Carter Beats the Devil

**maybe spoilers**

I can't help but feel I've read a different book to those of you who speak of 'audacious sleights of plotting' and that prattling critic on the back who talks of a plot that is 'garish, crude, infernally clever' - I thought it was all fairly straightforward. There's an element of mystery throughout, yes, because there are important details Gold doesn't let us in on, but once someone explains, it all fits in neatly - far too neatly, I think.

And twists? I can only think of one genuine twist, and that was the revelation that Phoebe is the girl who supposedly 'died'. It was hugely improbable and pointless.

Anything else that might have turned out to be a twist was hinted at unsubtly for far too long. We know Mysterioso, now some kind of unstable killer, is coming back for a showdown with Carter. We know Carter's pulled some kind of switcheroo with the TV plans. We know he's going to get it on with Phoebe etc.

That all said, it was a really well written and entertaining read for the first two thirds at least, and I especially appreciated the inclusion of the Marx Brothers (even though it's rather unlikely that Groucho would assume his on-screen persona at every given moment of the day).

Even the last third is engaging and fun, even if it becomes grotesquely Disneyesque. I don't think I've ever read a novel which takes such great pains to be seem emotionally and historically plausible, only to throw in a one-dimensional villain and a 'happily ever after' at the end.

So, certainly, I'd say, easy to rip through, full of charm and neatly drawn characters, of especial interest for its fragments of history, but ultimately could have been much better.

I have just re-read this book some three years after first being hooked by it. It still it every spot required; tension, adventure, fun, romance and a cast of characters you can't help but admiring, even the villains! For a book plotted in such a complex way, it reads so simply and you feel almost decieved at every plot twist. If you want pure, unadulterated good read, you should look no further.

Yeah I loved this one too. (Kavalier and Clay is better). It's the kind of thing Americans seem to do so well.

Can't believe no-one has commented on this book. Always seems inextricably linked to Michael Chabon's 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' and while they share similar thematic ground (magic, life, er, that's about it) and a similar scope (wide-angle lens at life and history) they are very different books.

Glen David Gold manipulates you like the greatest of all magicians, twisting and turning his great showpiece and performing audacious sleights of plotting. The story has much humour and humanity and is both touching and thrilling at the same time. Unlike Kavalier & Clay the historical references seem to be decorative rather than an intrinsic part of the plot (with the exclusion of the TV element) but that does not get in the way of an excellent and highly compulsive read.