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woodge's review
5.0
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 recommended from Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer-prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (also an excellent book). Carter Beats the Devil is a richly imagined story full of wonderful characters and it has perhaps the most thrilling, exciting, whiz-bang conclusion I've come across in ages. Great, great book.
dewey_decimater's review
4.0
Carter Beats the Devil starts slowly, but hark, fair reader, stick with it! Gold's sweeping historical drama unfolds itself like a contortionist from a glass box - painstakingly, improbably, and delightfully.
devonpatterson's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars - it was just a bit too drawn out and long
kmccubbin's review
4.0
Somehow Gold reinvigorates the idea of the stage magician and gives it a sense of wonder that I haven't felt since I was a child. All of those things that you have, for much of your adult life, been told that were wondrous and mysterious and grand that you knew just weren't? Somehow, in this mock biography of a real prohibition era magician, Gold restores them to their luster, much in the same way that many of the theaters frequented in this book have been restored in the last several decades in the real world.
To say too much about this story would be a crime because much of the delight is about stumbling across places and characters which seem vaguely familiar and courting the giddy familiarity that rises as you discover who or what they are.
Gold also manages to weave a whip cracker of an old fashioned adventure story, that feels nostalgic without being cliched, through the book.
Just a delight. A giddy, larger than life, delight.
Of special interest to readers with an interest in San Francisco and Oakland history.
To say too much about this story would be a crime because much of the delight is about stumbling across places and characters which seem vaguely familiar and courting the giddy familiarity that rises as you discover who or what they are.
Gold also manages to weave a whip cracker of an old fashioned adventure story, that feels nostalgic without being cliched, through the book.
Just a delight. A giddy, larger than life, delight.
Of special interest to readers with an interest in San Francisco and Oakland history.
nightfaery's review
4.0
This book combines drama, magic, love, detectives, and intrigue all into one very good book. There are moments where you laugh, moments where you cry, and moments where you simply can't even believe what you're reading.
sarahjsnider's review
4.0
I can tell that the author lived for the big actions scenes, and those were lots of fun. The transitions (i.e., most of the second section of the book) lacked the life of the action scenes.
itsq42's review
5.0
A tounge in cheek novel with just enough dry wit to keep you interested for the first half, and enough plot to capture you hook line and sinker for the second half. Incredibly enjoyable. The real missdirection was the plot we read along the way.
rothcoe's review
5.0
I loved this. I want to re-read it again, and again, and again. Turn of the century magician battle with romance and murder and mystery and animals. Something for everyone!
skolastic's review
4.0
The "mysterious death of Warren Harding" plot is a bit boring, but this is supremely entertaining otherwise, a broad, big-hearted book. Probably closer to 4.5 stars.