Peter Warlock is a magician with a dark secret. Every night, he amazes audiences at his private theater in New York, where he performs feats that boggle the imagination. But his day job is just a cover for his otherworldly pursuits: Peter is a member of an underground group of psychics who gaze into the future to help prevent crimes. No one, not even his live-in girlfriend, knows the truth about Peter—until the séance when he foresees an unspeakable act of violence that will devastate the city. As Peter and his friends rush to prevent tragedy, Peter discovers that a shadowy cult of evil psychics, the Order of Astrum, know all about his abilities. They are hunting him and his fellow psychics down, one by one, determined to silence them forever. Dark Magic is a genre-bending supernatural thriller from national bestselling novelist and real-life magician James Swain.
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Seven psychics with varied talents meet weekly in Manhattan to peer into the future, then anonymously alert authorities about pending trouble. But when magician Peter Warlock foresees a mysterious attack instantly killing thousands in Times Square just four days hence, immediate action is necessary. Soon Peter is in league with police and the FBI, hunting for the presumed instigator of the attack, Jeremy Wolfe, an agent of the ultrasecret Order of Astrum, in England. The problem deepens for Peter when he learns about a connection between his parents, who died when he was seven, and the order at the same time that he experiences a troubling change in his powers that threatens his relationship with the woman he loves. Former professional magician Swain, author of the Tony Valentine and Jack Carpenter series, is especially good with the illusions behind the magic that Peter performs for rapt fans. The novel smartly folds the spirit world and elements of the occult into sophisticated hacking and modern crime fighting to create compulsively readable, genre-spanning suspense fiction. --Michele Leber
Review
“Swain has taken Batman's tortured backstory and blended it with the genealogical paranormal heritage of Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches to create a breathtaking dark fantasy with an intriguing story that will attract both urban fantasy and supernatural thriller fans.”—Library Journal
“Dark Magic smartly folds the spirit world and elements of the occult into sophisticated hacking and modern crime-fighting to create compulsively readable, genre-spanning suspense fiction.”—Booklist
“Dark Magic is a thriller that really thrills. Swain has written a story filled with compelling characters and an amazing plotline. This book grabs you by the throat, and doesn’t let go.”
—Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Witness
“A darkly brilliant story of magic and witchcraft that asks the reader to believe the unbelievable. I chose to believe, and could not put the book down. Curl up in your favorite chair and prepare yourself to be fully enthralled.”
—David Copperfield on Dark Magic
“Magicians, demons and witches…oh my! James Swain’s Dark Magic twists and turns in a breathless rush that keeps the reader guessing from the first magic act to the final curtain call. A definite page turner!”
—Lisa Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Born to Die
"Jim Swain's books are must-reads for me. He writes non-stop nail-biters that are impossible to put down. His characters are unique, and practically leap off the page. Try him, and you'll find out what I mean."
—Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of The Affair
“Dark Magic is entertainment magic, a thrilling and wildly creative ride that surprised me every step of the way.”
—Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Girl
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More About the Author
James Swain is the author of fifteen national bestselling novels. His novels have been translated into twelve foreign languages, and chosen as Mysteries of the Year by Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Swain has received three Barry Award nominations, a Florida Book award for fiction,the prestigious Prix Calibre .38 for Best American Crime Writing, and was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning with Anthony Mason. Along with his writing, Swain is an avid magician, and has written and lectured extensively on the subject. Visit his web site at www.jimswain.com.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Dark Magic" by James Swain
Publisher: Tor Books, 2012
Hardcover Edition: 352 pages
Genre: Supernatural thriller
The cover for James Swain's "Dark Magic" evokes menace, suspense, and bad things to come. That is what one hopes, certainly, when he or she flips to chapter one and begins to read.
The result, however, is not up to par for what loyal readers of Swain are used to from his past works. The feeling of foreboding is evident throughout the narrative--and surely when Swain's twenty-something protagonist, Peter Warlock, a professional magician, graces the stage during his magic shows, the feeling of doom is present. And a lot of nail-biting action ensues.
