Rating: 
Summary: Escapism Artist
Review: I probably read 2 or 3 books a week. Nothing I've read all year -- with the possible exception of "Motherless in Brooklyn" -- has been anywhere near as much fun as this novel. I'd give it 10 stars if the system would allow.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood's future is in the past
Review: I too read "Hollywoodland Kingpin," another fiction with a historical background. This shows me how wondrous a place show biz of old was from the stages to the screen, endlessly fascinating us decades after the fact. I don't think it is a subject that you can wear out, because there are so many hidden passages and inside information still only known to a very few. These books are better than the average ersatz glitz found in show biz novels. There is an underlying majesty to the characters that portrays an importance that infers drama rather than endlessly detailing it. These two new tales by two new authors have that element in abundance. Don't expect predictable characters with obvious responses, and get ready for real-life big names to make grand entrances. I have enjoyed watching this novel rocket to the top this month.
Rating:
Summary: NEVER THOUGHT I'D LOVE MAGIC
Review: This book was way too awesome. I savored it over 2 weeks time.
I love books that make me research more information...was there
really a Charles Carter, how did this President really die, and
did these illusions really exist during the early 20th century.
This book, to me, was a spellbinder. It included just about everything that I might want...magic, mystery, romance, and historical fiction. I probably would have never purchased this
book with the cover it has; however, I read a review in Entertainment Weekly. When I see the words "long awaited" and
"eagerly anticipated", I can't wait to bite into it.
I also love novels set in the early 20th century. This book
will be on my list of favorites. It just opened my eyes up to so many different events in history. When Charles and his younger brother were left "HOME ALONE", I had a difficult time
getting through this section. I honestly can visualize each and every scene in this book weeks after reading it. It is not your knock-off mystery or courtroom drama. It is very special. I look forward to his next. It can't possibly get any better.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good
Review: This was a well-written mystery/character study about a magician, Carter the Great, set during the 1890's through the 1920's. The story revolves around the mysterious death of President Harding, who, on the night of his death attended and participated in Carter's magic show. Carter then becomes the target of a secret service investigation. The novel goes back and forth in time, from Carter's childhood to the surprising resolution of the mystery surrounding Harding.Gold colorfully brings to life San Francisco/Oakland of the time. He has fun with the secret service and sheds a new light on one of the least respected presidents ever. He spins an interesting mystery tale while giving an insightful study into a character that will learn to see past the illusions he has created around his life. All in all a very entertaining and meaningful debut novel that deserves the praise and attention that it has been getting.
Rating:
Summary: Carter Beats the Devil is pure gold
Review: A fantastic, brilliant world filled with sleight of hand and illusion, villains and good guys--and a few for whom it's all just too confusing.
Gold has brought to life a rich world of conspiracy, barely controlled stage mayhem, and love--with the most magical of accoutrements: the pen. A rip-snorting tale enlivened by a great deal of humor and feeling. Any author would be proud to have written this--any reader delighted to have the chance. The only problem--How can Gold ever follow this up?
Rating:
Summary: Glen Gold finally graduates to center stage
Review: While Glen Gold may be a new name to you, those of us who live in and around Oakland have enjoyed reading his fiction in the East Bay express for years. This is a book that I was genuinely unable to put down. The pace is blistering and the detail precise but not fastidious, while the blending of history and fiction is carried off with entrancing skill. Gold tells this tale with a maniacal exuberance which only gains momentum as the show goes on. Highly recommended. A "new" voice that we look forward to hearing from for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Entertainment!
Review: I picked this up without knowing anything about it because the cover grabbed my eye. I've always enjoyed magic, but I don't think you have to be a magic junkie to really enjoy this book. Has a GREAT story, great characters, with continual surprises. I can't recommend highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Turn back the clock and escape into magic and innocence.
Review: You can almost hear a vaudeville audience ooh-ing and aah-ing in the background, the tinny, honkytonk piano of a black and white movie, or the buzz of the Green Hornet, as you get caught up in this seductive piece of nostalgic writing, probably the best escape reading I've come across in years! Like the old-fashioned melodramas which entertained audiences from the turn of the century to the 1940's, this novel about magic creates its own world of superheroes and dastardly villains, one which quickly absorbs and enchants the reader. As magician Carter says, "[Magic] is a way of turning back the darkness....[It] makes [the world] less awful for a moment or two....There's joy and wonderment to be had." This is a novel of pure entertainment, an uncomplicated, imaginative, and highly visual narrative of almost comic-bookish simplicity. Telling the story of Charlie Carter, from young child to traveling magician to the world-renowned Carter the Great, Gold recreates the mood the early part of the 20th century, skillfully incorporating into Charlie's life such diverse subjects as the death of President Harding, the cutthroat competition among magicians and vaudeville performers, the founding of the Secret Service, the country's fascination with psychic phenomena, the speculation and competition among those who finance the country's inventions, the development of early television, and even Yale's supersecret Skull and Bones Society. A love story and a mystery, it also has a truly spectacular grand finale of an ending with a rapidfire series of illusions, deceptions, and escapes. The fabulous cover art, the period posters which precede the "Overture" and the three "Acts" of the novel, and the unrestrained glee with which Gold tells his tale make this novel both a visual and and emotional treat, an unpretentious, old-fashioned story which offers no apologies for its light-hearted tone.
Rating:
Summary: I just love it! Intelligently light spirit of writing
Review: Ok, I confess that I wanted to be a magician when I was 8 years old and that Houdini (who makes a cameo in these pages!) was my hero; nevertheless, Gold's book is a fun stroll through early 20th century America with just enough tongue-in-cheek to make you smile page after page. A well told story with many delightful quirks and spins, Carter becomes a magician, President Harding dies, and Jack Griffin (a secret service agent) tries to make the world a safer place. Lions, anarchists, San Francisco -- this book is full of charming intertwined and unexpected episodes. White Teeth by Zadie Smith is the last book that I read with the same intelligently light spirit of writing. I'd love recommendations from anyone out there. Best wishes to the author and much success!
Rating: 
Summary: great atmosphere, limited drama, astounding cover
Review: I'm deeply ambivalent about this one. On the one hand, first time novelist Glen David Gold has done
a really extraordinary job of rendering what the world of the great stage illusionists might have been
like, from the true life hero of the book, Charles Carter, to Houdini and Thurston. The magic shows
are far and away the best part of the book, making the reader desperately wish he were witnessing the
actual tricks. But for my money, he doesn't do much with either Carter, who is so uniformly decent
and naive as to deflect our interest, or the magical arts. The main drama of the story is supposed to come from Carter's possible involvement in the death of
President Warren G. Harding, who the book has attend a Carter show and participate in one of his
greatest illusions, just hours before his death. Now, largely thanks to Paul Johnson's generous portrait
of him in the great book Modern Times, I'm more of a fan of the generally reviled Harding than most
folks are likely to be.... So I guess I'd recommend the book, if for no other reason than the fascination of reading about the old
vaudeville shows and the great magicians. But, I have to say, after nearly 500 pages, it was a great
relief to finally reach the end of the book. One word of warning : if you don't want to read the book, don't even look at it. The cover, a
reproduction of a genuine poster, is positively mesmerizing. GRADE : C+
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