Minch, Stephen: The Vernon Chronicles Volume 3: Further Lost Inner Secrets ©1989 L&L Publishing and Bruce Cervon. Hardcover, w/dj, 219 pages

Image from Bryan-Keith Taylor

Comments: (Omar Domenech): Illustrations and cover design by Tom Gagnon.  This is third volume of Dai Vernon's material culled from Bruce Cervon's legendary "Castle Notebooks". This is arguably the last great installment of the Vernon Chronicles, since the fourth and final volume contains only a biography of The Professor. This volume, like the first in the series, contains both sleights and effects. Like the second volume, it also contains a section on effects invented by some of the performers Dai Vernon himself admired. Within the pages of this book, you will find excellent advice on palms and other sleights, as well as many powerful effects, including the legendary "Joker Monte" that baffled magicians for many years.

Contents:

Foreword - herb Zarrow
Introduction - Bruce Cervon
Author's Introduction - Stephen Minch
Trouping Around in Magic with Max Holden - William P. Miesel

1 Chapter One: Dark Side of the Hand
1 Subway Gambler's Palm
3 The Contortion Palm
5 Dr. Daley's Face-Lift Addition
8 The lilliput Palm
11 An Historical Note on the Dr. Elliot Top Palm
13 The Revolving Palm-Replacement
15 The Finley Diagonal Palm Shift Revisited
16 Flat Top

25 Chapter Two: Sundry Sleights
25 Flat Top Switch
27 The Spring-Loaded Tip-Over Change
30 The Zarrow Block Addition
35 A Note on Zarrow's Revolving Aces
37 Back Breaker
39 The Hair's-Breadth Stall
41 Vernon on the "Endfield" Slip Cut
44 On the Hay False Dovetail Shuffle
50 A Table Pass

57 Chapter Three: Motley
57 Spellatron
59 Cut and Spell
63 Caught in the Stretch
67 If the Suit Fits
70 Bruce Cervon's Trans Mitt
75 Given the Slip
81 Will-o'-the-Wisp
93 The Vernon Deck Vanish and Recovery

99 Chapter Four: Cheats
99 Joker Monte
105 Three in the Hand, One in the Bush
108 A Straight Deal
111 The David and Goliath Deal
113 Black's Stack
116 Stacked to Formula

123 Chapter Five: Inflationary Effects
123 On Your Metal
128 All Sound and Fabric
130 Right Where?
135 Two Techniques with the Purse Palm
139 Pastiche on Ramsay, with Variations
147 On the Origins of the Steeplechase
149 Folding Money
156 Cashing a Check

161 Chapter Six: Notes on Cherished Ghosts
161 "Vester" Adam's Flight of Fabric
166 Arthur Finley's Remote Control
168 S. Leo Horowitz's Look Homeward, Angel
171 Henry Christ's Obstinate Pasteboards
175 Faucett Ross' Twice Turned
177 Mac MacDonald's Lost Chord
180 Dr. Daley's Vis-a-vis
185 Dr. Daley's Select Transposition
187 Dr. Daley's Interlocking Setup
193 Tenkai's Phoenix Bill Vanish
199 Larry Grey's Cut to Perfection
203 Jay Ose's Presentation for The Glass Through Table
205 John Scarne's Doppelganger Location
208 John Scarne's Western Union Trick

215 Chapter Seven: Solitary Amusements
215 What's-the-Value Solitaire
219 Think-of-a-Card Solitaire

---