But the thin, sometimes implausible, scenarios and underdeveloped characters skew the fast-paced plot. For example, when the novel's villain and the man Peter sees through his mind during a séance, a man named Jeremy Wolfe, a.k.a The Grim Reaper, steps through the doors of Madame Marie's fortune-telling parlor, things go dastardly awry. Forced, cheeky dialogue and adolescent situations propel the characters to act unconsciously, do stupid things, and end up dead. In one instance, Madame Marie is placed in danger the moment Wolfe enters her place of business. Through her Tarot cards, she sees that Wolfe is the man whom Peter envisioned during the séance the evening before. She even tells Wolfe: "I know who you are. You're going to kill all those people in Times Square." Instead of dialing the authorities (the smart thing to do), she pulls out a gun and threatens him. Not so smart.
Even through the stilted the dialogue and farfetched scenarios, maybe Swain could be let off the hook momentarily. He is writing about a twenty-something individual, and they tend to do naive, careless things. But then, in the eyes of his older, more seasoned, cast of characters, they too act like petulant children. Behaving in ways that will inevitably ignite deadly outcomes.
The book is a quick read, mostly because there is enough action to keep the story moving at a nice pace. But not everything is coherent. And at times you may find yourself rolling your eyes at the unbelievable situations and unconvincing dialogue.
Swain has written better books. Maybe he needed to take a hiatus from his usual Tony Valentine and Jack Carpenter series to write fresh material. Dark Magic is not a bad read. But it is not the best effort from an author who has written scads of notable bestsellers. For those of you who enjoyed the book, the next Peter Warlock novel, "Shadow People", is slated for publication in June 11, 2013.
T.B. Grant
4/7/13
Publisher: Tor Books, 2012
Hardcover Edition: 352 pages
Genre: Supernatural thriller
The cover for James Swain's "Dark Magic" evokes menace, suspense, and bad things to come. That is what one hopes, certainly, when he or she flips to chapter one and begins to read.
The result, however, is not up to par for what loyal readers of Swain are used to from his past works. The feeling of foreboding is evident throughout the narrative--and surely when Swain's twenty-something protagonist, Peter Warlock, a professional magician, graces the stage during his magic shows, the feeling of doom is present. And a lot of nail-biting action ensues.
But the thin, sometimes implausible, scenarios and underdeveloped characters skew the fast-paced plot. For example, when the novel's villain and the man Peter sees through his mind during a séance, a man named Jeremy Wolfe, a.k.a The Grim Reaper, steps through the doors of Madame Marie's fortune-telling parlor, things go dastardly awry. Forced, cheeky dialogue and adolescent situations propel the characters to act unconsciously, do stupid things, and end up dead. In one instance, Madame Marie is placed in danger the moment Wolfe enters her place of business. Through her Tarot cards, she sees that Wolfe is the man whom Peter envisioned during the séance the evening before. She even tells Wolfe: "I know who you are. You're going to kill all those people in Times Square." Instead of dialing the authorities (the smart thing to do), she pulls out a gun and threatens him. Not so smart.
Even through the stilted the dialogue and farfetched scenarios, maybe Swain could be let off the hook momentarily. He is writing about a twenty-something individual, and they tend to do naive, careless things. But then, in the eyes of his older, more seasoned, cast of characters, they too act like petulant children. Behaving in ways that will inevitably ignite deadly outcomes.
The book is a quick read, mostly because there is enough action to keep the story moving at a nice pace. But not everything is coherent. And at times you may find yourself rolling your eyes at the unbelievable situations and unconvincing dialogue.
Swain has written better books. Maybe he needed to take a hiatus from his usual Tony Valentine and Jack Carpenter series to write fresh material. Dark Magic is not a bad read. But it is not the best effort from an author who has written scads of notable bestsellers. For those of you who enjoyed the book, the next Peter Warlock novel, "Shadow People", is slated for publication in June 11, 2013.
