'Wholly original ... Gold's real aim is to recapture the lost era of the great illusionists and escapologists.., and his plot - garish, crude, infernally clever - is precisely honed to the task: it is a triumph of misdirection, a nest of boxes constantly springing fresh surprises. Stage illusions were a popular art; they worked at pace, with drive and rolling drums. Gold's prose has precisely that energy. He creates his own rich, strange world where anything is possible, where characters from fact and fiction mingle ... he leaves himself with only one resounding problem at the close. After such a debut novel, what does he do for his next trick?'Peter Preston, Guardian

'It's a long book, but reads like a novella, such is the pace and action Gold manages to pack into it ... His role is as much grand illusionist as author, and as he misdirects, misinforms and ultimately reveals his truths, the reader can only applaud. This is a terrific novel of the Jazz Age that entertains, informs and moves. Gold has tackled a difficult subject for his debut and succeeded brilliantly.' Jim Driver, Time Out