I do have a copy and it looks like a match to me. The detective is
called Casey, the covention, the spectacular redhead, girl whose father
wasted away/was murdered by magic.
Published 1976 by Scribner, ISBN 0684147823
Also says a shorter version was first published in Beyond Fantasy
Fiction for May 1954 with title Sine of the magus.
Hope that helps,
Sarah
Sarah Stein
Senior Special Collections Librarian
Materials Support/Special Cataloging
Denver Public Library
Denver, Colorado, USA
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>>> [log in to unmask] 08/17/03 3:00 AM >>>
Not certain, but this might be "The Magicians" by James Gunn. Alas, I
don't
have a copy any more to check. As I recall it, the girl and her father
use
mathematical equations to perform magic (equations providing the
necessarily
precise language for the magical concepts, more so than the traditional
Latin or Hebrew). During the book, the PI learns to use magic also.
The
convention - or "Covention" takes place at a big hotel - I remember one
scene where the hero calls up room service to ask for a book on tensor
calculus and a ham-on-rye sandwich. As I recall, the baddies of the
piece
are practicing magic in the old-fashioned, superstitious way, while the
girl
& her father are taking a more rational and mathematical approach.
Is that the book?
Barry.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Deb Warner" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2003 2:50 AM
Subject: [SF-LIT] what was that book?
> This is one for me. I'm trying to pin down a book I
> enjoyed @15 years ago.
> It involved a PI that is hired by the usual
> attractive young damsel in distress to track down
> either a manuscript or the person responsible for her
> father's death. This is not an alternate world, just
> an ordinary contemporary setting where some magicians
> can really do magic. The girl's father was a magician
> who "just sort of faded away" (i.e. killed by another
> magician). In order to investigate the PI must
> accompany the girl to a convention of magicians (real
> ones) at a local hotel. The trick at the end was the
> bad guy couldn't hex out hero because he didn't have
> his real name. The hreo is referred to as "Casey"
> throughout the book, but it's really "K.C." for Kansas
> City, where he was born or conceived or somesuch. I
> think the title might have been "Too Many Magicians"
> but it is definately not the Randall Jarrett Lord
> Darcy novel, though that is quite enjoyable. The tone
> is light, like Leiber or Sheckley.
> Please help!
>
>
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