Publisher's Synopsis
"Lohier's prose is enthralling. One dark secret dissolves into another, each one more treacherous and shocking. Ludwig Mason, broken and searching, is a character you'll never forget; more than a hero or anti-hero, he is heartbreakingly human." -- Matt Marinovich, author of The Winter Girl
"A rich neo-noir thriller that feels as original as it does compelling." -- Kirkus
Ludwig Mason is the only Marine to have survived an explosion that reduced his military Humvee to a smoldering wreck in war-torn Fallujah. Back home on American soil, the 28-year-old Iraq War vet struggles through the traumatized, booze- and drug-addled aftermath. He fears that he's lost his family, his friends, and his last chance at anything when something like fate intervenes in the form of a mysterious stranger named Mrs. S.
The old fortune-teller tells Ludwig about an heirloom seized from her family by Nazis decades ago-a fabled tarot deck that has 23 major arcana cards instead of the customary 22. A deck that she believes is now located somewhere in Mobile, Alabama.
Whatever it was that brought Ludwig to Mrs. S.-be it chance, or fate-now draws him into an hallucinatory odyssey fraught with arcane symbols, danger, and paranoia as he ventures to retrieve the missing tarot deck and, with any luck, a piece of his own lost soul.
Patrick Lohier's enticing debut novel blends history, mystery and adrenaline to produce a wildly entertaining and fast-paced literary thriller.
