Mister Magic

The allure and untrustworthiness of memory and childhood experiences are deftly explored in this compelling and eerie slow burn, perfect for fans of Clay McLeod Chapman’s The Remaking. Believing herself to have been kidnapped by her father at age eight, Val has lived with him in isolation in Idaho for 30 years. She has no memory of her life before and, upon her father’s death, is confronted by a potential link to the unknown pieces of her past when two men show up and claim to have been her costars on the famed children’s television program Mister Magic. With nothing to lose and desperate for information, Val accepts an invitation to appear on a reunion podcast for the show, which ended abruptly in the early ’90s. Prose with natural tenderness and well-placed interstitial chapters that provide glimpses into both the nostalgia and a conspiracy theory will have readers simultaneously desperate for answers and fearful of what more will be revealed.