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Tarot Card Mystery #1
The Eight of Swords
A strange thing was happening to Warren Ritter. He certainly didn't believe in the tarot. He was a businessman, setting up a folding table on a Berkeley street where a stream of passersby could bring him as much as a hundred dollars a day when the weather was right. But he was beginning to notice more and more that what he had learned to predict from his cards seemed to be coming to pass with an unsettling regularity. It made him do odd things. Like stop teenage Heather Wellington's tarot at nine cards instead of ten. The first eight had been ominous, the ninth more upbeat, so Warren simply stopped the reading there. It was only after Heather had let that he looked at number ten -- it was the Death card.
The Death card does not automatically doom the person whose tarot it turns up in. But it doesn't mean there are good things ahead, either. So Warren, the scoffer, couldn't help feeling horror later that day, to see Heather's face on a pizza parlor TV screen with the word Kidnapped! slashed across the top. Guilt, that was what gripped him, as though he could have done something, warned her -- but didn't.
"Warren Ritter" is not the name he was Christened with. He is a fugitive of sorts. Everyone, including his family and the New York police, believes he died in a mysterious incident thirty years ago, and he has no intention of changing that. Now, on top of the guilt he lives with, is the feeling that somehow he is responsible for young Heather Wellington's capture -- that it is his call to find her and to get at the people who took her.
Eight of Swords is an astonishing debut novel, and a very different novel from the old notion that a traditional mystery is along the lines of "a dead vicar in the library." Warren's exciting and often dangerous quest through the streets -- some of them quite mean -- of Berkeley to find the girl and rescue her is more than just a suspenseful tale, it is also a moving portrait of a man returning to the world he had turned his back on three decades earlier.
The Death card does not automatically doom the person whose tarot it turns up in. But it doesn't mean there are good things ahead, either. So Warren, the scoffer, couldn't help feeling horror later that day, to see Heather's face on a pizza parlor TV screen with the word Kidnapped! slashed across the top. Guilt, that was what gripped him, as though he could have done something, warned her -- but didn't.
"Warren Ritter" is not the name he was Christened with. He is a fugitive of sorts. Everyone, including his family and the New York police, believes he died in a mysterious incident thirty years ago, and he has no intention of changing that. Now, on top of the guilt he lives with, is the feeling that somehow he is responsible for young Heather Wellington's capture -- that it is his call to find her and to get at the people who took her.
Eight of Swords is an astonishing debut novel, and a very different novel from the old notion that a traditional mystery is along the lines of "a dead vicar in the library." Warren's exciting and often dangerous quest through the streets -- some of them quite mean -- of Berkeley to find the girl and rescue her is more than just a suspenseful tale, it is also a moving portrait of a man returning to the world he had turned his back on three decades earlier.
261 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1957
2 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
David Skibbins
14 books14 followersDavid Skibbins won the St. Martin’s Minotaur/Malice Domestic Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel with Eight of Swords. He is a certified life coach and lives on the Pacific Coast in California with his brilliant wife and his goofy Portuguese water dog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
January 3, 2008
First in a series featuring Warren Ritter, a 60s radical fugitive turned tarot card reader. Great setting in Berkeley, interesting characters and plot.
July 15, 2024
Easy read but was not the biggest fan of the main character. Weird behavior and a lot of things worked out in ways they probably shouldn’t have.
September 3, 2007
EIGHT OF SWORDS (Amateur Sleuth-Berkeley, CA-Cont) – VG
Skibbins, David – 1st in series
Thomas Dunne Books, 2005- Hardcover
Warren Ritter, not the name to which he was born, suffers from manic-depression, and is an expert in martial arts and handguns. He has also spent 30 years hiding from the law, and is now a tarot-card reader in Berkeley. Although it began as a cover and easy way to make a cash living, every now and then the cards can't be ignored. Warren does a reading for a young woman who is later kidnapped. When Warren becomes a prime suspect, he is compelled to find her, both by the cards and by his need to keep his past from becoming known.
*** Skibbins has created a very interesting collection of characters in his debut mystery. The very accurate portrayal of Berkeley and the Bay Area adds an atmosphere that greatly enhances the story. In general, I am not a fan of glorifying those who have broken the law, and I do feel the premise of Warren's becoming involved in this case was a bit weak. What really makes the story work is the characters, good suspense and, at the end, Warren's acknowledgment of what his life and actions has cost him. I ended up caring about Warren and want to see where his life goes from here. I know I'll be back for the next book. This is a very good debut.