T.B. Grant
4/7/13
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling mix of wizardry and stage magic, with a touch of mystery and horror.
May 22, 2012
Format:Hardcover
Dark Magic by James Swain is one of those books that grabbed me and wouldn't let go. Take one part Batman, one part A Discovery of Witches, one part Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and one part The Prestige, mix well, and what you have is one hell of a story. I almost forgot, add in a touch of either the X-Files or Men in Black, just for flavor.
Peter Warlock is the leader of the Friday Night Psychics. Who are the Friday Night Psychics? Just what they sound like, a group of psychics who get together every Friday night. Except that these aren't charlatans, these are the real deal. Peter and his friends all have power, real power, of one kind or another.
They get together every Friday night to connect with the spirit world, to find out if there is anything bad going to happen. Well, anything big and bad. They live in New York City, after all. Something small and bad is always happening. The Friday Night Psychics are trying to prevent major catastrophes.
So when Peter foresees some kind of epic catastrophe radiating out from Times Square only four days in the future, they all start working on how to alert the police. They've always sent in anonymous tips before, but this is too big and too imminent for an anonymous phone call.
And they all know what will happen if they reveal themselves. They've already lost a friend that way. They're not afraid that no one will believe them. The government will believe them. The CIA took their friend Nemo somewhere they could pump him for predictions--indefinitely.
But before they can figure out a way to alert the police, the evil forces send an assassin after Peter. Live, on stage, in the middle of his magic act.
Peter Warlock covers his real psychic powers by making his living as a stage magician. He pretends to read minds by really reading minds. He's hidden his talents in plain sight his entire life.
The attack alerts the police and the FBI. It also blows the covers off Peter's tortured past. The FBI agent who comes to interview Peter in the wake of the attack is the same agent who interviewed him when he was a child, after his parents were thrown into a car in front of his eyes and driven to their deaths.
Peter's attacker and his parent's murderers are members of the same society of dark magic mercenaries, the Order of Astrum. And now the Order is after Peter and his friends.
The police were already hunting for Peter's would-be assassin. Every city that Jeremy Wolfe has visited has suffered from a series of murders of well-respected psychics, followed by an act of terrorism. Peter knows that his friends and his city are next. What he does not understand is how the deaths of his parents might be linked to this Order of Astrum.
The discovery of his parents' true history threatens his identity, and his life. Peter finds that his friends have been keeping terrible secrets, secrets that he must unravel in order to find the truth about himself and his destiny. But once he learns all, he then must answer the eternal questions about the nature of good and evil. Will his ends justify his means? And will he always be able to choose good when there is evil in his soul?
Escape Rating A: Dark Magic is the kind of story for which the term "dark fantasy" was invented. Peter Warlock is such an intense character. He does remind me a lot of Batman, I mean Bruce Wayne. He watched his parents die, and he grows up tortured by their deaths. He creates this image of them as being so good, only to discover that they weren't the people he thought they were.
The suspense factor was also very well done. There's the part of trying to get one step ahead of the assassin, as he targets the psychics and then there's the second part, just trying to find out what the heck the real target is. Very techno-thrillerish and very cool.
If there turn out to be more books in this universe I will be a very happy reader.
Originally published at Reading Reality.
Peter Warlock is the leader of the Friday Night Psychics. Who are the Friday Night Psychics? Just what they sound like, a group of psychics who get together every Friday night. Except that these aren't charlatans, these are the real deal. Peter and his friends all have power, real power, of one kind or another.
They get together every Friday night to connect with the spirit world, to find out if there is anything bad going to happen. Well, anything big and bad. They live in New York City, after all. Something small and bad is always happening. The Friday Night Psychics are trying to prevent major catastrophes.
So when Peter foresees some kind of epic catastrophe radiating out from Times Square only four days in the future, they all start working on how to alert the police. They've always sent in anonymous tips before, but this is too big and too imminent for an anonymous phone call.
