While on vacation in DC, Marty must outwit kidnappers at a magicians’ convention Marty Gold deserves a vacation. For years he has toiled behind the pharmacy counter at Spector’s, a Manhattan institution whose classic soda fountain makes it a magnet for every overstuffed rear end on the West Side. Among his most devoted customers is Mase O’Dwyer, a chunky young magician who treats Marty as a captive audience for hour upon hour of poorly executed magic tricks. When Marty finally saves up enough money for a jaunt down to Washington, DC, Mase insists on tagging along to attend a magic convention. But as soon as he arrives, the hapless magician finally manages to make one trick work: He disappears. Mase has been kidnapped, and as much as he dislikes the kid, Marty feels obligated to rescue him. It will take magic to save the portly illusionist, but the druggist has a few of his own tricks up his sleeves.
Author
MARVIN KAYE is the author of sixteen novels, including his Dickensian pastiche, The Last Christmas of Ebenezer Scrooge, now optioned to be made into a feature film, and his just-completed sequel to Frankenstein, as well as the terrifying Fantastique and Ghosts of Night and Morning; the SF cult classics, The Incredible Umbrella and (coauthored with Parke Godwin) The Masters of Solitude, and the critically-acclaimed mysteries Bullets for Macbeth and My Son the Druggist. His short story “Ms. Lipshutz and the Goblin,” was included in a DAW Books Year’s Best Fantasy anthology, and his horrific “The Possession of Immanuel Wolf” was written with the great macabre comedian, Brother Theodore. His numerous best-selling anthologies include 13 Plays of Ghosts and the Supernatural and other theatre collections; The Game is Afoot and other Sherlock Holmes anthologies, and many fantasy/science fiction books for the Science Fiction Book Club, such as Ghosts, Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural, The Vampire Sextette, and The Fair Folk, which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology of 2006. His column, “Marvin Kaye’s Nth Dimension,” appears online at http://spaceandtimemagazine.com. He is the editor of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, and both editor and co-publisher of America’s oldest supernatural periodical, Weird Tales magazine. A native of Philadelphia, PA., he is a graduate of Penn State, with an M. A. in theatre and English literature; he recently headed the tutoring staff of the Manhattan campus of Mercy College; is Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at New York University, has taught mystery writing in England for the Smithsonian Institute, has served as a judge for the Edgar, International Thriller Writers, Nero and World Fantasy Awards, and is Artistic Director for The Open Book, New York’s oldest readers theatre company. He is listed in both Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in Entertainment.
