Wealthy Tony Dorian, who lives on his jet called the Spirit, is an illusionist, who performs a nightclub magic act. At one of his shows, a young man named H. October dies seemingly of a heart attack in front of a middle aged woman in the audience. Tony can see that she is spooked beyond seeing the man die in front of her, Mr. October who she did not know. In wanting to help her, Tony learns her story. She is Nora Coogan, and was scheduled to meet a man - probably the dead man - who she did not know at the show, and who told her that not meeting would threaten the life of her daughter, Mary Rose Coogan. The issue is is that Mrs. Coogan believed that Mary Rose already died, three weeks ago in a company plane accident, the company in question being Seattle-based Baker Aviation, owned by wealthy Joseph Baker. The four victims aboard the plane included two flight crew, Mary Rose, and Lucian Baker, who was Mary Rose's fiancé and Joseph Baker's son. However, the plane and thus the bodies were never recovered. With the help of his good friend, columnist and Renaissance man Max Pomeroy and Max's wheelchair-bound researcher son Dennis Pomeroy, Tony learns that the dead man is not H. October as his identification claims, but rather Lucian Baker. Others also seem to be looking for Mary Rose and will kill for information on her whereabouts. As such, Tony believes that Mary Rose may still be alive, and goes about trying to find her and why others are after her. Tony knows that Joseph Baker is somehow involved, but does not know if the seductive younger Mrs. Joseph Baker - Sally - is also, if the rumors are true that their one year marriage is on the rocks, or if she has other motives for seemingly helping him. A little Tony Dorian smoke and mirrors may assist in discovering all the answers.
The Magician
A magician is asked by the mother of a plane-crash victim to check into a possible conspiracy; he discovers that the plane crash was staged.
