A review by sfstagewalker
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold

4.0

This was a book that, when I picked it up off the shelf, my wife told me it was one of her favorite books. I had heard a lot of talk when it had come out about it being set in San Francisco and Oakland (where we live) and that it was a really fun read. So, I went into it with a lot of expectations.

It's a good book. Gold is excellent at his characterizations, the plotting is quite good, the attention to environmental detail loving... it's a good book. I particularly liked the first third, and the last half of the third part of the novel. I just got so very angry with the author in the middle that it made it very hard for me to appreciate the transition. The thing is

Spoiler

when he killed off Annabelle/Sarah I felt utterly betrayed. I felt that he had written an interesting, unique, and vibrant woman for no other reason than to immediately "Fridge" her... to kill her off to make the male lead's arc more tragic. Even now, after having finished the book and greatly appreciated the way that the story was resolved, I still harbor resentment for what I perceive of as a clumsy and overused storytelling technique. I want to locate the biography of the real Carter, just to see if Annabelle/Sarah actually existed and if she did die as the result of a stage effect gone wrong... just to see if Gold was using history, or relying on tropes.

Still, despite my issues, I persisted and I do applaud Gold's telling of a story set in a world that I've not really explored before. I would certainly be happy to pick up any of his other work.