Nightmare Alley — William Lindsay Gresham

Stanton Carlisle was young, smart, unscrupulous and ambitious. He began his career in a carnival. He set out to achieve riches and power by exploiting the things men fear most: death and the creak of fortune's wheel.

Stanton did not stay long in the tent show. He gained renown as a mentalist and was soon playing his spiritualist trade among Manhattan's wealthy elite. But the closer he got to the top the nearer he was to his own destruction.