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Carter Beats The Devil

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 6,388 ratings · 635 reviews

Filled with historical references that evoke the excesses and enthusiasm of postwar, pre-Depression America, "Carter Beats the Devil" is the complex and illuminating story of one man's journey through a magical, and sometimes dangerous world.

Paperback, 576 pages

Published December 28th 2006 by Sceptre (first published 2001)

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Nov 23, 2012 Paul rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who actually like magic, as opposed to me

Shelves: really-terrible-novels

A friend gave it to me years ago. I figured eventually I had to read it, like you do. On page 67 I threw it at the wall. It's about magic, which is not very interesting to read about. Or to see for that matter. Magic is very annoying - it's not real you know, it's just a lot of tricks. I like it when they chop a person up and have parts of them in boxes spread around the stage - head there, feet way over there - but that's about it.
Likewise with Harry Potter, every one of which I've seen on the...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jan 07, 2009 Seizure Romero rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, signed

It's so rare to have a book that I just can't wait to get back to reading. I always have a book with me (usually several in my car, as noted by certain friends of mine who can't help but comment on the apartment-like state of my vehicle), but then there's the one that leaps to the fore and all the other 'currently reading' titles are consigned, literally, to the back seat. Carter Beats the Devil is fun from the beginning. Gold has a knack for characters and for dialogue, and even the back story...more

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Dec 27, 2007 Hannah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone!

Shelves: favorites

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I started it on a plane to D.C. and couldn't put it down- I stayed up all night when I got there until it was finished. It's historical fiction in the best sense and touches on so many things that fascinate me: the invention of television by Phil T. Farnsworth (see "The Boy Who Invented Television"), the Secret Service (see "Starling of the White House"), turn-of-the-century magicians (see "Houdini!!!," "Hiding the Elephant," and "Kellar's Wonders"),...more

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Aug 31, 2008 Treplovski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Magic, Historical Fiction

Recommended to Treplovski by: 62 pages of reviews

I just had to reread this. There have been damn few times in my life that I've laughed out loud, I mean the really gasp-in-amazement, my-god-this is-colossal kind of laugh, while reading a book. The how-the-hell-did-they-DO-that sputtering laughter reserved for CGI effects. Movies, TV, plays, that's the places you indulge yourself like that, certainly not in the solitude of your favorite chair with a novel in your face. People might talk. "What the hell's going on in there?"

Let 'em. This is the...more

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Jun 20, 2008 Gus rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked the first half or so of this book quite a bit: three-going-on-four stars liked it. I liked that it was a historical novel (1890s - 1930s) in which the author didn't rub all his hard-earned research in your face. (The "I spent thirteen hours in the library researching fin de siècle wallpaper and by God I'm putting it in there" school of historical fiction.) The details were all just bruch strokes and placed just right. But the book gets sloppy by the end, going for a ridiculous climax tha...more

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Aug 19, 2007 Ray Campos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil is something that's becoming increasingly rare: a novel about magic with no fantasy elements in it. But what makes the book truly remarkable is Gold's ability to make real-world stage magic just as interesting and amazing as the feats performed by that uppity British kid in the big glasses: even when the reader is told how the tricks are done.

The book gives us the tale of Charles Joseph Carter, a real-life magician thrown into a highly fictionalized story...more Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil is something that's becoming increasingly rare: a novel about magic with no fantasy elements in it. But what makes the book truly remarkable is Gold's ability to make real-world stage magic just as interesting and amazing as the feats performed by that uppity British kid in the big glasses: even when the reader is told how the tricks are done.

The book gives us the tale of Charles Joseph Carter, a real-life magician thrown into a highly fictionalized story involving the (also real but fictionalized) untimely death of President Warren G. Harding. It just so happens that Carter performed a rather morbid trick onstage with the president just hours before he died, and now the FBI considers him a prime suspect in his death. Carter also has to deal with his own fading career, the painful memory of his late wife's tragic death, and a rival magician with a homodical grudge. Throughout it all, he devises an incredible magic show designed to get his career back on track and knock the people of 1920's San Fransisco off their feet.

