Night Magic

An amateur magician is approached by a mysterious old man who offers him a taste of true sorcery and is torn between the human life he has been following and the dark world of mystical arts that threatens to overtake him and the woman he loves. 75,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo.

Published posthumously, Tryon's contemporary version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a lifeless, tedious affair that never transcends the restrictions of its stock plot. NYC street magician Michael Hawke is performing his tricks in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when a mysterious older man suddenly takes control of the show in a frightening manner. Instantly aware that the stranger is a master of the dark arts, Michael tracks him down, eager to perfect the mystical powers of which he's been given a taste. Once he finds Max Wurlitzer, Michael's life takes a sinister turn, until ultimately he must choose between following his mentor and returning to his girlfriend. Seeking to invoke a sense of evil and foreboding, Tryon succeeds only in making the forces of darkness seem ordinary. His prose is wordy and ponderous, with his cliched narrative leading to a leaden, anticlimactic ending. For compelling depictions of darkness and mystery, Tryon's fans will need to revisit his satisfyingly spooky Harvest Home and The Other. Movie rights to Paramount; audio to S&S Audio.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Finalized" by Valerie Martin and John Cullen, this last novel by the late Tryon (In the Fire of Spring, LJ 3/15/92) is a retelling of The Sorcerer's Apprentice set in contemporary Manhattan. While performing in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, magician/mime Michael Hawke innocently draws Max Wurlitzer into his act. Unbeknowst to Michael, Max is not only a magician of some renown but also a practitioner of "night magic," the dark arts. Adopted by Max as his protege, Michael soon finds that his overriding ambition may have dangerous consequences. Tryon's writing partly saves an otherwise weak and predictable story whose ending is something of a letdown, given the author's tantalizing glimpses into Max's history. Movie rights have been optioned, and Tryon's many fans will demand Night Magic. Still, like some magic, this book is mostly smoke and mirrors and is ultimately unsatisfying. For large popular collections.
--Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Ct.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this rich cauldron of illusion and ambition, a Manhattan street mime becomes entangled with a conjurer who cultivates the secret powers of sorcery. Their encounter begins when Michael Hawke, in whiteface, prances as a frog in front of the conjurer Max, who has just jolted the art world by inducing a Rembrandt painting to shed tears. With a sepulchral incantation, "Be a frog," the magician's next trick knocks Mike out and into the Plaza fountain. Thereafter Mike is mesmerized by the wizard's esoteric knowledge. Even those who scoff at mystical themes recognize the universality of the human weakness to know what others don't, and the late author rigs his novel with intricate, enthralling twists, from the reunion of the two principals, through the pupil's apprenticeship in a dilapidated theater, right on to the finale of a magic show, performed by the master of illusion and his newly trained assistant. At the performance's climax, the wizard transfers to Mike the symbol of his power, an amulet representing the Eye of Horus, but it nearly (and symbolically, as the cost of ambition) kills him and girlfriend Emily. Tryon's Faustian tale of the young hero's initiation and indoctrination is certain to be popular with occult fans; those hooked on yarns of magic a la Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy will join the crowd. And movie rights have been optioned to Paramount for a motion picture starring Tom Cruise. Gilbert Taylor