And they all know what will happen if they reveal themselves. They've already lost a friend that way. They're not afraid that no one will believe them. The government will believe them. The CIA took their friend Nemo somewhere they could pump him for predictions--indefinitely.
But before they can figure out a way to alert the police, the evil forces send an assassin after Peter. Live, on stage, in the middle of his magic act.
Peter Warlock covers his real psychic powers by making his living as a stage magician. He pretends to read minds by really reading minds. He's hidden his talents in plain sight his entire life.
The attack alerts the police and the FBI. It also blows the covers off Peter's tortured past. The FBI agent who comes to interview Peter in the wake of the attack is the same agent who interviewed him when he was a child, after his parents were thrown into a car in front of his eyes and driven to their deaths.
Peter's attacker and his parent's murderers are members of the same society of dark magic mercenaries, the Order of Astrum. And now the Order is after Peter and his friends.
The police were already hunting for Peter's would-be assassin. Every city that Jeremy Wolfe has visited has suffered from a series of murders of well-respected psychics, followed by an act of terrorism. Peter knows that his friends and his city are next. What he does not understand is how the deaths of his parents might be linked to this Order of Astrum.
The discovery of his parents' true history threatens his identity, and his life. Peter finds that his friends have been keeping terrible secrets, secrets that he must unravel in order to find the truth about himself and his destiny. But once he learns all, he then must answer the eternal questions about the nature of good and evil. Will his ends justify his means? And will he always be able to choose good when there is evil in his soul?
Escape Rating A: Dark Magic is the kind of story for which the term "dark fantasy" was invented. Peter Warlock is such an intense character. He does remind me a lot of Batman, I mean Bruce Wayne. He watched his parents die, and he grows up tortured by their deaths. He creates this image of them as being so good, only to discover that they weren't the people he thought they were.
The suspense factor was also very well done. There's the part of trying to get one step ahead of the assassin, as he targets the psychics and then there's the second part, just trying to find out what the heck the real target is. Very techno-thrillerish and very cool.
If there turn out to be more books in this universe I will be a very happy reader.
Originally published at Reading Reality.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Julie Doe
Format:Kindle Edition
Meh. I starting skimming around 50%. I expected more from Tor. Really. To wit:
(1) The writing was very thin and flat. Not sure how else to describe it. It was boring.
(2) If you were a psychic and saw a massive killing about to occur in 4 days would you (a) immediately alert the authorities even though you might risk your own freedom, (b) alert the authorities anonymously as you had been doing previously and hope they paid attention, or (c) go home to think about it, go to sleep and then go to work the next day because, you know, it is a whole 4 days until hundreds or thousands of people are killed so you have time? Guess which action Peter, the main character, chose.... Yep, (c).
(3) The dialogue was often not believable--conversations were unusually brief, and characters, when told something shocking or surprising, often just went "oh well" instead of asking the questions one normally would. Like "what happened?", "is she alright?" etc.
(4) The villain is supposed to be a bada$$ hit man who needs to stay "two steps ahead of the police". Yet he tries to kill Peter in front of an audience, sets a fire to kill others when a more silent killing was possible, and otherwise does not-so-stealthy things. He also, for unexplained reasons, seems to choose a different weapon with which to attempt to kill each of his targets. Why? That makes no sense and is never explained.
(5) Although there was a bit of a twist about 75% of the way in, suspense was distinctly lacking. Peter developed awesome super-speshul new powers early on which made it simple for him to defeat the villain and negated any threat to his safety. Peter never seemed to be in any danger.
(6) Finally, whoever copy-edited this for Tor should be fired. The rampant comma mis-use was surprising, then funny, then just pissed me off. And I'm talking about a very basic punctuation rule--which has not changed since I learned it in grade school--that was violated over and over and over again.
Overall: 1.5 stars. There are much better urban/dark fantasy books on which to spend your money.
(1) The writing was very thin and flat. Not sure how else to describe it. It was boring.