But what makes the book truly remarkable is Gold's ability to transfer the techniques that make magic so enjoyable unto his own writing style. The entire story relies on Gold's skill at misdirection: the soul of the magician's act, where the audience's attention is drawn in the wrong direction so an illusion can be performed. Time and again Gold gets the reader to think about the wrong person or situation so he can surprise us with an unexpected outcome to a sequence. Somehow this trick never gets old, as Gold, like any good magician, comes up with countless ways of dressing up his tricks so they seem brand new. The book boasts a great mystery and an excellent climax, along with a surprise ending that Gold seemingly pulls from nowhere, like a rabbit from a hat.

Carter is a fine historical adventure novel, but there are a few problems. Carter himself is an excellent and full realized character, but hardly anyone else in the cast approaches his complexity; the FBI agent who persues him comes close, but several other characters are rather flat and one-dimensional, including Carter's love intrests and various backers of his performance. The worst offender is Mysterioso (his real name is never given) the rival magician and the "devil" of the book's title. A Snidley Whiplash style campy bad guy, he abuses animals, demeans his co-workers, murders people (with playing cards!) for no apparent reason, looks down on everyone, attempts rape, and so forth. Mysterioso is a fun bad guy, but that's all he is; he's easily the second most important character in the book but there's nothing whatsoever to his character besides being a jerk. Several of the book's supporting characters suffer similar fates, filling necessary roles which they never come close to breaking out of.

Despite this, Carter himself is more than strong enough a character to carry the book all on his own, and his feats of magic, along with the era in which he lived, come alive vividly. So if you're looking for a story that blends adventure, mystery and some truly diabolical tricks, Carter and Gold have quite a show in store for you.
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Nov 19, 2008 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: presto digital dictators

Shelves: 20th-century-blues

Great sprawling blockbuster about battling magicians that goes on too long. I liked it but began irritating me after awhile because it had that "I wanna be a movie!" vibe that also marred "Da Vinci Code" and "Kavalier and Clay". It's like the writer custom made the book for Robert Zemeckis or Barry Sonnenfeld to direct into a big budget movie. Thank God they didn't take the bait.

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Apr 08, 2008 Woodge rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everybody

Shelves: recommended, favorites, adventure

This is a thrilling, romantic, fascinating book and will probably be my favorite book read this year. Carter Beats the Devil is a historically fact-based novel about magician Charles Carter who performed in the golden age of magic (1890s thru the 1920s). This story pits Carter against rival magicians and Secret Service agents who suspect Carter had a hand in the death of President Harding. I was drawn in from the get-go. This book is full of suspense, humor, and panache. It came highly recommend...more

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Mar 10, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bear with me one this one: a story about a 1920s magician who is suspected of assassinating President Harding after the president attended one of his shows. Much of the book is apparently based on the real-life magician Carter the Great, but the embroidering on character and detail is fascinating. The story is told from the point of view of a few different characters: Carter, the secret service agent tailing him, etc. Somehow the author weaves together the development of television, turn of the...more

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Feb 15, 2013 CJ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow! This is one of my favorite books ever! History, mystery, and a little romance all set in long ago San Francisco so what's not to like? I'm amazed that this is Mr. Gold's first novel and agree with one review that once you're into it, it's hard not to want the answers, but wishing the book would never end. Ah, but alas, I've read the last page - the one with all the publishing information; that's how good it was.

