The Magician's Lie

The Magician's Lie is a novel by the American writer Greer Macallister, published in 2015. It is set in Iowa in the early years of the twentieth century, and it is told mostly by a woman the police have arrested for murder. It is set in the world of travelling shows, where the line between an illusion and a crime is not always easy to draw.

Arden's reputation rests on the sawing trick, and the audience at Waterloo, Iowa, includes a young policeman named Virgil Holt. On the night in question she swaps the saw for a fire axe, and later that evening her husband is found lifeless beneath the stage. Holt catches up with her as she is running and takes her into custody.

What follows is the account she gives him of how she came to be where she is, which is as hard to believe as it is absorbing. The novel weighs her version of events against the evidence, and the reader has to decide how much of what she says can be taken at face value.