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  Huge and hearty thanks to my family, both born-into and married-into, for their steadfast support and good humor. Thanks to my mother, Felice Kardos, who without ever meaning to made me a writer. This is the first book of mine she hasn’t read. I like to think she would have enjoyed it.

  One of the pleasures of working on this novel was returning to old hobbies and passions. The following books were especially helpful to me.

  T. Nelson Downs, The Art of Magic (1921)

  S. W. Erdnase, The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation (1995). Originally published as Artifice, Ruse, and Subterfuge at the Card Table: A Treatise on the Science and Art of Manipulating Cards (1905)

  David Britland and Gazzo, Phantoms of the Card Table: Confessions of a Cardsharp (2003)

  Karl Johnson, The Magician and the Cardsharp: The Search for America’s Greatest Sleight-of-Hand Artist (2005)

  Finally, a shout-out to the kiddos and another heartfelt thankyou to Catherine Pierce, aka Katie, for making my life (and my words—it helps to marry a poet) immeasurably better and more interesting.

  All the magic in this novel is real.