Last Call

Last Call, an urban fantasy novel by Tim Powers, follows Scott Crane, a recent widower and the child of Georges Leon, a powerful gambler who killed the proprietor of a hotel in Las Vegas to take control of a powerful Tarot deck-inspired system of magic. The book plays on the legend of the Fisher King, an Arthurian fable about the wounded king tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. Scott Crane's father has taken over as the Fisher King, but Scott, wanting to dethrone him, is willing to risk his life in a magical game of Tarot-inspired poker to end his father's reign. Last Call, the first in a loose trilogy of fantasy novels by Powers, is followed by Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather.

Bugsy Siegel, a character based on and named after the real-life American mobster who was infamous for his charisma, charm, and brutal violence, has just created a new casino and hotel in Vegas called The Flamingo – it is based on the inverted Tower card in Tarot. Bugsy, the claimed Fisher King, possesses the incredible power of the Tarot.

However, the tables turn when Georges Leon, another mobster and the father of Scott Crane, murders Bugsy in his mistress's home in Los Angeles. Having overthrown the powerful man, Leon takes over as the proprietor of the Flamingo, controlling the Tarot deck’s awe-inspiring power. Having overthrown Bugsy, Leon will become the next Fisher King. However, his thirst for power puts his family in danger, and it soon becomes clear that Leon is more interested in his own well-being than that of his children, Robert and Scott Crane.



The fuel behind the Fisher King's power is a stable of brain-dead bodies, whose power he wins over in games of Tarot poker. Their lifeblood keeps the Fisher King alive. Leon decides to sap his eldest son, Robert, of his power first; soon Robert is a shell of what he once was, and Leon has the power to see through Robert's eyes. Watching what happened to his brother, five-year-old Scott Crane is terrified when his father tries to teach him the ways of Tarot poker. He knows that he is next in the line of braindead bodies that will keep his father in power. However, before Leon can get to Scott, Scott's mother shoots Leon in the groin with a pistol. This bullet hole becomes the unhealing wound that distinguishes Leon as the Fisher King. Scott's mother saves Scott, throwing him on a passing yacht before his father can attack him again. Scott's only wound is blindness in one eye – other than that, he remains unharmed.

Ozzie, a wizard, owns the yacht Scott's mother puts him on, hoping he can find a better life. Ozzie adopts Scott and begins to train him in the ways of magic. Ozzie is smart and a supportive father figure to Scott, who has never known a life without violence. Ozzie gives Scott the power to eventually face his father to try to beat him in a game called Assumption.

Assumption is a version of Tarot card poker in which Leon, as the acting Fisher King, can assume the bodies of previous losers of the game, giving him immortality. In the primary action of the novel, Scott faces off against Leon, and they battle for their lives. Unfortunately, Scott eventually loses, but he makes it his sole mission in life to beat his father and to save his own soul and the souls of those trapped by his horrible antics. In his mission, Scott is assisted by the ghost of Bugsy Siegel, the first Fisher King and the man killed by Leon, whom Scott meets at the bottom of Lake Mead.



The author of science fiction and fantasy novels, Tim Powers won two World Fantasy Awards; one for Last Call, and the other for Declare, a supernatural spy novel. Most of Powers's books are considered secret or alternative “histories,” which feature real characters and events but also feature a supernatural element or magical alternate reality that shapes the course of events in the novel. Writing since the mid-1970s, Powers has also published a handful of anthologies of short fiction. Last Call is the first book in the Fault Lines series; altogether, the books in the series were nominated for or awarded two Locus Fantasy Awards, two World Fantasy Awards, a Nebula Prize, and BSFA award.