Fata Morgana

By William Kotzwinkle

Book Overview

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

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394409051
• ISBN13: 9780394409054
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

My old addiction!

I keep buying this book and buying it - for other people. The surest sign of my affection for someone is that I lend them this book - or buy it for them. I also read it again from time to time. It is intricate enough to reveal new secrets with each reading.

Magical and mysterious!

Let your fingers do the walking ... right to the order and checkout buttons! Do not miss this incredible literary feast. Richly written; lush characters and a true twist and turn plot will keep you turning the pages all night! Kotzwinkle's work is true genius. In a word -- EXCELLENT!

Some enchanted evening....

... in 1861, Detective Paul Picard, of the Paris Police, is hot on the trail of Baron Mantes, who has a penchant for murdering young wmoen and leaving their decapitated bodies at the scene of the crime. Recovering from his most recent run-in with the Baron, from which Picard emerges decidedly the worse for wear, he attends a party given by a wealthy and mysterious immigrant named Ric Lazare, of dubious origins, and his fabulously beautiful wife, Renee Lazare. The party is attended by all of upper-class Paris and the draw is a fortune-telling machine which holds all the guests mesmerized. Invited into a private room which holds the famous machine, Picard finds himself hurled headlong into a web of gypsy magic, murder, seduction and mystery that leads him through Germany to Austria, the Hungarian steppes, and back to Paris, to confront his fate before the fortune telling machine. His fortune, Fata Morgana, is, like Ric and Renee Lazare, a shimmering mirage, irresistable, unknowable, and ultimately unreachable; one can only accept it as it is. Kotzwinkle has woven a magical story that holds us entranced to the very last page.

A sensual, literate feast.

Kotzwinkle is one of the most lyrical writers around, and this book is one of his best. Fata Morgana is a true magical mystery tour, richly textured and fraught with surprises. It's great to see it back in print.

A surprising fantasy worth reading!

William Kotzwinkle has managed to blend all the right elements together in Fata Morgana. An enchanting story of a Parisian detective and his quest to learn the true identity of a mountebank who entertains at great cost the idle aristicracy. Like all good fantasy stories there is a sense of wonder throughout, a desperate quest, a bit of magic, and lively characters that stay with the reader long after the book is put down. Even a certain cliche is rendered with new breath on the final pages.