2/10/13 - Still good, even the second time! Found nuances I missed the first tim...more

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Dec 28, 2010 Simeonberesford rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mainstream

Yes it was obviously a first novel. Gold seemed determined to cram every bit of research, every idea he had into this. Its length came not from padding but from an inability to leave anything out. a more experanced writer might have held some ideas thoughts and research back for another novel but I suspect Gold did not know if there would be another novel so in it went.[return][return] I do hope he has enough left over for another [return]Neal Stephenson is the only author I can think of who can...more

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Dec 08, 2010 JackieB rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This book is about a magician who gets drawn into an intrigue and is suspected of murder. It has a plot with lots of twists and turns because the reader doesn't know any more than the various people who are trying to uncover the truth about the murder. So your understanding of the mystery changes you learn more about the situation. It's like the reader is an invisible onlooker so you hear and see what's happening. There are various groups who are trying to find out what really happened and why a...more

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Jan 23, 2009 Margot rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A delightful weave of history and fiction. The death of President Harding is interwoven with the life story and career of San Francisco prestidigitator Charles Carter, with unexpected magical disappearances and materializations. I highly recommend it, particularly for Bay Area folks, for the constant mentions of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland in the 1920s.
Here's some of my favorite things:
Charlie discovers his mother's vibrator in 1897:
"Vibration is life: What woman hasn't lost her fair sh...more A delightful weave of history and fiction. The death of President Harding is interwoven with the life story and career of San Francisco prestidigitator Charles Carter, with unexpected magical disappearances and materializations. I highly recommend it, particularly for Bay Area folks, for the constant mentions of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland in the 1920s.
Here's some of my favorite things:
Charlie discovers his mother's vibrator in 1897:
"Vibration is life: What woman hasn't lost her fair share of life to the mysterious ailments that incapacitate her zest and zeal? Feminine complaints can constrict the flow of the vital humors, leading to restlessness, furtive amativeness, a corruption of morals and the downfall of her happy home.
Treat yourself to an invigorative cure! Lindstrom Smith White Cross Electric Vibrators provide 15,000 pulsations per minute, relieving pain, stiffness and weakness. Just five to ten minutes with the Electric Vibrator, and all the pleasures of youth will throb within you. Steady and frequent application treats hysteria, chlorosis, greensickness, neurasthenia and all manner of hysteroneurasthenic disorders, and even simple fatigue and melancholy.
Apply to the area that feels the most congestion, and let the Lindstrom Smith White Cross Electric Vibrator relieve you with its thrilling, penetrating, scientifically-proves action. The application, when pursued for five to ten minutes (time will indeed fly!), leads inevitably to a convulsion of the affected region, followed by blissful relaxation and sometimes a tranquil slumber.
Can be used in the privacy of the dressing room or the boudoir."(48)

Descriptions of the San Francisco Public Library newspaper room librarian, Olive White:
"A woman, friendly to the point of near frenzy..."(168)
"a woman behind an oak table piled high with newspapers, among vague and bulky fixtures covered with protective sheeting. She was a tall woman, and as she walked quickly around her table, Griffin noted the contrast of her porch dress and her galoshes...
As she talked, her hands moved like excitable pets...
Before Griffin could answer, Miss White explained that she didn't want to get her good shoes dirt during the renovations...
by the time Miss White had set Griffin up at a study carrel, he felt dizzy. He was better at handling criminals than a helpful citizen."(171)

Carter's wine label--"For Sacramental Use Only" during Prohibition--is a visual trick that's only visible from an extreme angle. See the label here (less)

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Dec 02, 2008 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one

Recommended to Sara by: Mom

Shelves: adult-fiction, 2008, historical-fiction

Not the best. A magician named Carter the Great rises to fame in this novel, mainly set in the early 20th century, and is investigated by the Secret Service because they suspect he has something to do with President Harding's death. An okay premise, but my problem was in the book's execution.

This is a book about a magician. It should feel magical. It does not. It almost felt like I was reading a history book; not exactly what I like in a novel. On top of that, the storyline jumps around in time...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Jonathan Stephenson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed reading this book, perhaps all the more so because of how I came by it. As others have said its background is well researched and it is well enough written to carry you with it, although like many a long novel I found the wrap up of the plot’s mysteries at the end was, for me, not as satisfying as the journey towards it.

