The Floating Lady Murder: A Harry Houdini Mystery (Book 2 of 3)

The Floating Lady Murder: A Harry Houdini Mystery (Book 2 of 3) by Daniel Stashower  256 pages

I wasn’t impressed with Book 1 in The Harry Houdini Mysteries, but this one is much, much better. The Floating Lady is a magic trick that is at the heart of this wonderful novel.

Again, the story is narrated by Harry’s younger brother, Dash, and is set a few years around the turn-of-the-century New York City. The book starts out in the same manner as Book 1: Harry has been dead for many years and Dash is an old man. On the anniversary of Harry’s death, reporters show up at his door, wanting to glean insight into the infamous magician. Dash vacillates between each story to tell, which will garner the biggest story, and which is the freshest. He decides on the Floating Lady murder. He’s never talked about it before and as all the players, except himself, are dead, Dash feels he can finally tell the story.

Harry hasn’t quite made a name for himself---yet. He and his wife, Bess, are struggling financially and live with his mother on East 69^th Street. Dash is somewhat better economically, but barely.

A world re-known magician, Harry Kellar (not a fictional person), is hiring for his show. He’s working on a new illusion in which a woman floats through the air, high into the dome of Belasco Theater. It is to be the highlight of his career, as this illusion has never been successfully performed.  

Kellar is worried about spies from other magic shows and hires the brothers as they would be able to spot a would-be theft more than someone who does not know the art of illusion. Lots of intrigue follows, most notably the escape of Boris the Lion.

The illusion really goes by two names in the novel, The Levitation of Princess Karnac or the Floating Lady. That doesn’t cause any confusion. On opening night, before a packed house, high-wire artist Francesca Moore falls seventy feet from the top of the dome. Seemingly a tragic accident, the coroner soon discovers that Miss Moore did not die on impact. In fact she had water in her lungs and had drowned.

Harry and Dash take it upon themselves to find the real killer. The two have several adventures that make for a great read. Stashower makes one faux pas that jumped off the page at me. On Page 10, he mentions magic performed on television shows. Even if Dash’s narration is near the end of his life in 1945, magic on television would be commonplace.

The Floating Lady Murder is much better than Book One, The Dime Museum Murders. It’s more of a page-turner than its predecessor.  I give Book Two 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Dime Museum Murders

  

The Dime Museum Murders: A Harry Houdini Mystery (Book 1 of 3) by Daniel Stashower   256 pages

I loved the way this story opened: It’s Halloween. Every year reporters track down the now forty-nine-year-old Dash Hardeen, younger brother of Erich Weiss, more commonly known as Harry Houdini, to interview him about his brother. Harry is already dead. Dash loves the attention that the night and the new reporters bring. It makes him feel close to Harry again.

The reporter, Jack Matthews, asks his questions; the same ones that all other reporters before him have asked, especially on Halloween. Matthews picks up a heavy gold medallion and asked Dash about it. Dash tells him that it is “a memento from the very first time that Harry Houdini ever died.” Now he really has Matthews’ attention, and Matthews wants to hear more. It’s a long story, Dash tells him, and then real story begins.

It’s 1897 in New York. Harry is still trying to make it. He has small name recognition but isn’t yet the superstar he is to become. To make ends meet, Harry and his beloved wife, Bess, are working the dime museum, or a ten-in-one. The patron pays a dime and gets to see ten acts, each act lasting three minutes.

Across the city, toy tycoon Branford Wintour is murdered in a locked room. The police call on Harry to help them solve the case. At least that’s what Harry believes. What the police really want is or Harry to identify a priceless and, some thought forgotten, automation. Although the police discourage the brothers, they continue to investigate.

The novel is well written. Not the page-turner I was hoping for, but it has a nice steady pace. Author Stashower does an excellent job in showing what an ego-manic, jerk of a personality that Houdini was. Dash is the more, much, much, much more likable character. I enjoyed reading about the magic and how hard Harry worked at becoming Houdini. I was also fascinated by the automations and the toy story that the brothers’ mentors ran.

There is a major flaw with this book: The title indicates that the murders take place where Harry and Bess perform. They don’t.  

I give The Dime Museum Murders: A Harry Houdini Mystery (Book 1 of 3) 3 out of 5 stars.

The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World

 

The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World by David Jaher 448 pages

The title of this book is what immediately captured by attention---anything with Houdini and séances can’t be bad. The top of the inside dust jacket stirred my imagination: History comes alive in this textured account of the rivalry between Harry Houdini and the so-called Witch of Lime street…” Not to mention the dust jacket glows in the dark which is really cool.

Before I even started reading, I was disappointed. Having been initially classified as fiction, I was bummed to learn that this was nonfiction. But I was intrigued, so I didn’t let a little thing like that stop me. I was ready to be whisked away to the 1920s: back to jazz, spiritualism, Prohibition, and the fascination with the occult.

I want to say upfront that this book is well-written. It’s not hard to follow and is not merely fact stacked upon fact, as many historical books are. It pulled me in, but I kept reading and reading, waiting for Houdini and Margery to go head-to-head.  It took more than half the book to get there.

The book’s first half was about the rise in spiritualism in the United States and the role Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame) played. 

Fascinating background that a reader not well schooled in its complex history needs to know. Houdini was more like a bit player; he showed up near the end, and the biggest scene he played was his own death. I have to admit, that I felt cheated. And too, the book does not present conclusive evidence as to whether Margery was a fake or truly had a gift to communicate with her brother, who happened to be on the other side.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.

Born Of Illusion

Born Of Illusion by Teri Brown, 373 pages

Anna Van Housen has been helping her mother with her show for nearly all of her life.  Anna’s mother is a medium and performs both publicly and privately.  At the public show, Anna acts as a magician and she is very good.  She also covers for her mother during her mother’s part of the show, because Anna’s mother is a fake.  She has no real psychic ability.  But Anna does, and she is determined to hide it from her mother.  Anna hates doing the séances and hates feeling what other people feel but doesn’t know how to control it.  Recently, Anna has begun having visions of danger for herself and her mother and several ne people have come into their lives.  Notably, two young men who seem to be vying for Anna’s attention, Cole and Owen.  Anna isn’t sure if she trusts either one of them but both are handsome and seem kind.  Anna is also worried that Harry Houdini may appear to expose her mother.  Anna’s mother has always claimed that Houdini was her father and now he could ruin their lives.  This is a great supernatural mystery thriller set in the 1920s that many teens may enjoy.