And far too many acquaintances of Maximillian the Vaguely Disreputable Max, to his friends--were being unwittingly caught up in the sorcerous struggle. Now, the Great Karlini and his lovely wife had become stuck in a bespelled castle with atendency to take off at the most inconvenient moments and only Max stood any chance of tracking down the being who d trapped them there. But what Max couldn t anticipate was that thehunt would lead him to the ramshackle town of Roosing Oolvaya and straight into a power war betweenDeath gods, necromancers, and a sorcerer/detective who would have been able to outmagic the best of them except for the curse that made him mortally ill whenever he cast even the most minor of spells. With wizardry running wild, could Max avert the catastrophic doom that was swiftly overtaking himself, the Great Karlini, and all of Roosing Oolvaya?