So how did it come into my possession? For reasons that would take too long to explain together with a friend I found myself after hours in the basement museum of the M...more

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May 30, 2012 Jonathan Briggs rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm sorry, but the management has requested that I not divulge any details about the magic act Carter Beats the Devil. All I'll say is that it's spectacular, you've never seen anything like it and on the evening of Aug. 2, 1923, it was immediately followed by the mysterious death of one of its participants, President Warren G. Harding.

Secret Service Agent Jack Griffin warned Harding not to get involved in Carter the Great's shenanigans, but the president was not to be dissuaded. Earlier in his c...more I'm sorry, but the management has requested that I not divulge any details about the magic act Carter Beats the Devil. All I'll say is that it's spectacular, you've never seen anything like it and on the evening of Aug. 2, 1923, it was immediately followed by the mysterious death of one of its participants, President Warren G. Harding.

Secret Service Agent Jack Griffin warned Harding not to get involved in Carter the Great's shenanigans, but the president was not to be dissuaded. Earlier in his career, Griffin failed to protect another president, William McKinley, who was mowed down by an anarchist's bullet. Now Griffin is a two-time loser, a disgrace in the eyes of his colleagues.

This time it's personal.

Griffin launches a maverick investigation behind the curtain and into the life of Charles Carter, "the greatest sorcerer the world had ever known." It's a life spent in pursuit of real-life magic. Early on, the book tells of a childhood visit to a fair "in the wilds of Berkeley" and Carter's fervent desire "to be taken over by genuine wonder." The world's tallest man steals a lucky coin from Carter through sleight of hand, and from that moment on, the boy is hooked on magic. From a book in his father's library, he learns the magician's code of ethics and a few beginner's tricks. He starts out trying to impress his more worldly minded and rather unimpressed younger brother, James.

Carter's parents are amused at first; less so, as his obsession refuses to fade with age. Despite his family's growing disapproval, he slugs it out in cheap vaudeville venues, making little to no money but gaining experience in reading audiences and steadily improving his skills until his discovery by Harry Houdini. After that fateful meeting, Carter escalates from struggling in the fleatrap circuit to headlining glitzy theaters to joining the ranks of magic's singularly named greats: Kellar, Thurston, the villainous Mysterioso and the king of them all, Houdini.

Most of the big-name magicians follow the same professional code and perform variations of the same core tricks. They differentiate themselves through the presentation. Much like the summer blockbuster movies of today, the magic shows of the early 1900s feature ever more elaborate illusions and special fx. The rivalry between the magicians is fierce -- sometimes friendly ... and sometimes it's murder. Carter rises to his greatest height of fame and notoriety the night he invites Harding to take part in his performance's finale, the act known as Carter Beats the Devil, and the president shares with the magician a secret that some might consider worth killing to possess.

Like Kevin Baker's "Dreamland," "Carter Beats the Devil" (the novel, not the magic act) is a fascinating look at how Americans entertained themselves in the late 19th century and early 20th. Before movies, before television, before do-gooder safety regulations. As nifty as our iPods, DVDs, Internet and high-def 3D whizbang geegaw jing tingler flu floopers can be, we really missed out on something, judging by these books.

"Carter" is no literary masterpiece. It can be awkward and amateurish, and the manuscript could have used one or two more good rigorous edits before publication. But whatever its flaws, the book is an absolute blast to read. Any novel that sets the Marx Brothers loose in a sporting house is bound to be an exhilarating funhouse ride. Plus, there are pirates, exotic animals, card tricks, motorcycles, fallen women, a psycho killer, mad science, strange government hazing rituals, narrow escapes, throwing knives, a blind woman in peril... "Carter Beats the Devil" is a book of pure magic. Not just the stagecraft its hero practices, but narrative magic -- the kind that makes the hours and your surroundings disappear. (less)

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May 27, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not-ya

