Fantastic. Houdini, the Marx brothers, political intrigue, mystery, Pirates, animals, magic, this book has it all. A well developed story with sympathetic characters, an adventure story and a love story, or 2 or 3. Marvelous ( )

You'd think that a murder mystery, favorable reviews, magic, glorious San Francisco, and the first BMW motorcycle in the US would have been able to capture my imagination, but finishing this rambly book was a chore. ( )

Carter Beats the Devil is a marvelous, rolicking, sometimes frightening novel set in Prohibition era San Francisco, mostly, with occasional jaunts across the country and the world. Carter is based on a real magician and the acts he and fellow magicians who make appearances in the book including Houdini are based on those performed at the time. Glen David Gould hinges the story around the death of Warren G. Harding and also manages to involve Philo Farnsworth who invented television. I loved it from beginning to end.

This is a wonderful blending of fact and fiction, focusing on Charles Carter, a magician in the early part of the 20th Century. The inspiration for Gold's story, aka the jumping off point, is the somewhat suspicious death of President Warren G. Harding. From that moment of historical significance, Gold weaves an amazing tale full of wonder, as well as perseverance, grief, and hope. It also makes clear that a magic trick is not the same as an illusion, while continually reminding the reader of the importance of misdirection.

Because Harding, in the book, attended Carter's show shortly before he died, participating in the mysterious final act of illusion, a determined Secret Service agent becomes convinced Carter is somehow involved in the president's death, a plot thread that gives the story most of its tension. A digression to Carter's childhood and early career, leading up to Harding's death and beyond, gives the story its soul. Carter quickly became one of my favorite characters, someone I couldn't help but root for, with his almost childlike sense of joy and confidence that things will work out.

I'd barely read the first hundred pages before turning to the "Program Notes" at the back, then Googling new characters as they appeared so I could know which characters were based on actual people. And as a Marx Brothers fan, I got a thrill when, during the time Carter worked on a vaudeville circuit, a comedy act titled "Fun in Hi Skule" and therefore, knew the Marx Brothers would show up. In fact, Julius (Groucho) does show up with a small speaking role. And that's all I'll say about the many delights found in this book.

Writing about magic and illusions can't be easy, but Gold pulled it off spectacularly, grounding the story in believable characters, the ones based on reality and the ones created to fill out the story. This book is one of the most entertaining books I've ever read. ( )

Still reverberating from the smash ending. I kept laughing aloud as another callback was invoked and another expectation exploded. I was quite surprised to read in the afterward that (the Great) Charles Carter was a real person. The character was handled with so much knowing that I assumed he was a vivid fiction placed carefully in the historic setting. I enjoyed it as a visit to teens/twenties SF and Oakland. And the author's messages gave me pleasure: Recurrence is inevitable. Wonder is the purpose of life and it is the Devil who diverts us toward acceptance and fatigue. The only quibbles I'll mention are 1) that Charles' and James' father's outre interests are very important and then never mentioned again; 2) James and Tom's partnership is perhaps too modern. Really fun -- what great prose in the service of a truly creative and entertaining ride. ( )