Skibbins, David – 1st in series
Thomas Dunne Books, 2005- Hardcover
Warren Ritter, not the name to which he was born, suffers from manic-depression, and is an expert in martial arts and handguns. He has also spent 30 years hiding from the law, and is now a tarot-card reader in Berkeley. Although it began as a cover and easy way to make a cash living, every now and then the cards can't be ignored. Warren does a reading for a young woman who is later kidnapped. When Warren becomes a prime suspect, he is compelled to find her, both by the cards and by his need to keep his past from becoming known.
*** Skibbins has created a very interesting collection of characters in his debut mystery. The very accurate portrayal of Berkeley and the Bay Area adds an atmosphere that greatly enhances the story. In general, I am not a fan of glorifying those who have broken the law, and I do feel the premise of Warren's becoming involved in this case was a bit weak. What really makes the story work is the characters, good suspense and, at the end, Warren's acknowledgment of what his life and actions has cost him. I ended up caring about Warren and want to see where his life goes from here. I know I'll be back for the next book. This is a very good debut.
October 15, 2007
Not a bad mystery. Not great, either, but this is Skibbons' first book, and the story was better than the writing. This gives me hope for future books (this is a series), because the writing can come with practice.
I like the tarot tie-in, and the "Warren" and the secondary characters. I have the second book now and am looking forward to finding out what happens next.
I like the tarot tie-in, and the "Warren" and the secondary characters. I have the second book now and am looking forward to finding out what happens next.
June 3, 2022
Easy reading but ultimately not satisfying. the central character wasn't very appealing, and acted like a jerk a lot of the time (he's 50-something and complimented himself for restraint in not having sex with an underage teenage girl; his interactions with police were pretty juvenile, too). Book was too long for the subject matter with a few too many side trips down memory lane. It gave a little detail about tarot cards, but so does Wikipedia. Not recommended.
February 27, 2017
Simple but entertaining mystery. I enjoyed the fact that tarot was part of the story.
December 18, 2018
I read this as a fill-in before I could get to the library. It was entertaining but nothing special.
February 16, 2019
Tarot card reader who is bipolar and who is actually a 60's Weatherman gone underground is caught up in a kidnapping and murder
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2019
The mystery was interesting, although not too hard to figure out. The best part of the book was the use of the Tarot. The protagonist was annoying as can be.
July 13, 2025
3.5/5 - Great for a change of pace but I found the story a bit too scattered for my taste. It felt less like a tying up of ends and more like a . . . splat? Still, no regrets reading Eight of Swords.
May 11, 2011
My library was featuring mystery novels when I went, and this one caught my eye because it contained the word "sword", which gets me a point in my online book club for this month. Silly reason to read a book? Maybe, but it works.
The book is the first of a series featuring 1970s rebel turned tarot reader Warren Ritter (not his real name). Warren's life is turned upside down one day when two events occur: a girl who got a particularly horrible tarot reading from him is kidnapped, and his sister (who has believed him dead for many years) happens across his street and recognizes him. Being one of the last people to see the missing girl, the police are interested in talking to Warren - but he is very afraid they will link him to his past self and land him in prison (or worse) so he decides to take on the investigating on his own, at the same time learning about his family from his sister.
It's a pretty easy read, but I didn't find there was anything spectacular about it. My initial guess about who committed the crime ended up being correct, and I always find it somehow annoying when that happens. I felt like the stuff about his sister and his family were just thrown in haphazardly - and I really think he should have waited a bit longer before introducing the sister anyway. Oh, I just gave the worst reading ever and hey there's my sister that I haven't seen in a bazillion years! Too ... something. Plus, it just seemed like he stuck in the asides about getting the note from his sister, writing her a reply, his thoughts about the info his sister gave him... they didn't seem to "fit" in where they were placed. Kind of like he wrote a chapter with no mention of that stuff, and then stuck a random paragraph in the middle because "oh, I forgot this needs to happen at some point". And the stuff about his past life got a bit preachy, like maybe there was a hidden agenda in this book. Anti-government, don't let THE MAN bring you down, etc, etc.
