Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician

By Daniel Wallace

Doubleday, 257 pages

ISBN 0-385-52109-X

Henry Walker, the magician in Jeremiah Mosgrove’s Chinese Circus, has been having problems: he “can’t do a trick to save his life.” Yet before joining the circus, as the shadowy Mr.

The Minotaur by Barbara Vine
Shaye Areheart, March 2006
ISBN 0-307-23760-5
Hardcover

The irrepressibly prolific and consistently impressive writer Barbara Vine (a.k.a. Ruth Rendell)—“the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world” (Time) and “a writer who is at the height of her powers” (Daily Mail)—has now given readers one of her most disturbing and provocative mysteries, The Minotaur.

First, let us consider the name that serves as the title of Barbara Vine’s mesmerizing novel: The Minotaur of ancient Greek mythology, as readers will recall, was an unpleasant creature with a bull’s head and man’s body.