I was fascinated since the hearbreaking start and kept turning pages as this is a very original, twisty and entertaining story. This book takes you on a journey with lots of twists and all of them leaving you wanting Louis Warlock to come out on top. Cue the first third, an enjoyable British vintage take on "Now You See Me", as the whole machinations of getting the trick completed are revealed, in something like real time now and again. MORE PRAISE FOR THE WARLOCK EFFECT:'A delicious confection from a pair of devilishly clever minds' STEVE PEMBERTON'A superb story of espionage and human endurance which casts its own vivid spell. The postscript to the scene, however, reveals Bond’s double-dealing… he is playing with a stacked deck, every card the Lovers, which he casts to one side mid-clinch.

Thriller set in the world of 1950s magic, co-written by Derren Brown's show-creating partner and one of the League of Gentlemen (who has apparently written a novel before). Espionage and the supernatural felt like a perfect match to me,” said Nick Setchfield, the author of two supernatural cold war thrillers, The War in the Dark and The Spider Dance. I was reminded of the sadistic mind experiments the Nazis did, for which Louis, as a Jew, would have held a familiar dread. Yes, it's about magicians and espionage in the Cold War, however, what is not made clear anywhere is that the protagonist is Jewish and is burdened by World War II experiences in his formative years. Dyson said: “We grew up in an era when you had things like The Amazing World of Kreskin on TV at lunchtimes and Uri Geller, and these things were presented to you as something that was absolutely real.

He co-created much of Derren Brown's award-winning TV specials including Russian Roulette and The Lottery Prediction and co-wrote and directed his stage shows, including Olivier award winning Something Wicked This Way Comes. I love it when I come across a book that holds my attention and I’m not reading the same old same old stories. Perhaps its chief pleasure, though, is simply the magic it contains, from the beginner's card tricks .

Was there going to be a reason for all the chapters coming at us from different narrators, time zones and approaches – from someone recollecting these events, and flashing back to childhood days alike? As a character piece, it works well, as we do delve into Louis' psychology, but narratively, it falls a little flat and should have been fleshed out. As a boy, Ludvik Weinschenk fled Nazi Germany to England with a pack of playing cards and three tricks to his name.A young German Jew fleeing the Nazis, Ludvik plays card tricks to lure English boys away from tormenting him. The debut novel, about a magician who flees Nazi Germany and is lured into espionage, was written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, creators of the Ghost Stories theatre production. And one of the joys in the world of Warlock is that you are seeing it from the other side of the mirror – how things that seem impossible are possible.