The Mirror Thief

The Mirror Thief

<b>A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the <i>New York Times Book Review</i> as "Audaciously well written...the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it."</b><br><br><i>Publishers Weekly</i> raved that "with near-universal appeal . . . Seay’s debut novel is a true delight, a big, beautiful cabinet of wonders that is by turns an ominous modern thriller, a supernatural mystery, and an enchanting historical adventure story." Set in three cities in three eras, <i>The Mirror Thief</i> calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado.<br><br>The core story is set in Venice in the sixteenth century, when the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination<b>—</b>was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing?<b>—</b>the Venetian mirrors were state of the art technology, and subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. But for any of the development team to leave the island was a crime punishable by death. One man, however<b>—</b>a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose<b>—</b>has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . .<br><br>Meanwhile, in two other Venices<b>—</b>Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today<b>—</b>two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret . . .<br><br>All three stories will weave together into a spell-binding tour-de-force that is impossible to put down<b>—</b>an old-fashioned, stay-up-all-night novel that, in the end, returns the reader to a stunning conclusion in the original Venice . . . and the bedazzled sense of having read a truly original and thrilling work of art.