The magician's job is to create a mystery-an unbridgeable gap between cause and effect. Michael Kardos brilliantly constructs his new novel Bluff as a magician would, delivering a perfectly calibrated performance of intrigue and, ultimately, astonishment.

At twenty-seven, magician Natalie Webb is already a has-been. A card-trick prodigy, she started touring at seventeen, took first place at the World of Magic competition at eighteen, and never reached such heights again. Shunned by the magic world after a disastrous liaison with an older magician, she now lives alone with her pigeons and a pile of overdue bills in a New Jersey apartment. In a desperate ploy to make extra cash, she follows up on an old offer to write a feature magazine article-on the art of cheating at cards. But when she meets the perfect subject for her article, what begins as a journalistic gamble brings into question everything Natalie thinks she knows about her talent, and herself. Natalie is dazzled by the poker cheat's sleight of hand and soon finds herself facing a proposition that could radically alter her fortune-to help pull off a $1.5 million magic trick that, if done successfully, no one will ever even suspect happened. With Kardos raising the stakes chapter after chapter, Bluff is a breathtaking work of suspense from a writer at the top of his game.

From a writer who "dazzles with prose strength and style" (Michael Koryta), Bluff takes us deep inside the fraught and fascinating world of a modern magician who becomes obsessed with magic's dark twin-the underworld of the card cheat

Praise for Bluff:

"As lithe and cunning as its characters, Michael Kardos's Bluff is a masterly exercise in narrative sleight of hand. This is suspense in its purest form-character-driven, immersive and hopelessly addictive. Prepare to be taken."-Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of You Will Know Me

"Michael Kardos is a master at ratcheting up the suspense, and Bluff combines poker, a brilliant con game, and two terrific women who run the show. If you haven't read Kardos yet, Bluff is the perfect place to start!"-Lisa Scottoline, bestselling author of Exposed

"Terrific writing, great characters, an insider's knowledge, and a killer plot with a leg-breaker of a twist. What are you waiting for? Buy this book."-Peter Blauner, author of Proving Ground and Slow Motion Riot

"Natalie is a sharp-witted survivor with a relatable self-sabotaging streak whose move into the dark world of card cheats climaxes with a spin worthy of the most adept con artists."-Booklist

"So exciting and thrilling-I loved this from the first line! Female card-sharp with a mysterious past gets drawn into life-changing heist. Smart and fun."-Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books, Newton, MA

"Engaging and interesting, with enough lore about magicians and gambling to give the story veracity without weighing it down."-Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine