"It seemed to Bess that her husband was a magician who wanted, desperately, to believe that magic was real." He therefore vowed to contact his wife from the grave if he was the first of the pair to die. Mrs. Houdini starts three years after the famed escape artist's untimely death, when Bess is struggling financially and running a tearoom in New York. Despite opportunists' best efforts to dupe her, Bess remains convinced Harry will reach out from the afterlife. So when Bess sees fragments of the secret code they arranged in photographs, she's confident it's more than a coincidence: "Because Harry loved tricks. His whole life was an illusion. He lived his magic. Nothing was ever what it seemed." However, Bess isn't quite prepared for the reality of Harry's greatest trick.
Alternating between 1929 and the preceding three decades of the Houdinis' marriage, Kelly animates the love story of this historic couple with a smooth blending of research and artistry. Their personalities light up the stage on which this clever story plays out, stealthily distracting the audience with charm and intrigue while the plot casually sets up the thrilling final act. Dazzling and enchanting, Mrs. Houdini will captivate readers in a fashion that would make Harry and Bess proud. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts