Black is a dark place, nearly as dark as the bottom of her drink. When Castor Sharpe comes crashing back into Nel's life, he brings something with him. A mission, a chance. Maybe even hope. But they’ll need a crew. And a new ship.