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The Devil's Marque
Meet Calliope confectiontionaire extraordinaire with abilities to connive, control, and correct everything she contracts for and more. Or she thought until a spider and a lawyer catch her in their web, and her candy helps not at all to get her beyond their wall. The police are unamused and her client unsatisfied. Now what can she do? What starts out as a favor for a friend soon turns into a very strange and dangerous assignment from a client that Calliope wishes she had never heard of. Good and evil weave a tangled web that only a very old and crafty being seems to understand. Maybe it is just a dream from too much sugar and chemistry. After all, life can’t be that strange – can it?
226 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 2015
3 people want to read
About the author
Mike Macartney
8 books92 followersThings have changed. In 2005 I wrote a book about alternative energy and climate change and went looking for an agent and publisher - and an editor. What an adventure. It is hard to say which were the biggest pains of the three. Bottom line was "No platform, no publishing, thanks for dropping by. We only want fiction books. Etc." Life got busy on a new job commuting from Silicon Valley to Detroit and the book got put away.
Seven years later and it is all different now. The Internet changes everything. With 200,000 books per year now published digitally and print on demand the problems now are discoverability and quality control, not getting an agent and a New York publisher.
My personal writing is mostly short stories and I will have a new book of them out in October. There is about 40% of a novel and 40% of a memoir written, but that is not my thing. May finish them along the way at some point.
The alternative energy book? I thought about changing it to a book about scale, but non-fiction is hard work and it takes grit to go back and update all the engineering and economics in it over again for 2012. Maybe one of these days.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shoot-Y...
Seven years later and it is all different now. The Internet changes everything. With 200,000 books per year now published digitally and print on demand the problems now are discoverability and quality control, not getting an agent and a New York publisher.
My personal writing is mostly short stories and I will have a new book of them out in October. There is about 40% of a novel and 40% of a memoir written, but that is not my thing. May finish them along the way at some point.
The alternative energy book? I thought about changing it to a book about scale, but non-fiction is hard work and it takes grit to go back and update all the engineering and economics in it over again for 2012. Maybe one of these days.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shoot-Y...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 20, 2021
Everything was so on target with this book. Good job, Mike Macartney.
November 20, 2015
If Neil Gaiman and Elmore Leonard had a book baby...
Gangsters and magic chocolate. I've never read anything like it!
This was a delightful first outing penned by Mike Macartney. Calliope Dancer is a chocolatier whose special recipes are not your average box of Russel Stover’s fare. In fact Miss Dancer is exceptional in every way, and can charm anyone she needs to with her homemade candies and her sparkling personality, from fiendish heavies to the President of France. And yet when she takes on a case that proves difficult even for her brilliant abilities, Dancer finds that the Devil himself is the least of her worries. The lines between magic and science are blurred in this masterfully woven tale, and the author suggests that magic is only a word for that which is still unknown.
This is a book filled with rich description, from the confectionary delicacies to the antique furniture to exotic locales, and a full cast of colorful characters from various points of history. The prose is highly intelligent and quite witty--several laugh out loud moments to be had here! It was a well-written, fun and unique read, and I do hope we will hear from Miss Dancer and Mr. Macartney again!
Gangsters and magic chocolate. I've never read anything like it!
This was a delightful first outing penned by Mike Macartney. Calliope Dancer is a chocolatier whose special recipes are not your average box of Russel Stover’s fare. In fact Miss Dancer is exceptional in every way, and can charm anyone she needs to with her homemade candies and her sparkling personality, from fiendish heavies to the President of France. And yet when she takes on a case that proves difficult even for her brilliant abilities, Dancer finds that the Devil himself is the least of her worries. The lines between magic and science are blurred in this masterfully woven tale, and the author suggests that magic is only a word for that which is still unknown.
This is a book filled with rich description, from the confectionary delicacies to the antique furniture to exotic locales, and a full cast of colorful characters from various points of history. The prose is highly intelligent and quite witty--several laugh out loud moments to be had here! It was a well-written, fun and unique read, and I do hope we will hear from Miss Dancer and Mr. Macartney again!
November 12, 2015
Calliope Dancer is a magical chemist, and the star of Mike Macartney's wild romp of a new novel, The Devil's Marque. Set in Reno and San Francisco, the story is loaded with historical figures from the gambling scene giving the intrigue a sense of realism. Calliope works her way through a mine field of political and financial despots, with the help of her chemical-infused chocolate gifts, and her strong intuition. Nothing I expected happened in this thriller; it shocked me at every turn. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews