Why a Booktrail?
1885: Take a magical mystery tour around Victorian London and to the characters who perform each night at the Palmyra theatre. Everything and everyone has a dark side – even magic.
The Illusionists
What you need to know before your trail
London 1885
Along the Strand in the centre of London stands a small theatre called the Palmyra. It’s run down, has little success and should really probably close but then that’s before the illusionists take the stage.
Devil Wix is a master of illusion and drama, running as he is from a dark and secret past. Ideal for his tricks of contortion, he joins forces with Carlo Boldoni, a dwarf, and together their act becomes one of legend.
Drawing in the crowds can cause its own set of problems however as as they become more noted, so too do their enemies.
And then one day, young miss Eliza comes to see the show and her fate becomes entangled with the illusion and darkness of all that she sees in front of her.
The world of the illusionists awaits…..
Travel Guide
The lights dim, the curtain goes up and…..Sit back, but don’t relax too much for not everything you are about to see is real. For you have entered a world of magic and illusion.
“The audience shifted in their seats. There was another flash of light and smoke drifted across the stage….”
From the dirty, squalid streets of Victorian London, the Palmyra theatre offers an escape from life – there’s a man who contorts himself into all manner of positions, tricks and flights of fancy, trap doors, floating heads and shocks and surprises to last you a lifetime. More fascinating still, is how these tricks are practiced and performed, the backstage infighting, the stress of getting a show out there, from the view point of the illusionists themselves.
“Apart from endless practice, it was audacity, force of personality, and the glamour of the stage itself that created magic out of sheer mechanics”
This London of stage and greasepaint, the squalor the neighbouring streets is seen through the eyes of the illusionists and Eliza, a young lady who comes into their world whilst escaping her own.
And where else could you meet characters such as Devil, Carlo, Heinrich who makes chilling automatons, Jasper who can create miracles from wax..
She enters a world she is at first excluded from due to her sex but by determination and sheer passion, she forms her own path but there are shadows lurking. A love triangle complicates matters but those shadows grow larger and darker
By mixing with a man called Devil and an illusionist at that, who knows if the world will swallow her up or be her salvation?
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
The world of the illusionists is a dark stage and the workings behind the scenes normally out of bounds. But this novel takes you backstage, along the corridors, beneath the trapdoor and really gets you involved with how the world of magic is a tricky and difficult one. I had no idea of how magicians fought to get their acts headlining at certain theatres etc or the work and pain involved with perfecting their act, but this novel really took me there!
It really does have a dark side and the underbelly of London and the magic scene is definitely a major character. The book is a long one and although I think it could have been shorter and just as good, the ambience it immerses you in is another world entirely. It’s an historical romance with a difference too although for me it was the setting and the illusion of it all which makes the book’s premise intriguing.
We’ve been to Kashmir and now behind the stage in London – wonder what Rosie Thomas’ next trick is going to be?
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Facebook: /RosieThomasAuthor/
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