Synopsis
Howard Barton travels to Mendocino looking for a sketch by the Japanese artist Hoku-sai, but others are also interested in the drawing, and Howard finds himself in the middle of a private war between secret, underground societies
Reviews
Despite a misleadingly slow and uninspiring beginning, this supernatural thriller is enjoyable: a combination of Charles William's books War in Heaven and The Greater Trumps, but moved to a small town in Northern California. Here the Holy Grail is actually an origami cup which, folded to form different shapes, provides the owner with diverse powers. A quiet group of ordinary people have been helping Michael Graham, its guardian, to protect it. When Graham is about to die of old age, the Grail summons Howard Barton to visit his relatives and take over its guardianship. Of course, he has no idea that he has been summoned, nor even that the Grail exists, but neither factor stops Heloise Lamey and her greedy crew from using Howard to attempt to obtain the Grail for themselves. Blaylock ( The Last Coin ) redeems the familiarity of his plot with a gift for drawing characters who are eccentric in delightful and original ways, whichever side of the war they are on.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Another distinctive northern California magic-realist fantasy from the author of Land of Dreams (1987). To Mendocino comes museum curator Howard Barton in search of the McGuffin of the title, a sketch (?) with magical powers held by mysterious recluse Michael Graham. But when Howard arrives, Graham has vanished (supposedly a suicide); the weird Mr. Jimmers, inventor of a machine that materializes ghosts, now occupies his clifftop house. Howard calls on his penniless, oddball uncle Roy, former proprietor of a spirit museum, who's fighting a desperate, losing battle against the rapacious magnate and witch Heloise Lamey--she also covets the sketch. As Howard becomes romantically involved with Roy's daughter Sylvia, he struggles to make sense of the increasingly odd occurrences and to decide whose side he's on: When old Graham really dies, Howard is destined to become the sketch's new Keeper. Rather arcane in places and curiously lacking in thematic ambition, but seamlessly produced: intriguing and absorbing work from a major talent. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Museum curator Howard Barton's search for a lost sketch by the legendary artist Hoku-sai leads him to northern California where he becomes an unwitting front-line soldier in a battle between good and evil. Blaylock ( The Land of Dreams , LJ 8/87) ventures into the realm of magical realism as eccentric matrons and failed entrepreneurs assume mythic proportions in this witty and intelligent metaphysical novel. This crossover novel belongs equally well in literary and fantasy collections.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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