The Hanged Man

Joshua Croft #4

by Walter Satterthwait

Quentin Bouvier, a magician and possibly a reincarnated Egyptian pharoah, has been hanged from the rafters. Stolen from his room was an extremely valuable antique tarot card. Clearly, someone at the convention was responsible for the murder and the theft. Giacamo Bernardi, a tarot reader, is under arrest, but his public defender hires Joshua Croft to prove his innocence. His investigation introduces Croft to a new side of Santa Suspects include astrologers and psychics, a young hermit immersed in "Spiritual Alchemy," an aging movie star who acts as medium for an entity from Alpha Centauri, a Native American shaman who gets accountants in touch with the warrior within, and a ravishing, mysterious Asian woman whose equally mysterious brother displays a near-lethal familiarity with martial arts. Danger lurks beneath the placid surface of psychic serenity, and the closer Croft gets to a solution, the more he risks entering another dimension a little sooner than he planned.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller

258 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Walter Satterthwait (b. 1946) was an author of mysteries and historical fiction. A fan of mystery novels from a young age, he spent high school immersed in the works of Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane. While working as a bartender in New York in the late 1970s, he wrote his first book: an adventure novel, Cocaine Blues (1979), about a drug dealer on the run from a pair of killers.

After his second thriller, The Aegean Affair (1982), Satterthwait created his best-known character, Santa Fe private detective Joshua Croft. Beginning with Wall of Glass (1988), Satterthwait wrote five Croft novels, concluding the series with 1996’s Accustomed to the Dark. In between Croft books, he wrote mysteries starring historical figures, including Miss Lizzie (1989), a novel about Lizzie Borden, and Wilde West (1991), a western mystery starring Oscar Wilde. His most recent novel is Dead Horse (2007), an account of the mysterious death of Depression-era pulp writer Raoul Whitfield. 

Reviews

[Linda Brue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joshua Croft is a private investigator in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the fourth book in the five-book series. Croft is hired by defense attorney Sally Durrell whose client, Giacomo Bernardi, is the leading suspect in the murder of Quentin Bouvier. Bernardi isn't talking, and Durrell needs evidence of his guilt or innocence. Quentin Bouvier was murdered in the night following a meeting of New Age practitioners, where he showed off a recently purchased Tarot card, very old and very valuable. After the murder, the card has disappeared. Croft is very much a skeptic of all mystics and their supernatural claims, but he knows crime and he knows criminals. He sets out to interview all the psychics present at the meeting, and soon finds himself buried in a mountain of lies and half-truths. And someone seems to want to kill him. A fairly good mystery, the New Agers are a bit of a cliché, but perhaps that's the way they really are. Not the best in the series, though.

[Khanson919 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just stumbled upon this series and have come to really enjoy it. As this is the fourth book in the series, I have really gotten to know Joshua Croft as a character and I find him very funny. I like that his relationship with Rita keeps moving forward and that every case he has had has been very different. In this one he is working for his friend Sally trying to clear her client of murder. Her client Giacamo Bernardi is a tarot card reader. He is accused of killing a magician and stealing a valuable tarot card. As Joshua works the case he encounters many suspects in the spiritual community. I really loved the twist at the end and how Joshua deals with the guilty party.

[Vicki Holmsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

In spite of some frustrations with the plot, I was entertained by this book. I like the wise-cracking investigator Joshua Croft and the setting in Santa Fe. I didn't like how many chapters ended on a cliffhanger plot point, and then the next chapter didn't pick it up until later as a flashback. There is also a minor plot point and character introduced early who was forgettable, and so when that character returned in final pages, I had forgotten him. Hmmm.

[Gail Mathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hanged Man

Excellent book. The story is great, characters are fascinatinating. Joshua isn't always right much to our surprise. It's a good story with really interesting twists and turns. No one could see the end coming. Complete surprise in many ways. Very fun read. I highly recommend it.

[Eldon New]

Hilarious passages abut karma and historical figures.

[S Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.

I have been trying to find these for a long time. This is a very good story. Clever, Chandleresque and amusing.

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

THE HANGED MAN - Ok
Satterthwait, Walter - 4th in Joshua Croft series

At a meeting of thirteen of Santa Fe's leading New Age healers, Quentin Bouvier, a magician and possibly a reincarnated Egyptian pharaoh, has been hanged from the rafters. He outbid Leonard Quarry for astrologer Eliza Remington's antique tarot card and now he's dead and the tarot card is missing. The police quickly arrest Giacamo Bernardi, a tarot reader, and charge him with the murder and theft. Bernardi's court-appointed attorney hires private investigator Joshua Croft to prove Bernardi's innocence. Suspects from the meeting and the community abound, including astrologers and psychics, a young hermit immersed in "Spiritual Alchemy," an aging movie star who acts as a medium for an entity from Alpha Centauri, a Native American shaman who gets accountants in touch with their warrior within, and a mysterious Asian woman whose equally mysterious brother displays a near-lethal familiarity with martial arts.

There were too many characters and it reads as though it were a screenplay. However, I still might try another book by Satterthwait.

[T J · Rating 4 out of 5]

The new ager group find itself in the middle of an investigation of murder of their fellow member. Joshua is on the trail of the murder and in search for a stolen card. This one never hinted at who done it until it was revealed. Great storyline and characters.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't kept up on Satterthwait's book, though I remember this one being interesting. I also remember it being a little worldly as well.