What a fun ride! Full of misdirection, slight of hand, history, mystery, and magic of the very terrestrial variety. Gold managed to create a most complex balancing act, telling you far in advance where the story was going, and then amazing you when you arrive right at the spot that had been prophesied pages before. Gold's mastery of storytelling is impressive. I cannot remember the last time I was so aware of the storytelling process in the course of reading a book, like looking for the wires ar...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Sherwood Smith added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This book was a pleasure to read, except perhaps for the (to me) far too extended torture of the climax. But by then, of course, one cannot stop reading, for one cares desperately about the characters, including the animals. Gold's Carter is so good-hearted, something all too rarely encountered in too much of today's fiction. The characters are vivid, the structure quite interesting, the times well depicted (with only one or two tiny falters, the main one being the tiresomely ubiquitous "It's ab...more

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Jun 10, 2009 Glen Engel-Cox rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated by magic. The books I sought out in grammar school were ones that had magic in the title (Andre Norton's are the most memorable). I bugged my parents one year for a magic kit and received it for a birthday or Christmas present, I can't remember which. But I never became adept at performing tricks, preferring to be the fooled instead of the fooler. I wanted to believe in magic, to live in the world of imagination, and understanding how a trick was ac...more Ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated by magic. The books I sought out in grammar school were ones that had magic in the title (Andre Norton's are the most memorable). I bugged my parents one year for a magic kit and received it for a birthday or Christmas present, I can't remember which. But I never became adept at performing tricks, preferring to be the fooled instead of the fooler. I wanted to believe in magic, to live in the world of imagination, and understanding how a trick was actually performed was too much of reality.

Thirty years later, I seek a different magic--that achieved by putting specific words in sequence to illuminate a different reality. Glen David Gold's book has that magic, as well as the magician that I could never become, Charles Carter, as its hero and protagonist. Gold's sleight-of-hand is deft, as he takes real personages like Carter, President Warren G. Harding, and Harry Houdini, and performs a virtuoso illusion of history, a history that you want to believe in, because Gold's patter and delivery is so strong, and one that you don't regret having believed in because it is so good.

The prologue sets the mystery up. Pres. Harding attends a San Francisco performance of Carter the Great's magic show, including taking part in the infamous third act entitled "Carter Beats the Devil," which the audience is instructed not to reveal any of the details so as not to ruin it for future crowds. Unfortunately, Harding dies later that night, and Carter becomes a suspect, if only in rumor. His mysterious nature may prove his downfall as first the details of his third act are published in the paper, details that only further the gossip that he might have had a hand in Harding's death.

The novel then moves back in time to show us how Carter got to be in that place, including his discovery of a book on magic when younger and his slow rise through the vaudeville circuit, including his sudden leap to fame. I can't say anymore, because any more might destroy the illusion.

This is a deft work, made all the more so because it is the author's first novel. The easy comparison is to that other recent bestselling historical revisionism, Michael Chabon's The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and while the two have some similarities, they are vastly different in theme. Gold's is more of a thrill ride than Chabon's exegesis on how superheroes are an inherently American phenomenon. While I enjoyed Gold's book tremendously and highly recommend it, it doesn't have the deeper layers of meaning of Chabon's work.(less)

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Apr 07, 2008 Bryce Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

A Conversation I had earlier,

Friend: "So what are you reading."

Me: "Carter Beats The Devil, it's about a master magician battling a shadowy conglomerate of the government, corporations, and secret societies to find the truth about president Harding's death with the help of his pet lion."

Friend: "... There's no part of that sentence that doesn't appeal to me."

There is a word for this book and it is awesome. A big thank you to Natalie for bringing this to my attention.

