by Andrew Hedglin
I am not a card sharp. When I was in middle school, my nickname was “Ace” (a play on my initials), which made me fascinated with the look of playing cards. Also, I play a pretty mean game of double solitaire. But I am not a card sharp.
Still, the aforementioned interest in card iconography made the cover of Bluff by Michael Kardos an alluring draw, so deciding to judge a book by its cover, I picked up an advanced copy with anticipation and was not disappointed.
Natalie Webb is a professional close-up magician, already washed-up by the ripe old age of 27. While still immensely talented, she has burned bridges with the gatekeepers at the upper echelon of her profession. And when a frustrating holiday magic show goes dangerously wrong, Natalie finds herself in financial and legal limbo.
What begins as a journalistic investigation into cheating at private poker games soon leads to a bigger–and riskier–opportunity with an enigmatic partner who Natalie can only hope is trustworthy enough to hitch her wagon to her star. But the characterization of Natalie as a complex person is as integral to this thriller as the plot. Her inner drive for greatness is as big an inducement to joining her partner’s devious plan as any financial gain.
Bluff is told from a likable, almost breezy, first-person perspective. But it is not afraid to go a little dark, either in its backstory or its denouement. The ending, without giving anything away, has some wicked sleight-of-hand that would make its main character jealous. Kardos, the author of Before He Finds Her and co-director of the creative writing program at Mississippi State, has studied and mastered the mystery genre, and added a little magic to it as well.
Michael Kardos will be at Lemuria on Tuesday, April 24, at 5:00 p.m. to sign and read from Bluff.
Comments are closed.