On the other hand, I did find the tarot angle interesting and unique, and really did like that aspect of the book. I feel like that was a great idea, but poorly executed. And I liked the hacker chick :P
I would be willing to read future books in the series, so it couldn't have been that bad.
The book is the first of a series featuring 1970s rebel turned tarot reader Warren Ritter (not his real name). Warren's life is turned upside down one day when two events occur: a girl who got a particularly horrible tarot reading from him is kidnapped, and his sister (who has believed him dead for many years) happens across his street and recognizes him. Being one of the last people to see the missing girl, the police are interested in talking to Warren - but he is very afraid they will link him to his past self and land him in prison (or worse) so he decides to take on the investigating on his own, at the same time learning about his family from his sister.
It's a pretty easy read, but I didn't find there was anything spectacular about it. My initial guess about who committed the crime ended up being correct, and I always find it somehow annoying when that happens. I felt like the stuff about his sister and his family were just thrown in haphazardly - and I really think he should have waited a bit longer before introducing the sister anyway. Oh, I just gave the worst reading ever and hey there's my sister that I haven't seen in a bazillion years! Too ... something. Plus, it just seemed like he stuck in the asides about getting the note from his sister, writing her a reply, his thoughts about the info his sister gave him... they didn't seem to "fit" in where they were placed. Kind of like he wrote a chapter with no mention of that stuff, and then stuck a random paragraph in the middle because "oh, I forgot this needs to happen at some point". And the stuff about his past life got a bit preachy, like maybe there was a hidden agenda in this book. Anti-government, don't let THE MAN bring you down, etc, etc.
On the other hand, I did find the tarot angle interesting and unique, and really did like that aspect of the book. I feel like that was a great idea, but poorly executed. And I liked the hacker chick :P
I would be willing to read future books in the series, so it couldn't have been that bad.
September 1, 2009
First of a mystery series featuring Warren Ritter, a fifty-something tarot reader with a street stall in Berkeley, California, and fugitive from the law because of his “un-American” activities back in the ‘60’s. Well, actually, it’s believed that he’s dead—and Richard Green, the person he was, IS dead for all intents and purposes. He’s also bi-polar and prone to do a lot of self-medicating.
The story sucked me in immediately, with Warren doing a reading for a teenage girl in which he forsees a bad end. He gives his clients one of his tarot cards with a sticker containing his contact information, and when the girl is kidnapped later that day, he’s contacted by the police, as Heather’s backpack with his card in it was found in an alley not far away. To top things off, his sister Tara—who believes that “Richard” has been dead for the last couple of decades—is on a temporary job in Berkeley and sees him at his tarot stall. This puts Warren into a whole dilemma of “fight or flight”—does he stay and try to figure out what happened to Heather, and to resolve things with Tara, or does he run to Spokane or Alaska, where he has two other identities that he can use? He decides to stay, which sets off crisis after crisis for Warren—not easy for anyone, but for someone living on the edge psychologically, especially devastating.
I really like Warren, despite some of his stupid choices, and the writing style is easy to read, casual and with just enough humor to balance out the edginess. I’ve already put the second in series on my PBS wishlist. A winner!
The story sucked me in immediately, with Warren doing a reading for a teenage girl in which he forsees a bad end. He gives his clients one of his tarot cards with a sticker containing his contact information, and when the girl is kidnapped later that day, he’s contacted by the police, as Heather’s backpack with his card in it was found in an alley not far away. To top things off, his sister Tara—who believes that “Richard” has been dead for the last couple of decades—is on a temporary job in Berkeley and sees him at his tarot stall. This puts Warren into a whole dilemma of “fight or flight”—does he stay and try to figure out what happened to Heather, and to resolve things with Tara, or does he run to Spokane or Alaska, where he has two other identities that he can use? He decides to stay, which sets off crisis after crisis for Warren—not easy for anyone, but for someone living on the edge psychologically, especially devastating.
I really like Warren, despite some of his stupid choices, and the writing style is easy to read, casual and with just enough humor to balance out the edginess. I’ve already put the second in series on my PBS wishlist. A winner!
June 8, 2009
My first mystery of the summer. I have declared this the "Summer of Mystery". It was a fun one to start with. A quick read and a fast paced story. It was interesting to see how the main character would handle these problems while keeping his identity hidden.
