Harry Houdini Mysteries: The Houdini Specter

by Daniel Stashower

Overview

The Great Harry Houdini is still struggling to make a name for himself in turn-of-the-century New York. He sees an opportunity for glory in exposing the tricks of the medium Lucius Craig - if only he can work out how the medium managed to conjure a "spirit" while tied to a chair by Houdini himself or how the apparition was able to stab an audience member to death and then disappear! Another thrilling title in the Harry Houdini Mysteries series!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857686213
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	06/12/2012
Series:	Harry Houdini , #3
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	926,531
File size:	472 KB

About the Author

Daniel Stashower is a novelist and magician. His works include: the Edgar Award-winning Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle, Elephants in the Distance, The Beautiful Cigar Girl, The Ghosts of Baker Street, and the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Ectoplasmic Man.

Editorial Reviews

Stashower's work as a magician pays big dividends in his third devilishly clever period whodunit featuring the legendary escape artist as Sherlock Holmes stand-in, after 2012's The Floating Lady Murder. Houdini is not yet the international sensation he would eventually become; for now, he and his brother, who goes by the name of Dash Hardeen, must hustle to make ends meet. Houdini becomes fascinated with a reputed medium, Lucius Craig, after learning of his ostensibly supernatural abilities from a friendly journalist. Curious, the brothers wangle their way into a Manhattan séance, where things take a violent turn. With the participants linked by each other's hands, and Craig tied to a chair, somehow a luminous "spirit" appears and stabs one of the attendees to death. The impossible crime setup is enhanced by humor, as Houdini often falls a bit short of the Baker Street sleuth he so desperately tries to emulate. The resolution isn't as clever as in certain other magician-detective novels, such as those featuring the Great Merlini, but engaging characters and a fun story line make further exploits welcome.
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