Carter Beats the Devil begins in flash of narrative razzle-dazzle, with magician Charles Carter vaguely implicated in the mysterious death of President Warren Harding. In the middle of this intriguing mystery it steps back in time to show young Carter's transformation from privledged child to lowly vaudeville performer to headliner and Houdini protege. Finally it returns to the initial narrative to solve its mysteries in a cinematic humdinger of a climax, with an unexpected twist to boot.

Sounds like a great story, right?

Unfortunately, inserted into the middle of the book are about two hundred pages where nothing happens, fatally damaging a novel that's all about flashy illustion and misdirection. The book has all the necessary elements of a terrific adventure story, but the author's literary aspirations and exhaustive historical research seem to get the better of him.

The characters on display simply carry no subtext. They have have more than enough clever dialogue but no ability to show us emotion -- Gold must tell us, even while he's keeping major secrets, per the dictates of his plot. The end result is that while Carter makes a terrific action hero, he can't hold the stage in the absence of narrative movement. Battling bafflingly diabolical fellow magician Mysterioso or incompetent secret service agents Carter wows us. Driving aimlessly around San Francisco on his motorcycle, grieving for his long dead wife, he loses us.

Once can easily imagine this material sharpened down into a terrific film, but as a novel its as frustrating as it is entertaining.

Glen David Gold has woven a seductive and very entertaining tale which uses fact (often stretched to the limit and just as often totally skewed, but delightfully so) mingled skillfully with fiction. Its protagonist, the self-proclaimed Carter the Great, was a real-life magician who entertained during Vaudeville's Golden Age. The world of Vaudevillian stage magic,including its often eccentric cast of characters and dazzling effects, is created in rich detail and provides a backdrop which contrasts with the often lonely and melancholy life of Mr. Carter himself. We see the magician grow from a curious child to a clever and resourceful adult; we watch his career take off due to his creative and spectacular use of magic to entertain and to allow his audience to escape from the dull world of reality. This escape is as much for Carter's benefit as for his audience, and while everyone knows the "magic" is but an illusion, they joyfully and willingly enter into the deception.

Carter becomes embroiled in the mystery revolving around the death of President Warren G. Harding and thus he becomes a shadowy and elusive fugitive of sorts, playing cat-and-mouse with the Secret Service (which consists of an awfully villanous cast of characters of its own). Through an imaginative blending of historical fact and pure whimsy, Gold manages to weave a tale that is absolutely and purely entertaining. His Carter is a man of depth, tortured by guilt, who searches for inner peace and who can find real happiness when he is on the stage, creating a world of awe inspiring illusion for his audiences.

The plot moves fairly well and even with all the twists and turns, it never became confusing for me. Pay careful attention, though, or in the maze of details you may neglect to pick up on something important. Allow yourself to enter this magic world. Suspend your disbelief and let your imagination take flight. Go with Mr. Carter and let him amaze you.

I'm not usually moved to write reviews for books or CDs on Amazon, but Glen Gold's wonderful debut novel causes me to do so. I'll try and stay away from the magic analogies in describing how Gold's writing makes the pages disappear, though I did have to fight myself to stop reading, to better savor the novel. To the point: this is a damn fine book. I'm on my second read of it right now and it's gotten even better the second time around. Glen Gold weaves a rich tapestry of fiction and non-fiction, creating a richness of characters, story and setting. He creates characters--starting with Charles Carter--that we genuinely care about. There are no prop-like characters in this book, sitting around like furniture. Gold imbues them with a sense of flesh and blood, as well as hearts & minds. Charles Carter, dubbed "Carter the Great", is a character conflicted with that greatness. We are allowed to see his story unfold from early on, as Gold sets the groundwork for what it is yet to come. There is an intricacy to the story, but it is not disjointed in the least, as one reviewer stated. The story is beautifully woven, as multiple plots are pulled together is a seemingly effortless way. This is no empty brain candy that you might find on the Jersey shore in the Summertime. Glen Gold's book is storytelling on the order of Caleb Carr, with a richness that pulls his readers into the book and doesn't let go until the gripping climactic scene.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Do yourself a favor and put it on your holiday list. My copy has been read by numerous people, all giving rave reviews. It's magic that I even got it back-:C) Enjoy.