My only criticism is his sub-plot. His sister and daughter come into the story but I don't see that they added much too it or made the plot turn in any way.
My only criticism is his sub-plot. His sister and daughter come into the story but I don't see that they added much too it or made the plot turn in any way.
August 19, 2011
And I quote - His sleuth - an 'on the lam', tarot reading , motorcycle-riding, aikido-wielding, manic-depressive refugee from the '60s Weather Underground - end quote - do I really have to say anymore? But I will. It's Berkley present day and a street tarot reader becomes involved in a kidnapping and murder. There are holes in the story but what a rush of 60's memories for anyone who was there at the time.
Read
March 12, 2015A quick and fun read with lots of elements that I enjoy: Tarot, mystery, bookstores, contempt for The Man, and love of the East Bay. I like reading books that are set in places I can't afford to visit or fantastic places that don't exist, but it's also great to see the street where I used to live in Berkeley, my alma mater Mills College, the U.C. Berkeley campus where I currently work, and Telegraph Ave vendors on the page.
August 13, 2009
I had to kind of force myself to finish this book. Sadly, it wasn't as involving as I hoped it would be. There were some shining moments, though - Sally was a terrific character in every way (bonus points for believability) and the insight into bipolar disorder without being heavyhanded about it. I like my mysteries 'grab 'em by the throat,' and this one just doesn't have it.
Read
February 10, 2012This was pretty good as mysteries go--while not likely to become a classic, it keeps the reader turning the pages. As it's only a few years old and set in Berkeley, I found it kept mentioning Berkeley landmarks that have very recently disappeared, like Cody's and Black Oak; that was mildly disquieting. There was a time when it looked like both bookstores would be around forever.
May 24, 2015
I wavered between "liked it" and "really liked it." I chose the option with fewer stars because, while the characters are fairly engaging, and I enjoyed the story, I didn't care for the rampant speciesism of the narrator who is otherwise lefty and considers himself progressive, or the sexism. While not overt, it is noticeable.
November 15, 2012
I like books set in places that I know. This is set in Berkeley and does a good job at conveying Berkeley's particular charm. The perspective is interesting, coming from a streetside Tarot reader, it has both ups & downs. The writing draws you into the characters and makes you want to meet them for an espresso at the Med - since you won't run into them at Cody's :-(
July 27, 2016
Great, gritty paranormal-crime mystery. Big on the crime, only the barest soupcon of paranormal. There is also a levening of romance, this is also skewed far off into left field. So, while sitting comfortably in a familiar genre, this tale is so completely unlike it's niche mates that it deserves a cubby-hole all of its own. Loved it and can't wait to get my hands on the next instalment.
May 2, 2007
A pretty predictable mystery, but the main character is a former Weather activist who's still underground and makes a living reading tarot cards on Telegraph Avenue. Reading along and saying to yourself "I've been there," or "I know where that is" is lots of fun.
March 18, 2008
Reasonably entertaining mystery series set in Berkeley, CA featuring a former 60's revolutionary who does tarot readings on the street. Plots weave traditional murder mysteries with Warren's attempts to come to terms with his past.
October 30, 2012
I rarely leave a book unfinished, but this was one. I found it fascinating to start with, but I ultimately lost interest as the plot lagged a bit 3/4 of the way through. Perhaps a bit painful to read for those who also suffer from mental illness (main character has bipolar disorder).
June 29, 2014
This was a fun mystery to read. It was light, suspenseful, and quite different than expected. This book gave me a few laughs. This is an easy, light read that I recommend to my friends. Thanks, Ferris!
May 8, 2008
Quite an interesting premise for a mystery novel and I enjoyed it even if quite a standard whodunit.
November 30, 2008
Very different sort of mystery- the main mystery is fairly easily sleuthed. However, the narrator's own past is a difficult puzzle that begs to be solved.
January 6, 2009
quick read, decent mystery, appealed to my 60's reminiscences, appreciated the psych babble.
September 14, 2009
Liked very much, enough to search out the others. The voice is very strong, a little dramatic, but I love Tarot and this was a fascinating read.
July 1, 2010
Interesting read, but definitely a "summer reading" book for me. Will read the next one in the series as well. :)
November 28, 2010
I really didn't enjoy the authors writing style. There was too much rambling about the main characters thoughts on society for my liking, it seemed to detract from the story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews