The Ambitious Card

By: John Gaspard / Narrated By: Jim Cunningham

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

When only an itty bitty (-) is found amongst ooooodles of (+)s? A Mighty HUZZAH!!!

Once upon a time, like, oh saaaay several months ago (Maybe even a whole YEAR!), I was sooo NOT into Mysteries (More like I just didn’t do ‘em… no offense) that m’ reviews when I DID do them were peppered with phrases such as: Well, I simply Experience the stories; I don’t eeeeven try to suss out the Whodunnit cuz I’m boorish, lazy, and dimwitted that way.

But then? Well, I started listening to them, and I started enjoying the beJESus outta ‘em. So when I was planning on getting around to a Week O’ Mysteries, I truuuly scrolled through m’ Library, looking for a variety of them. Paranormal (With a woman! sleuthing about!)? Check. Historical with urbane wit? Check. And as Native American Heritage Month was coming to a close? Welllll, I THOUGHT I’d Checked that box as well (Much to my dismay, I baaarely kinda sorta checked THAT one with an author whose Dad lived on a Reservation…).

So what was missing? I hit Amazon Kindle Unlimited and scrolled through many a page to find offerings that -ALSO- had an audiobook. Sooo many, but they seemed to be juuuust like the three I’d already chosen. So when I hit The Ambitious Card, and it promised a Behind the Scenes look at Magic and Stagecraft to be paired with rising body counts? And Uncle Harry on the Audio Sample seemed absolutely endearing? Dude, did I check that puppy out and chuck the shekels at the audiobook, or what? FINALLY, something that seemed a tad different with a narration that promised to please. Add a Big Sis listening to it as well, meaning a discussion to be had later, and Yowza!

The story opens with our Hero, Eli Marks being sealed shut up with someone else in endless airless caverns. Utter dark dark darkness, sweat rolling down as he struggles to breathe, trying not to panic. Oh damn, he thinks to himself: This would NOT have happened had he NOT ended one fateful show with The Ambitious Card trick…

Then we’re off to the story of what went on before this attempt to snuff the life outta him.

Eli has taken his Uncle Harry’s place at a Halloween TV show, featured not so much as a Debunker, but a Magician who’s verrrrrry skeptical of Psychics and who will be asked his thoughts after the performances (Uncle Harry’s wife of 50-years died recently, and he’s just not up to it). After a Mentalist’s act that WOW-ed the audience, Eli takes the stage and, well, DEBUNKS the Mentalist “Gray”’s act. He can’t help himself, however, and winds up his take with The Ambitious Card trick to show the methods Gray used, without spilling any trade secrets. The King o’ Diamonds pops up time and time again, and Eli has won the crowd, and made an enemy, like, all at the same time.

Next day, tho? He’s imMEDiately THE suspect in the murder of… Gray… who was found very dead, and with the King o’ Diamonds on his corpse.

And things get worse from there as psychics start turning up murdered, Eli’s King o’ Diamonds ALWAYS found on poisoned, or broken, or comatose bodies.

What makes this a marvelous and, uhm, magical (Yeh I went for the easy pun, so suuuue me!) Listen is the truly wonderful cast of characters that author John Gaspard crafted and developed so very well. There are Harry’s cronies, the Minneapolis Mystics, aka the Artful Codgers; there’s Eli’s ex-wife who’s desperately trying to keep him outta jail even as her husband, the man she left Eli for: Homicide Detective Fred (aka, to Eli at least, Mediocre Fred in homage to a Smothers Brothers comedic song…) is desperately trying to pin each murder on Eli. Then there’s Uncle Harry who berates Eli into getting off his duff and SOLVING THE ENTIRE thing, even as he tearily scoops up dimes which a psychic told Harry were signs of love from his late wife.

Add a mournful Magician who works only kids’ shows (And Eli’s subbing in a kid’s birthday party is soooo cute!), a lovely soon-to-be-divorced but kinda sorta not-yet woman who makes Eli weak at the knees, her Still Husband Pete who’s sooo trying to be a Magician and basically lives at the Magic Store, throw in Psychics, and Whole-Body Healers, a New Age store called The Akashic Records, a dithery and somewhat over-sexed Magician’s assistant? Then add a freakishly huuuuge bronze rabbit statue that beguiles all and sundry?

Fellow Accomplice? Aaaaallll that makes this a true charmer of a Listen.

Narration by Jim Cunningham is flawless. He fully inhabits each character, and his choices are spot-on perfection. When Sis and I cooed and raved over this audiobook, Sis added only that she’d been soooo looking forward to the voices he’d use when our stalwart Hero/heroine gassed themselves up on helium. Alas, Cunningham does NOT Go There, but hey! That itty bitty of restraint (Read? Cowardice? For shame!) was the only minus to go with an entire 9-hours of plusses. Bravo, Sir!

Big Sis sussed out Whodunnit waaaay before I did, so I s’pose I’m STILL a wee bit dense. But tho’ I’m a dullard, I am at least capable of being vastly entertained by good writing, clever plotting, magic acts thrown in, and just truly fun fun characters.

Is it toooo soon for ‘nother Week O’ Mysteries?

Cuz dude! I got Book 2… yup, alREAdy…

…I have no shame…

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