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A Crescent City Novel
by Bryan Camp
The fate of New Orleans rests in the hands of a wayward grifter in this novel of gods, games, and monsters.
The post–Katrina New Orleans of The City of Lost Fortunes is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane's destruction, a place that is hoping to survive the rebuilding of its present long enough to ensure that it has a future. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known - a father who just happens to be more than human.
Jude has been lying low since the storm, which caused so many things to be lost that it played havoc with his magic, and he is hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind. A world full of magic, monsters, and miracles. A world where he must find out who is responsible for the Fortune god's death, uncover the plot that threatens the city's soul, and discover what his talent for lost things has always been trying to show him: what it means to be his father's son.
"Starred Review. One hopes for more of Camp's dangerous visions to spring from a city that, as he writes, 'is a great place to find yourself, and a terrible place to get lost.'" - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Anne Rice fans will enjoy this fresh view of supernatural life in New Orleans, while fans of Kim Harrison's urban fantasy will have a new author to watch." - Booklist
"Starred Review. Camp's thoroughly engaging debut is reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, with the added spirit of the vibrant Big Easy." - Library Journal
"Camp's fantasy reads like jazz, with multiple chaotic-seeming threads of deities, mortals, and destiny playing in harmony. This game of souls and fate is full of snarky dialogue, taut suspense, and characters whose glitter hides sharp fangs...Any reader who likes fantasy with a dash of the bizarre will enjoy this trip to the Crescent City." - Publishers Weekly
"Take a walk down wild card shark streets into a world of gods, lost souls, murder, and deep, dark magic. You might not come back from The City of Lost Fortunes, but you'll enjoy the trip." - Richard Kadrey, bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series
"In The City of Lost Fortunes, Bryan Camp delivers a high-octane tale of myth and magic, serving up the best of Neil Gaiman and Richard Kadrey. Here is New Orleans in all its gritty, grudging glory, the haunt of sinners and saints, gods and mischief-makers. Once you pay a visit, you won't want to leave!" - Helen Marshall, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Gifts for the One Who Comes After
"Bryan Camp's debut novel The City of Lost Fortunes is like a blessed stay in a city both distinctly familiar and wonderfully strange...You'll leave sated with the sights and sounds of a New Orleans that is not quite the real city, but breathes like the real thing, a beautiful mimicry in prose that becomes its own version of reality in a way only a good story - or magic - can. You won't regret the visit." - Indra Das, author of The Devourers
"With sharp prose and serious literary chops, Bryan Camp delivers a masterful work of contemporary fantasy...It's funny, harrowing, thrilling - the pages keep turning. The City of Lost Fortunes establishes Bryan Camp as the best and brightest new voice on fantasy literature's top shelf." - Nicholas Mainieri, author of The Infinite
This information about The City of Lost Fortunes was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bryan Camp is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers' Workshop and the University of New Orleans's MFA program. He started his first novel, The City of Lost Fortunes, in the back seat of his parents' car as they evacuated the Crescent City during Hurricane Katrina.
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