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Mar 11, 2013 Fred Fortune rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is a perfect read. It revolves around a magician in California in the 1920s. Easy, interesting, and very clean, it gets in a good romance, a compelling mystery, and a deliciously evil bad guy. You simply love all of the characters you're supposed to like, many of who go through their personal pain & redemption as you sympathize & applaud (respectively). The book includes good solid writing and also provides plenty of historical fact, presented as basic information needed in the...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Viajero rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one

By reading the introduction chapter of Carter Beats the Devil you may think you are before a good, solid mystery novel. It has a remarkable, well-written opening. In an evening of August third, 1923, after having taken part in an impressive stage magic show, US President Warren G. Harding is found dead. The master magician, Charles Carter, finds himself in the center of mysterious scheme as Secret Service agents investigates a “secret” President Harding may have been harboring before his sudden...more By reading the introduction chapter of Carter Beats the Devil you may think you are before a good, solid mystery novel. It has a remarkable, well-written opening. In an evening of August third, 1923, after having taken part in an impressive stage magic show, US President Warren G. Harding is found dead. The master magician, Charles Carter, finds himself in the center of mysterious scheme as Secret Service agents investigates a “secret” President Harding may have been harboring before his sudden and mysterious death.

The problems with the book begin right after that wonderful opening. The thread of the story is abruptly interrupted in the next chapter to bring the reader back to Mr. Carter childhood and boyhood years. It is not the life story of Mr. Carter told through a series of intersected flash backs. It is solid block of more than 120 pages entirely dedicated to describe Charles Carter´s beginnings as a magician. Since this long chapter seems to have been written only to fulfill the “fictionalized biography” part of the book, you can safely skip it and catch up with the story at the beginning of the next chapter.

The book problems doesn´t end there though. After a promising new beginning, the thread of the story quickly dissolves into a confusing swamp, from which it never emerges. At the center of the book seems to lay a crucial indefinition. The author seems to have never really decided what kind of book he wanted to write. The book then constantly oscillates between a mystery novel and a fictionalized biography of Charles Carter. Amidst that never-solved confusion, the characters never really achieve any resemblance of reality and the plotting dissolves amid a myriad of absurd situations. Most of the dialogues are outright insufferable. As someone has written here, by the middle of the book you couldn´t care less about what really happened to President Harding (or the rest of the characters, for that matter).

This is not a good or even an interesting but flawed book. It is an outright bad book. After reading it (or trying to reading it), you are left wondering not only about the criteria used by publishing houses to select the manuscripts to be printed but also about the criteria used by those apparently respectable book reviewers who tells us in the back cover that this is “one of the most entertaining appearing acts of recent years”.
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Jun 29, 2012 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, from-the-library, fiction, read-2012

This book was delightful -- long enough to develop its characters well, but quickly paced enough to keep the many mysteries it presented always progressing in a satisfying way. Though the boom starts with a major death -- Charles Carter's magic show is implicated in the sudden death of President Harding -- the real mysteries about Carter are the details of his rather fantastic life. (There was a real Carter the Great of San Francisco origin, but the author here seems to have diverged pretty sol...more

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Jul 09, 2009 Jen3n rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, mystery, adventure, literature

This book has everything: magic, pirates, lions, elephants, flappers, dead presidents, live kings, blind girls who can see the future and the man who invented T.V.

This is a very fine historical novel set in the first two decades of the 20th century. It centers on Carter The Great, a stage magician on the vaudeville circuit, and the death of President Harding. It's sort-of a mystery, sort-of a love story, sort-of a fictionalized biography, and sort of one of the most fun books I've read this year...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Magic, thriller, period - three specific strands and together they make for a great book.

Set in the fictional world of 1920s magic, this references real people, such as Houdini, but the set-up is pure imagination.

Funny, entertaining, nail-biting and genuinely heart-warming, this is one of those books that not that many people have read, but should be recommended to everyone! I love it!

As a footnote, the author is Alice "Lovely Bones" Sebold's husband

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Apr 05, 2011 A rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars. On the whole I really enjoyed it. I read thru several other reviews and was reminded of some great things about this book - certain characters, scenes, dialogue. But I settled on 3 stars for 3 reasons (which include some definite spoilers!):

1)the last confrontation with Mysterioso. Ugh. The magic show before this scene was much more suspenseful and climatic. Loved it. But then had to endure this drawn out improbability. Although the one part I really liked about...more

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May 12, 2013 Wendy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The mystery of whether Carter murdered the president or not was the one plot line i was least interested in, and with good reason, as it turned out my instant suspicions on it were correct; for me it wasn’t a mystery at all. Far more interesting was Carter’s life, his illusions and his scrapes with the Secret Services and an old rival.

