Tea with the Black Dragon (Paperback)

by R.A. MacAvoy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
-...an astonishing fantasy debut...- -Locus -A small masterpiece, setting a fantasy story against a contemporary background.- -Booklist --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Description
Martha Macnamara knows that her daughter Elizabeth is in trouble, she just doesn't know what kind. Mysterious phone calls from San Francisco at odd hours of the night are the only contact she has had with Elizabeth for years. Now, Elizabeth has sent her a plane ticket and reserved a room for her at San Francisco's most luxurious hotel. Yet she has not tried to contact Martha since she arrived, leaving her lonely, confused and a little bit worried. Into the story steps Mayland Long, a distinguished-looking and wealthy Chinese man who lives at the hotel and is drawn to Martha's good nature and ability to pinpoint the truth of a matter. Mayland and Martha become close in a short period of time and he promises to help her find Elizabeth, making small inroads in the mystery before Martha herself disappears. Now Mayland is struck by the realization, too late, that he is in love with Martha, and now he fears for her life. Determined to find her, he sets his prodigious philosopher's mind to work on the problem, embarking on a potentially dangerous adventure. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Books (August 12, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553232053
• ISBN-13: 978-0553232059
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,432,602 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mythical romance, May 3, 2000

By	Anthony Hinde (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tea With the Black Dragon (Hardcover)

This is a story anyone could fall for. It's just delightful. At first glance it seems to be a fantasy novel, then you think it might be a hard-boiled detective story, but in reality it is a love story. It is fairly typical of MacAvoy's work, all of which is superb.

You will find the main characters a little out of the ordinary. On the one hand we have a, middle aged musician, worried Mother and on the other we have a centuries old Chinese dragon transformed into approximately human form.

That's as far as I am willing to go into the details. Suffice to say that it is a quirky, delightful and warm story from a writer who knows and thoroughly enjoys the business of writing. And if you love this book, as I know you will, you may also want to try the sequel "Twisting the Rope".

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Forgotten Treasure, January 2, 2005

By	Jeffery S. Edwards "Novelist and Naval Warfar... (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tea with the Black Dragon (Paperback)

This is one of the books I share with people I really like. It very nearly defies description. The closest I can come is to say that I know magic when I see it, and this is magic. Mayland Long is an enigmatic oriental gentleman who just might be the human incarnation of a Chinese Dragon. Martha MacNamara is a fiftyish woman who plays fiddle in an Irish jig band, and she just may be the Zen master that Mayland Long has been waiting for. Together, they unravel a mystery that makes San Francisco of the nineteen-eighties seem as sinister and magical as any land ever depicted in a fantasy novel. Tea With the Black Dragon was written twenty years ago, so the computer technology is severely dated, but that doesn't really detract from the story. If you're anything like me, you'll be so swept up in this book that you won't notice anyway.

Jeff Edwards, author of "Torpedo: A Surface Warfare Thriller"

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tiny gem of a novel; flawless, beautiful, sparkling, December 28, 2000

By	Evil_Corporate_Bookseller "evil_corporate_boo... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tea with the Black Dragon (Paperback)

Tea With The Black Dragon may be the most perfect short novel ever written -- in the scant space of some 180 pages, R.A. MacAvoy builds enough tension and suspense for a dozen novels by a lesser author, while breathing life into two of the most memorable characters in all of fantasy fiction.

The interplay between the main characters, Martha MacNamara and Mayland Long, showcases MacAvoy's gift for flawless, telling dialogue; they playfully, arfully fence with words, hinting at more than is actually said. In Martha, Mayland finds what he has come to America to seek; in Mayland, Martha finds something she never realized she needed. As they work together to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Martha's daughter, Elizabeth, their secrets are gradually revealed to each other.

A word on Elizabeth's disappearance -- it is in this, perhaps more than any other aspect of the novel, that MacAvoy shows her mastery of craft. Elizabeth is NEVER PRESENT in the first third of the novel, and yet she dominates the story in such a way that when she finally appears, the reader feels that they already know the character. MacAvoy's ability to show without showing that which ISN'T there, as well as that which is, lends the book an intensity that belies its diminutive size.

This was cross-genre fiction before such a thing was ever attempted -- MacAvoy artfully combined fantasy elements with a (for the time period) high-tech thriller to produce a masterfully written page turner that leaves the reader fully satisfied, yet wishing for more. The sequel, Twisting The Rope, provides another outing with the characters, but lacks some of the oomph that makes Tea such a tour de force.

It is a crime that this book was ever allowed to go out of print.