Synopses & Reviews
Dr. Alexander Potter, disgraced Civil War surgeon, now huckster and seller of snake-oil, travels the wet roads of the Pacific Northwest with a disheartened company of strongmen, illusionists, fortunetellers, and musical whores. Under the quiet command of the mysterious, merciless, and murderous Lyman Rhoades, they entertain the masses while hawking the Chock-a-saw Sagwa Tonic, a vital elixir touted to cure all ills both physical and spiritual… although, for a few unfortunate customers, the Sagwa offers something much, much worse.
For drunken dentist Josiah McDaniel, the Sagwa has taken everything from him; in the hired company of two accidental outlaws, the bickering brothers Solomon Parker and Agamemnon Rideout, he looks to revenge himself on the Elixir’s creator: Dr. Morrison Hedwith, businessman, body-thief, and secret alchemist, a man who is running out of time.
Review
"A word of advice: whatever you do, don’t drink the Sagwa. One part history, two parts fantasy, and three parts toe-curling horror. Drink it down. A grotesque elixir of history, fantasy, and toe-curling horror. Warning: may cause nausea, sleep disturbances, and compulsive page-turning. Not to be taken orally." Arianne "Tex" Thompson, author of the Children of the Drought trilogy
Review
"Fischl has infused his tale of the old west with one part of alchemy and one part of gangster movie. The resultant brew is deliciously dark and entirely compelling." Rod Duncan, Philip K Dick Award-nominated author of The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter
Review
"Dr. Potter’s Medicine Show is a brilliant study of characters struggling against the monstrous to retain their own humanity. Fischl’s talent for voice and knack for characterization finds humor and beauty amidst horror and depravity. It’s heartbreaking, elegiac, and an absolute pleasure to read." Carrie Patel, author of the Recoletta series
Review
"Eric Scott Fischl offers up a powerful alchemical elixir concocted of post Civil War historical fiction, dark fantasy, Felliniesque flavoring, all in a ruby goblet of lapidary prose.
Take the goblet, and drink deeply." John Shirley, author of the A Song Called Youth trilogy
About the Author
Eric Scott Fischl writes novels of speculative historical fiction and the supernatural. He lives in Montana’s Bitterroot mountains.