Carter Beats the Devil ~ A Review

You know, Gate, I frequently judge a book by it's cover. So when I saw the cover of Glen David Gold's novel Carter Beats the Devil, a lithograph of a fellow in evening clothes wearing an ornately spangled turban holding up a hand of cards ... four aces and a ten ... sitting opposite a manic looking Mephistopheles showing a hand of four kings and a nine, I figured this had to be an extremely wonderful book.

Fortunately the novel lives up to it's cover. Taking real life vaudeville magician Charles Carter, Carter the Great, as his protagonist, Gold weaves an intricate, engaging story set in and around San Francisco from the turn of the 20th Century to the early 1920s, plush mansions, vaudeville theatres and touring companies in which a variety of historical figures make cameo appearances. The plot is worthy of Umberto Ecco, John Buchan and Wilkie Collins, tight, complicated and with a host of well-defined, memorable characters. President Warren G. Harding, escaping a scandal-plagued administration, attends one of Carter the Great's San Francisco performances, assisting in Carter's act. Later that evening, Harding is dead from unknown causes. Did Carter have a hand in assassinating the President? Secret Service agent Jack Giffin is determined to find out the truth about Carter. And what terrible secret did Harding reveal to Carter that has so many government agents and industrialists after him? Will Carter beat the Devil?

An amazingly wonderful book which will have you hooked from the first chapter.

You can try your hand at helping Carter beat the Devil in this nifty game.