“Get ready to stay up late because you won’t want to put it down.” —Ann Garvin, USA Today best-selling author
Description
For fans of Louise Penny and Robert Dugoni, Illusionist is a contemporary crime thriller where PI McPherson must choose between killing an author at a writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest or letting a college student die.
When an illusionist joins the Pines & Quill writing retreat, one of the owners vanishes without a trace in the middle of everyone, but the surrounding would-be witnesses don’t see or hear a thing. That’s when crime boss Georgio Gambino makes a checkmate move against his nemesis, Sean McPherson. He forces a writer in residence to kill another writer and frame McPherson. In a video call, Gambino warns the writer, “If you don’t follow orders, your daughter will die.” Then, he pans the camera to prove access to her college dorm room.
McPherson discovers that Carmine Fiore, Gambino’s second in command, covets his boss role and is staging a coup. As Gambino’s soldiers traffic drugs, weapons, and humans, Fiore plants incriminating evidence against the notorious Sureños gang. Can McPherson leverage that knowledge for a temporary truce and the gang’s help?
The writers in residence—a former NASCAR driver, a professional triathlete, an architect turned house flipper, and a world-renowned magician who may not be who she appears to be—band together with McPherson to create the illusion of a lifetime.
Reviews
“Buchanan skillfully crafted a plot with lots of twists and her usual interesting subplots. If you're a fan, this book won't disappoint.”—Chris Norbury, author of the Matt Lanier Mystery-Thriller Series
“As in her previous books, Buchanan’s skill with language is again notable in Illusionist. Author Toni Morrison was speaking of Buchanan's artistry when she comments, 'You rely on a sentence to do more than the denotation and connotation; you revel in the smoke that the words send up.' You’ll find lots of smoke and mirrors in Buchanan's Book Five of the Sean McPherson series, Illusionist.”—Marian Beaman, author of My Checkered Life
“I thoroughly enjoyed book five of the Sean McPherson novels. Opening the book was like being reunited with friends: Niall and Libby, Mick and Emma, and the whole gang of writers. The mix of homey domesticity at the writer's retreat, Pines & Quill, softens the gruesome matters of the plot: murder, organized crime, and suspense, but somehow, it all works so well together. I can't wait for book six!”—Marianne C. Bohr, author of Gap Year Girl and The Twenty
“Sean McPherson, an ex-cop turned PI, must find the serial murderer who is out to get him and his family and destroy Pines & Quill. The action is non-stop. The reader roots for Mick and his family and for Pines & Quill while brought into the sordid world of trafficking and cartels and those who will kill for profit. Another wonderful book in Buchanan’s Sean McPherson series.”—Pamela Wright, author of The Right Wrong Man
“If you’re a fan of the Sean McPherson novels, you already know and love the characters along with 'Pines and Quill,' the Pacific Northwest retreat for writers. In Illusionist, author Buchanan gives readers another gripping drama. Get ready, because in book five, the stakes are higher than before with a new baby on the way and the fate of ‘Pines and Quill’ in the hands of a mastermind villain. Buchanan proves once again she’s a magician with words, bending them to her narrative will and creating another stunning performance.”— Joy Ribar, author of The Medusa Murders: A Bay Browning Mystery
“Propulsive and spine-tingling, Illusionist is Buchanan’s best book so far in the Sean McPherson series. Brilliantly plotted, this whiplash of a thriller has so many electrifying twists and turns that I couldn’t put it down. The characters at Pines & Quill Writers’ Retreat have long since become my friends, and I’m rooting for them every step of the way.”—Jeannee Sacken, author of The Annie Hawkins Green Series
“Buchanan builds the tension until you’re almost afraid to turn the next page.”—Jeff Nania, author of the John Cabrelli Northern Lakes Mysteries
“Atmospheric and delicious, Buchanan treats her readers’ senses while taking them on a roller-coaster of emotion.”—Michelle Cox, author of multi award-winning the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series