I had heard that the second half of the book was disappointing, after what the first half had set in motion. I did not find this at all (thankfully). If anything,...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Ape rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 09, 2011 Katie Thomas added it · review of another edition

This is a book that will make me get a lump in my throat every time I think of it it. I think Glen David Gold is as good a writer as Philip Roth and that is really saying something. His work is similar because he writes about history in a way that lets you go back in time and live it. You are so blown away by the research that you are then floored that the could spin it into a story. This is a book about the 20s when vaudeville magicians were the most famous people on the planet (like Oprah or t...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While this story wasn't about the type of magic that I'm usually drawn to (where witches and wizards rule, where incantations can tear the fabric of reality, where wands are instruments of thought), it was still magic, and it still had me captivated from the second that Carter started his campaign to beat the Devil. I found myself smiling and slightly in awe by just the descriptions of Carter's final act...and wishing there was some way that I could have witnessed that show in person.

There are s...more While this story wasn't about the type of magic that I'm usually drawn to (where witches and wizards rule, where incantations can tear the fabric of reality, where wands are instruments of thought), it was still magic, and it still had me captivated from the second that Carter started his campaign to beat the Devil. I found myself smiling and slightly in awe by just the descriptions of Carter's final act...and wishing there was some way that I could have witnessed that show in person.

There are so many thoughts bouncing through my head right now. That I loved Charles Carter and was fiercely devoted to him, his plans and his shows. That I was surprised that James grew on me, growing from the snot-nosed little brother to be a true friend to Carter, smart and business-savvy and respected, and throwing out the single most hilarious line:

Oh, dear God, you don't actually have a brain, do you, it's more a filigreed spiderweb, with little chambers in it where trained monkeys play the pipe organ.

My thoughts continue: I love historical fiction, especially when it's done so well. And this, this was done SO well. You have the history of San Francisco, a city I adore, as well as Oakland, struggling to compete with San Francisco even then. You have the peak of on-stage magic, the intrigue of President Harding's untimely demise, the Secret Service, shunned and angry ex-magicians, millionaires, female convicts and the invention of something we take for granted.

I'm actually sad that the book is over. I fell in love with Carter - not only for his talent, but for his soul. I know, that's such a camp thing to say, but it's true. He was such a kind, mostly innocent person, who above all else, wanted to entertain people, and share his sense of wonder with the masses. His nemeses (nemesis? nemesises? nemesees?) were from different worlds, and pursued him for different reasons, but their tenacity and reasons for hounding Carter were real, if shaky, and entirely absorbing.

Honestly, when I started this journey, I had no idea where it would take me. The transitions from the death of President Harding to Carter's past to Carter's present to Carter's (at the time of the first chapter) future were seamless and excellently executed. The final...ehm..."battle" (for lack of a better word) between Carter and the two who dogged him was exhilarating and scared the bejeesus out of me with all the twists, turns and changes in dominance.

Magic draws me in, no matter the form. The history in Carter's story (indeed, the romanticized versions of Carter, Houdini and the Harding’s) were able to delight and intrigue me, and made truly sad to see the end.(less)

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About Glen David Gold

Glen David Gold is best known as the author of Carter Beats the Devil (Hyperion, 2001), a fictionalized biography of Charles Joseph Carter (1874-1936), an American illusionist performing from c.1900-1936. He writes in a narrative style, and the book was hailed as a very respectable venture into historical fiction. Gold is married to Alice Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky. The coupl...more

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“There were never moments in your life when you actually saw something end, for whether you knew it or not something else was always flowering. Never a disappearance, always a transformation.” — 8 people liked it

“Faith was a choice. So, it followed, was wonder.” — 3 people liked it

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