Book ~ "Bluff" (2018) Michael Kardos

From Goodreads ~ 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. 

Natalie is a magician struggling to make ends meet, who doesn't have a lot of ambition, drive or friends. After an unfortunate incident at one of her shows, she needs to make some quick cash so decides to write an article exposing cheating at cards. This leads her to meet Ellen, a card cheat, who becomes her friends and offers her the chance to learn how to cheat at cards, get into a high stakes poker game and walk away with 20% of $1.5 million for participating. How can Natalie say no?

The premise sounded interesting but I wasn't crazy about this story. I found the writing style a slow and draggy ... the flashbacks were more detailed than they had to be. It's written in first person perspective in Natalie's voice. I thought Natalie was boring and not overly likeable so didn't really care what happened to her. Though I find magic interesting, I don't know anything about poker and found the references to both over my head. The ending was ridiculous and farfetched and I wasn't buying it. Just not my kind of book, I guess. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Book ~ "Before He Finds Her" (2015) Michael Kardos

From Goodreads ~ Everyone in the quiet Jersey Shore town of Silver Bay knows the story: on a Sunday evening in September 1991, Ramsey Miller threw a blowout block party, then murdered his beautiful wife and three-year old daughter. 

But everyone is wrong, the daughter got away. Now she is nearly eighteen and tired of living in secrecy. Under the name Melanie Denison, she has spent the last fifteen years in small-town West Virginia as part of the Witness Protection Program. She has never been allowed to travel, go to a school dance or even have internet at home. Precautions must be taken at every turn because Ramsey Miller was never caught and might still be looking for his daughter. 

Yet despite strict house rules, Melanie has entered into a relationship with a young teacher at the local high school and is now ten weeks pregnant. She doesn't want her child to live in hiding as she has had to. Defying her guardians and taking matters into her own hands, Melanie returns to Silver Bay in hopes of doing what the authorities failed to do: find her father before he finds her. 

It's September 1991 and Ramsey is throwing a big blow party and has invited his friends and even his Silver Bay neighbours, who he doesn't really know. The reason he's throwing the party eventually comes out and I thought "seriously?!?!". Anyway, by the end of the night, Allison, Ramsey's wife is dead and Meg, their three-year-old daughter, is missing and presumed to be dead. Ramsey has disappeared and it's assumed that he murdered them and then took off.

Fifteen years later, Meg is now Melanie and has been living under a witness protection program, hiding out in rural West Virginia with Uncle Wayne and Aunt Kendra. To keep her protected in case Ramsey ever comes looking for her, Wayne and Kendra have ensured she's led a very sheltered life ... she was homeschooled until grade 12, they have no Internet and she's not even allowed to have a library card as it will leave a record. As she gets closer to age 18, she's tired of living scared and protected and heads back to Silver Bay to look for clues to find her father so she can live a normal life.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I thought it was okay. The book bounces back and forth in time, mainly to 1991 and 2006 (the chapters are labeled). It is written in third person perspective in various characters' voices including Melanie, Ramsey and Allison. I found Melanie a bit unbelievable ... considering how sheltered and naïve she was, there's no way she could venture off to the big city and get along as well as she did. As the story progresses, we learn what happened on the night of the party and the ramifications. I was okay with the whodunnit but wasn't buying the ending which comes together with a tidy bow. As a head's up, there is swearing.