Title: The Magician’s Lie

Author: Greer Macallister

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Publication Date: January 2015

Genre: Adult Fiction/Historical

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Synopsis can be found here.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

The Amazing Arden is held by an officer on suspicion of murdering her husband. This is her story.

Or is it?

I was pretty much engrossed in this book from start to finish. I read well past my bedtime and even read early in the morning before the baby woke. I was captured in this world that the author created.

Arden tells her story to Officer Holt who has captured her as she is fleeing. The story is mostly Arden’s voice, but some chapters bring us back to the now where she interacts with the Officer. How reliable is Arden? What is she not saying? And will Holt fall under her spell?

The setting is so much fun, you can feel how Arden (original name Ada) moves through this world with her failed musician mother and her husband. How she feels threatened at a young age and flees, only to have the crazy boy obsessed with her, Ray, follow her. How she becomes an illusionist, travels with a company, tours and falls in love. I don’t want to give a lot away. It’s seductive, Arden’s voice is so clear and rings through the novel. I liked her interactions with the officer as well. It showed how clever she was, the real danger she was in, and her humanity and vulnerability. She was, after all, just an illusionist. Right?

There is not only the danger of her being hung but the author does a magnificent job of instilling real fear whenever Ray enters the scene. I got goosebumps.

Fans of Water for Elephants will really enjoy this story, set in the perfect time and with some very creative and dangerous characters. I gladly relinquished my free time to sink back into this world, and Arden’s story.