Until the magician chided the otherwise pragmatic author for his belief in fairies, Harry Houdini enjoyed a cordial friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Thus, it’s only natural for Daniel Stashower to have Houdini meet Doyle’s great detective in THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE ECTOPLASMIC MAN.
Houdini’s wife, Bess, comes to 221B Baker Street, where she tells Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson that she fears something may happen to her husband, because of a threatening note he received. Her fears are not unfounded when, after a performance, he is arrested for stealing England’s secrets. After all, who but Houdini — the man who can walk through walls — could enter the Prince of Wales’ safe and swipe several documents, without being detected?
With Houdini in jail — and making a promise not to escape, even though he totally can — Holmes takes the case, and thus begins a tale of magic, mysticism, mistaken identity and murder. Stashower’s more than up to the challenge, crafting an effective, sleight-of-hand mystery that not only does right by Doyle, but Houdini, too. Having recently read a Houdini biography, it was neat to see so many details from his real life bleed over into this fictional work. It’s wise and winning.
First published in 1985, THE ECTOPLASMIC MAN is one of four initial Holmes pastiches resurrected for reprinting by Titan Books, under a new FURTHER ADVENTURES umbrella; the others are Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman’s WAR OF THE WORLDS and David Stuart Davies’ THE SCROLL OF THE DEAD and THE VEILED DETECTIVE. (In February, another wave follows with Barrie Roberts’ THE MAN FROM HELL and H. Paul Jeffers’ THE STALWART COMPANIONS.) All come packaged in thoroughly winning covers, which makes collectability all the more attractive.
But let’s hope the others don’t have this volume’s alarming number of punctuation and capitalization errors. I can’t say if they are new to this reprint or there all along, but how so many snuck into the finished product is the biggest mystery of all. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BEAUTIFUL CIGAR GIRL: MARY ROGERS, EDGAR ALLAN POE, AND THE INVENTION OF MURDER by Daniel Stashower
Related posts:
- The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #2
- Sherlock Holmes on the Stage: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Plays Featuring the Great Detective
- The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #1
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I see the orginal version of this book all the time at certain book stores. I think I still have my copy of it somewhere.
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most anticipated movie this year.. They made a great movie… thanks to all the characters and production crew that worked hard to produce this great movie…