What if you were given a map to a magic that could change the worst moment of your life...for a price?
From two all-stars of dark fantasy, Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, coauthors of Mind the Gap, comes this terrifying new thriller of magic and dangerous passions, where an ordinary man searches the magical landscape of an extraordinary city for the chance of a lifetime.Barely six months after leaving New Orleans, history professor Max Corbett is returning to a place he hardly recognizes. The girl he’d loved—and lost—is dead, and the once-enchanted city has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Max has not thought much beyond Gabrielle’s funeral—until a strange old man offers him a map, and an insane proposition . . .
*“Forget all the stories about magic you think you know. . . .”
*It looks like an ordinary tourist map, but the old man claims that it is marked with a trail of magical moments from New Orleans’s history that just might open a door to the past. But it is a journey fraught with peril as Max begins to uncover dark secrets about both his dead love and the city he never really got to know. How is Gabrielle linked to an evil group from the city’s past? And can Max evade them long enough to turn back the clock and give Gabrielle one last chance at life?
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Urban realism meets dark fantasy in this spine-tingling second collaboration between authors Golden and Lebbon (after 2008's Mind the Gap) as they merge the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina with New Orleans' terrifying ghostly past. Max Corbett, a former professor at Tulane University, comes back to the Big Easy for the funeral of his lover, Gabrielle. Torn with anger and grief, he believes a stranger who claims he can put Max in touch with Gabrielle's ghost. Armed with a mysterious potion and a magical map, Max must seek out the psychic echoes of traumatic moments in the city's history. He soon finds himself trapped into experiencing all the moments, no matter how dangerous or grotesque. Golden and Lebbon have far outstripped their past efforts with this wonderfully creepy thriller of a ghost story. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From BooklistTwo masters of the horror genre team up for the second time (following Mind the Gap, 2008) in another Hidden Cities tale. History professor Max Corbett left Tulane after his affair with beautiful, passionate student Gabrielle Doucette ended in heartbreak when Gabrielle cheated on him. Six months later, Max returns to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to attend Gabrielle’s funeral. As he wanders the decimated city trying to work out his complex feelings for the woman he still loves, Max is approached by Ray, an older man who offers him the chance to save Gabrielle. Ray gives Max a potion to drink and a “Map of Moments,” setting him off on a quest to find a man named Matrisse. Skeptical at first, Max soon finds himself on a journey that both reveals New Orleans’ past and puts him in peril. Golden and Lebbon vividly evoke the rich, enduring character of New Orleans, as well as spinning a compelling fantasy yarn that builds momentum as Max works his way through the city’s history. --Kristine Huntley

2024-09-11