Harry Houdini Mysteries: The Floating Lady Murder by Daniel StashowerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up for under a fiver at The Works. I enjoy historical novels, especially the era that this is set in. My knowledge of Harry Houdini is limited, all I know is that he an iconic magician. It doesn't matter if you know anything at all about Houdini, this book is perfectly enjoyable all on it's own.
The narrator is Dash, Houdini's brother and manager. The story begins with him as an old man but soon transports us back to 19th century America.
It's clear that Houdini is eccentric and without his brother and wife he would end up getting himself into a lot of trouble. Telling the story from the secondary character reminded me a little of Sherlock Holmes and Houdini is certainly as odd as Conan Doyle's infamous character.
The other characters certainly balance out Houdini although be prepared there is a lot of them! Generally it is easy to keep track of who is who, but there are some difficulties.
The murder mystery centres around a trick called The Floating Lady. This insight into magic has always been something of interest for me having watched Jonathan Creek for years. I was intrigued as to how the trick worked and found the backstage descriptions particularly fascinating.
I must admit, I had no idea who the murderer was and really enjoyed the ride to discovering the culprit. I found myself smiling and laughing at the characters and what they said. I can envisage this as a great BBC1 period drama and look forward to reading more novels bu Daniel Stashower.
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