Radiant Night

''Lohier's prose is enthralling. One dark secret dissolves into another, each one more treacherous and shocking. Ludwig Mason, broken and searching, is a character you'll never forget; more than a hero or anti-hero, he is heartbreakingly human.'' -- Matt Marinovich, author of The Winter Girl

''A rich neo-noir thriller that feels as original as it does compelling.'' -- Kirkus

Ludwig Mason is the only Marine to have survived an explosion that reduced his military Humvee to a smoldering wreck in war-torn Fallujah. Back home on American soil, the 28-year-old Iraq War vet struggles through the traumatized, booze- and drug-addled aftermath. He fears that he’s lost his family, his friends, and his last chance at anything when something like fate intervenes in the form of a mysterious stranger named Mrs. S.

The old fortune-teller tells Ludwig about an heirloom seized from her family by Nazis decades ago—a fabled tarot deck that has 23 major arcana cards instead of the customary 22. A deck that she believes is now located somewhere in Mobile, Alabama.

Whatever it was that brought Ludwig to Mrs. S.—be it chance, or fate—now draws him into an hallucinatory odyssey fraught with arcane symbols, danger, and paranoia as he ventures to retrieve the missing tarot deck and, with any luck, a piece of his own lost soul.

Patrick Lohier’s enticing debut novel blends history, mystery and adrenaline to produce a wildly entertaining and fast-paced literary thriller.