A fictitious account of a real life magician.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it very atmospheric and evocative of a bygone time before the birth of television and not too far into the popularity of film, when live entertainment was king.

Well set up story line, with back ground on the character showing his development. I really enjoyed this book, towards the end it occasionally felt a little tangled.The book gives us the tale of Charles Joseph Carter, a magician thrown into the death of President Warren G. Harding (both real characters but fictionalised in this book). It just so happens that Carter performed a rather morbid trick onstage with the president just hours before he died, and now the FBI considers him a prime suspect in his death. Carter also has to deal with his own fading career, the painful memory of his late wife's tragic death, and a rival magician with a homodical grudge. Throughout it all, he devises an incredible magic show designed to get his career back on track and knock the people of 1920's San Fransisco off their feet.