Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59916 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-16
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
With romance, magic and science as its central themes, Glen David Gold's impressive debut Carter Beats The Devil is an inspired delight, a dazzling combination of fact and fiction. Charles Carter is given his stage name "Carter the Great" by the legendary Harry Houdini and the jazz age of the early 1900s is clearly well researched, yet the romance and strong cast of characters must owe more to the imagination than to history.

The novel begins in 1923 with the most daring performance of Carter's life. Unfortunately, two hours into the performance, US President Harding is dead and the magician must flee the country, pursued by the Secret Service. This is only an instalment in Carter's amazing life though as we are guided from his childhood, where both the family servant and a circus freak bullied him, to his rise to stardom and his eventual performance in front of the president. Subsequently, the protagonist is crippled by loneliness, widowed and hunted down by those who believe him a murderer and yet he rises again and again to delight and fulfil the highest expectations of his audience. The strong narrative and storyline make for a compelling read. And Carter is such a magical character that you cannot fail to be touched by him--loving whom he does and hating his enemies.

This is an ambitious and compulsive novel and deserves all the praise that Carter himself received and more. If you like this, you may also be interested in reading Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay --Hannah Smith

Telegraph Summer Reading Paperback Fiction Choice
'An audaciously plotted and wonderfully camp adventure.'

Michael Chabon
'A top-hat-and-tails performance...suspenseful, compendious, moving and persuasive'

Customer Reviews

Superb
This is an exceptional read. It is set by and large in the early 20th Century, in the world of theatre, the protaganist being the charasmatic magician Charles Carter. This novel blends fact with fiction, Charles Carter really did exist, with guest appearance from Houdini and other magicians of that time. It has magic, romance, murder, and it is so well written. What makes it even richer is the feeling that what you are reading must have been so well researched. The characters have real depth and are instantly imaginable. I only finished this book last night, but I can't imagine coming across a more satisfying read for some time to come.

The Life of the Illusionist
A very good book. Carter starts at the end, with President Harding's death in 1923 but then we go back to Carter's humble beginnings.

This is the story of a boy who seemed to have no great prospects but then went on to become one of the world's great illusionists, a Houdini type. A lovely view on vaudeville of the early 1900s including a family that sounds remarkably like the Marx Brothers.

Lots of intrigue, mystery and perhaps even skulduggery, yes it's that type of book!

Invigorating stuff!
Having started and failed to finish quite a number of books of late - reader apathy more than anything else - I wondered across Carter Beats The Devil with certain trepdation. The book had long haunted me in Waterstones and in other book retailers by mysteriously appearing always in plain view - sometimes on promotional displays, sometimes just on a regular shelf but always with the front cover facing out. So after a number of years of taunting, I felt it was finally time to purchase. This was possible one of the best decisions I have made of late. This is a tremendous novel, of which I can genuinely say the phrase 'I could not put this down'. It has, unsuprisingly, followed me around even when not reading. I would not be surprised if I have dreamt of the characters and situations in this novel without my knowing. It is the kind of story that gets under the skin. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has 'novel fatigue' or, indeed, anyone who thinks they may have already read the best novels out there...if you haven't read Carter Beats The Devil, then you surely haven't read them all.