I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

The Magician's Lie is an excellent read if, like me, you're fascinated by anything magic-related - even when the magic is just a trick. This is one of those books that always left me wanting more: more time with the characters, more time to read it. My only regret is that I picked this up in a fairly busy period, and so I couldn't dedicate as much time as I wanted to reading it. But, in the time I had available, it kept me glued to the page from the very beginning!

The Amazing Arden, or Ada, was a most intriguing character. She is an incredibly strong-willed and gifted young woman, and the abuse she endures as a child only makes her resolve greater. I really admired her ability to build her own life form scratch and to a way out of any difficult situation. Her story completely captured Virgil's attention, and mine with him.

Up until the very end, I kept wondering whether she had actually done what she was accused of - was this the magician's lie or was she being truthful? I liked the conclusion, but most of all, I liked the journey to discovering what had happened. The writing was excellent and the characters were wonderfully complex, even though some of them (like Virgil) feel merely instrumental to Arden's storytelling. My only complaint is that some passages detailing how Arden set up her show were a bit too long and slow for my taste - but that's only personal taste!

If you like a captivating thriller/mystery in a wonderfully detailed historical setting, this book is definitely for you. The Magician's Lie will keep you wondering right up to the end: what is true, and what is just an illusion? ( )

A word to any and all writers out there. If you kill off one of your main characters, don't "magically" bring them back to life. it's a cheap and shallow plot device , and it makes your readers feel used and manipulated. ( )

This book left me with mixed feelings. The parts with the magic had strong imagery and I can see why the marketing blurb tried to draw a parallel with The Night Circus and Water for Elephants but unfortunately it is not in the same league.

The concept was good and the Ada/ Arden’s story is interesting but the set up to get to her back story was contrived and dragged the book down in parts. The author is at her best with her female characters as Ray, Clyde and Virgil are all flawed in some way or other and I found it hard to care what happened to any of them.

****Spoiler******


In fact I found the whole Ray story the least enjoyable of the book and would have been happy for the author to have killed him off much earlier in the book !!!!!

I was also disappointed in the ending – after all the build-up and magic and book title I expected a more elaborate or unusual outcome. ( )

I'm drawn to stories about magic, theatres, vaudeville, so this one was the book I could not put down... I walked around the house with it, stayed up at night, took it to stand in line at the grocery. This was that ever so rare treasure. ( )

Really enjoyed reading this book. It was a fast easy read and the story was great. ( )