A gifted first novel

A challenging detective tale that travels from San Francisco to Eastern Europe

Antonio Pineda’s novel is advertised as a detective story with a touch of Raymond Chandler brought up to date. This is a book that addicts of the genre will probably find more challenging than normal.

In fact, the cover notes that anyone with an IQ above “gifted” will appreciate this novel and be entertained, absorbed and challenged by it.

But to get the full taste and details of the plot, “The Magick Papers” probably requires reference books on blotter art and the music and theatre of the late 20th century. It also probably needs to be read twice.

A brilliant novel, but only for those who are not intellectually challenged.

Dubbed as possibly “The Great American Novel” – followed by a correction that it was probably “The Great Anti-American Novel” – “The Magick Papers” will likely create controversy for the author and publisher.

Not that this novel is against the US, it is just that many of the cultural elements portrayed can only be regarded as that of a nation in decline.

The author cannot be blamed for portraying the truth. In fact, it is the duty of all authors in a free society to do so.

Publisher IQ Inc goes for books that challenge the conventional perspective and make people think. Another work of “faction” – much of the story being “true crime” – “The Magick Papers” continues that tradition.

Never predictable, this tale of crime and punishment within the judicial system and outside it will keep you guessing until the final pages.

Pineda’s narrative takes us on his hero’s self-indulgent and apparently purposeless journey from San Francisco to Eastern Europe, with prose so descriptive the journey alone is entertaining. But back in San Francisco, murders are taking place which link up with the man travelling through Eastern Europe. What is the connecting factor?

Pineda is a resident of San Francisco and the quality of his writing ensures that the American scenes are absorbing and totally authentic.

Unlike any other detective story that I can recall, “The Magick Papers” has a very strong element of the performing arts woven into the narrative. This reflects Pineda’s earlier life as part of the psychedelic underground in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district when he was one of the founders of the Straight Theatre Group.

Pineda was also an actor in regional theatre, interpreting the works of Artaud, Brecht, Yukio Mishima and Shakespeare. As a professional dancer, he studied ballet in San Francisco with Carlos Carvajal, as well as flamenco with Cruz Luna, Rosa Montoya and Miguel Santos. He continued his studies in Madrid with the maestros Ciro, Maria Madalena and Juan Antonio De Los Reyes. Pineda then returned to California and formed Los Flamenco de Bronce – a popular fixture on the San Francisco scene.

The author’s background in the arts ensures that this book is more intellectual in the way it narrates what at times is a very violent tale revolving around blotter art – artistically created designs imprinted on papers containing the mind-expanding drug LSD. Hence the title “The Magick Papers”.

Eventually, the many attractions of Thailand drew Pineda to its shores. He is now a regular visitor to the Kingdom. It was in Thailand that he wrote “The Magick Papers”, his first novel.

“The Magick Papers” can be found at most good bookstores throughout the Kingdom. A welcome new trend for readers living in more remote areas of Thailand is that “The Magick Papers” and all books published by IQ Inc can be obtained online and postage-free from www.asiapublications.com.

Now, isn’t that magic come true?

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The Magick Papers
by Antonio Pineda
Published by IQ Inc
Available at all bookshops, Bt390
Reviewed by Khanet