It’s such a shame books disappear so fast from physical bookstores these days…Carter Beats the Devil was published way back in 2002, re-published under a ‘Sceptre Classics’ imprint in 2006, and I only came across it in a second-hand bookstore as a fluke.
And I’m so glad I did. It’s a marvel. We open in 1923. President Harding is dead, a few hours after he appears on stage with Carter the Great, an illusionist and magician. Carter’s no fool; he slips quietly away before the Secret Service can get hold of him – only the first indication of his blatant guilt in the eyes of paranoid agent Jack Griffin. That’s the overture and set up for the bulk of the book, but first, there’s Act One, Carter’s evolution from child using magic to stay calm to youth on the entertainment circuit to man with a headline act.
This is necessary and entertaining but it’s really the next two acts you want to stick around for: great characters, particularly Carter and the main female leads, great concept – what have Carter and the president got to do with a inventor who has come up with something so special people will kill him for it? – and great twists and turns in the tradition of misdirection and illusion. There are a couple of turns in this where I was truly convinced Carter was going to die.
Does he? Read it and find out. The climax is spectacular. If anything, tidying everything up after the climax – when Carter Beats the Devil on-stage – is a bit of a let-down even if epic on one hand and plot-resolving on the other – but only because that early climax is just so un-put-down-ably brilliant.
Gold’s latest book, published just in June this year, is Sunnyside, set in a similar era as Carter but following Charlie Chaplin and the birth of Hollywood. Carter was Gold’s first book; if that’s how good the first one is, I can’t wait to read his second.
Interested in Carter Beats the Devil? Buy it from Fishpond.com.au, Australia’s biggest online bookstore. All their book prices are guaranteed better than Amazon and they do free delivery for orders over $50. You could get both books by Gold and just scrape over the $50 mark for free delivery.
I believe that book is so underrated. About to start my 3rd read!
Yes, it’s a truly great read. Wish I had time to re-read…
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