Book & Audio Review: The Ambitious Card by John Gaspard

The Ambitious Card
Author: John Gaspard
Narrator: Jim Cunningham
Series: The Eli Marks Mysteries (Book 1)
Publication: Albert's Bridge Books (July 22, 2019); Spoken Realms (July 3, 2018)
Length: 296 p.; 9 hours and 2 minutes

Description: Magician Eli Marks is the top suspect in a series of murders.

His greatest trick? Not becoming the next victim.

★★★★★

Psychics are being murdered and all the clues point to magician Eli Marks: one of his playing cards keeps turning up at every crime scene. What begins as a simple Halloween magic show turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse encounter as the body count rises while Eli frantically attempts to clear his name.

It doesn't help that his ex-wife's new husband is the lead Homicide Detective on the case. Or that Eli appears to be the only thread tying all the murders together.

Then things get really complicated when romance blooms with a beautiful psychic who may—or may not—hold the final clue to this murderous mystery. Eli can't help but be drawn to her, even though falling in love in the midst of a murder spree is never a good idea.

As all the pieces of this deadly puzzle begin to fall into place, Eli must use every trick he knows to uncover the true killer … before he becomes the final victim.

My Thoughts: This is the first book in the magician Eli Marks mystery series. Eli is recently divorced. His District Attorney wife had an affair with a homicide detective and dumped Eli to marry him. Eli is back living with his recently widowed uncle Harry and working at his uncle's magic shop. 

The story begins with Eli being on a television program set in the Wabasha Caves where he is to debunk a fake psychic. The show goes quite well with Eli showing how the psychic did his tricks without giving away secrets that are kept by magicians. Eli does a number of tricks including one known as the Ambitious Card where the same card keeps showing up no matter how the deck is cut or shuffled. 

Things begin to go wrong the next day when the fake psychic is found murdered and the card that was the object of the Ambitious Card trick is found with him. Eli becomes a person of interest and the focus of the attention of his ex-wife's new husband. Since Eli had no previous connection to the victim, he is let go.

But when a number of other psychics are also found murdered and the same playing card is left at each scene, Eli needs to find out who the killer is in order to keep himself from being framed. 

I loved the Minneapolis-St. Paul setting for the story. I really enjoyed the interesting assortment of characters. I'll be reading more in this entertaining series. 

Favorite Quote:

"Don't be a smart ass," he said in a grave tone. "That ex-wife of yours can only keep the wolf at the door for so long, and then you're going to have to pay the piper."

"Metaphor police," I called out. "Metaphor police."

I bought this one August 3, 2021. You can buy your copy here.