Twisting the Rope
core novel 1986 Tea with the Black Dragon
Record
| First published | 1986 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.69 (821 ratings, collected 2026-09-05) |
| Page count | 242 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780553260267 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
Twisting the Rope reunites Martha Macnamara and Mayland Long, the courtly figure known to her as the Black Dragon, some time after the events of Tea with the Black Dragon, as several crises converge on Martha's life at once. A powerful and unfamiliar psychic disturbance begins affecting people around her, one of her old friends from the Celtic music scene is found dead in a killing involving a length of twisted grass rope, and, most urgently, Martha's young granddaughter is kidnapped. Mayland Long draws on his formidable intelligence and hidden abilities to help Martha find the child and uncover who is responsible, a search that carries the pair from contemporary California settings into darker, stranger territory.
Where it sits
- Universe: Tea with the Black Dragon
- Series: Tea with the Black Dragon core; position 2 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: R. A. MacAvoy
Notes
- From the series record (Tea with the Black Dragon): A completed two-book contemporary-fantasy sequence: a grieving mother investigating her missing daughter's computer-fraud entanglement is aided by a courtly stranger who is, unbeknownst to her, an ancient dragon in human form; the sequel follows the same pair investigating a fraudulent psychic. MacAvoy's debut won the 1984 Locus Award for Best First Novel and was a finalist for the 1983 Nebula Award and 1984 Hugo Award for Best Novel; MacAvoy herself won the 1984 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Tea with the Black Dragon: position 2 of 2: previous Tea with the Black Dragon (1983)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Tea with the Black Dragon
- https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/twisting-the-rope/9781497602588
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