(2) If you were a psychic and saw a massive killing about to occur in 4 days would you (a) immediately alert the authorities even though you might risk your own freedom, (b) alert the authorities anonymously as you had been doing previously and hope they paid attention, or (c) go home to think about it, go to sleep and then go to work the next day because, you know, it is a whole 4 days until hundreds or thousands of people are killed so you have time? Guess which action Peter, the main character, chose.... Yep, (c).
(3) The dialogue was often not believable--conversations were unusually brief, and characters, when told something shocking or surprising, often just went "oh well" instead of asking the questions one normally would. Like "what happened?", "is she alright?" etc.
(4) The villain is supposed to be a bada$$ hit man who needs to stay "two steps ahead of the police". Yet he tries to kill Peter in front of an audience, sets a fire to kill others when a more silent killing was possible, and otherwise does not-so-stealthy things. He also, for unexplained reasons, seems to choose a different weapon with which to attempt to kill each of his targets. Why? That makes no sense and is never explained.
(5) Although there was a bit of a twist about 75% of the way in, suspense was distinctly lacking. Peter developed awesome super-speshul new powers early on which made it simple for him to defeat the villain and negated any threat to his safety. Peter never seemed to be in any danger.
(6) Finally, whoever copy-edited this for Tor should be fired. The rampant comma mis-use was surprising, then funny, then just pissed me off. And I'm talking about a very basic punctuation rule--which has not changed since I learned it in grade school--that was violated over and over and over again.
Overall: 1.5 stars. There are much better urban/dark fantasy books on which to spend your money.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I hope he writes a sequel to this. All his books are great!
Excellent. Yes, it's sort of metaphysical, but that does not diminish the story or the writing skills of Mr. Swain. I recommend.
Published 3 months ago by Barb RR
2.0 out of 5 stars
dumb magic
Enjoyed the author's gambling stories. Gave us some insight to the tricks and scams. This is just too much. Real magical powers don't impress here. The story does make sense. Read more
Published 3 months ago by John Bowes
1.0 out of 5 stars
Title is best thing...
There ought to be rule that you can't use a cool title for a book this bad.
Swain's valentine books are interesting because of the gambling/cheating secrets he reveals as he... Read more
Swain's valentine books are interesting because of the gambling/cheating secrets he reveals as he... Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Long
1.0 out of 5 stars
A James Swain book
This was a real disappointment because it is not a
typical Swain book. I was not prepared to read
about "real" magic although the title should have
prepared... Read more
typical Swain book. I was not prepared to read
about "real" magic although the title should have
prepared... Read more
Published 4 months ago by trbo
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Magic
Dark Magic tells the story of Peter Warlock; a magician who must use his mostly secret psychic abilities to prevent a deadly attack on New York. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Sarah Psychosis
4.0 out of 5 stars
A thrilling mystery, with a dark supernatural twist
Reading this book was kind of like being on a roller coaster ride. It had its ups and it had its downs. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Roxy Kade
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't give this to anyone for Christmas
They may never speak to you again. Suspending disbelief ought not to be a climb over Mount Everest carrying a sack of bricks. It's worse than a dwarf Jack Reacher. Read more
Published 6 months ago by E. M. Chilton
2.0 out of 5 stars
Could have been so good.
This is the first book I've read by Swain, and it will probably be the last.
It seems that seven psychics meet and they look into the future, and if they see any crimes,... Read more
It seems that seven psychics meet and they look into the future, and if they see any crimes,... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Reacher Creature
5.0 out of 5 stars
prestidigita-swain!!
I have read almost all of James' work and love each of them! Dark Magic is no exception. His complex yet flawed characters are totally believable yet again. Read more
Published 7 months ago by kindled spirit
5.0 out of 5 stars
Different from his usual
Enjoyed this book VERY much, but must say it is different from most of James swain's books. A little much with the DARK magic, but all in all an excellent read
Published 8 months ago by Lisa Burch
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