FFB Review: "THE ADVENTURE OF THE ECTOPLASMIC MAN (1985) by Daniel Stashower (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)

Barry is back today with another review for Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott author of Concrete Angel among other works. As happens most of the time with Barry’s selections for FFB, this is another book I have not read. Most likely I never will either and not just because my TBR pile is huge. I never have understood the fascination with Harry Houdini. For that matter, I never had understood the fascination with escape artists and the like. Why put yourself in a dangerous situation just to try to escape from it? Makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ECTOPLASMIC MAN (1985) by Daniel Stashower

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

Appearing in London in 1910, Harry Houdini has not yet attained international fame. But as he has done in other countries, he challenges Scotland Yard to imprison him so he can demonstrate his abilities as an escape artist. The Yard complies, and half an hour later they receive a call from Houdini telling them “he’d made it back to his hotel all right and he just wanted us to know he’d left a surprise in the cell block.” So reports a flustered Inspector Lestrade to Sherlock Holmes, adding

that, according to the American Society for Psychic Research, Houdini must “achieve his effects through psychic means” and that “no other explanation is possible.”

The means? Reducing himself to ectoplasm in order to penetrate solid walls or cell bars.

What ensues? Highly entertaining details concerning Holmes’s meeting with Houdini and the former’s involvement in a case in which the illusionist is arrested for stealing documents from a seemingly impenetrable vault-like room—documents that can severely embarrass the Prince of Wales, who will shortly be crowned King George V. The documents are letters from the Countess Valenka, an avaricious soon-to-be murder victim of whose death Houdini is also suspected.

Prior to starting this novel, I read about seventy pages of another mystery, the title and author of which will not be named because I didn’t finish it. Referred to as “a donnish detective story,” it is generally quite well written in a formal style, although in places I think the dialogue is somewhat stilted. However, given the urgent nature of the situation that is at the heart of the story, it feels too leisurely in tone, and the first seventy pages

dwell at excruciating length on people’s impressions of two principal characters. It became tedious so I gave up on it, though I’ve read and liked a couple of other books by this author.

I mention this because The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man is also written in formal prose, Daniel Stashower doing an admirable job of emulating Conan Doyle’s style and approach. (This isn’t surprising because Stashower is also the author of a biography of Doyle and the co-editor of a book of his letters.) The significant difference between it and the unnamed title of the preceding paragraph is the pacing. The story moves steadily forward without flagging, superbly blending suspense with moments of humor.

This was its multi-award-winning author’s first novel. Successors sans Holmes starring Harry Houdini and his brother Dash Hardeen are The Dime Museum Murders, The Floating Lady Murder, and The Houdini Specter. A standalone, Elephants in the Distance, also features a magician as sleuth. All four, as well as the title under consideration, are likely to please fans of traditional mysteries.

© 2015 Barry Ergang

Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. Some of it is available at Amazon and at Smashwords. His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/.

FFB Review: "The Floating Lady Murder" by Daniel Stashower

Friday means Friday’s Forgotten Books and this week Barry is back with his review of The Floating Lady Murder by Daniel Stashower. After you read Barry’s review poke around here a bit reading some other stuff before heading over to Patti Abbott’s blog here and checking out today’s list of forgotten books.

THE FLOATING LADY MURDER (2000) by Daniel Stashower

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

An episode from the second season of Monk titled "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico" contains a tantalizing premise for fans of impossible crime stories: a young skydiver plunges to his death, which is witnessed by his friends on the ground. An autopsy subsequently reveals that the fall didn't kill him; he drowned, apparently in mid-air.


        The episode's moments that dealt with Adrian Monk's obsessive-compulsive behavior were often hilarious, but as a mystery it was huge let-down for a couple of reasons. It didn't play fair with the viewer, and the solution was basically a "cheat" because it concerned events only Monk knew about.


        The Floating Lady Murder, the second in Daniel Stashower's series featuring Harry Houdini and his brother Dash Hardeen as detectives, employs a similar premise. It doesn't play entirely fair with the reader, but the solution doesn't cheat so it's not likely to disappoint him either.

        In 1898, Harry Houdini—except in his own mind—has not yet achieved the fame that would later make him known throughout America and abroad. His brother Dash, the story's narrator, though a somewhat accomplished performer himself, serves primarily as Harry's booking agent. Lately he's been unable to secure jobs for Harry and Harry's wife Bess, Houdini's on-stage assistant. Thus, when he reads that Harry Kellar, "the dean of American magicians," is hiring additional crew members for his troupe, Dash suggests that he, Harry and Bess apply. In his vanity, Harry balks at the notion until Dash and Bess persuade him of the wisdom of it.


        They are hired, and soon learn that Kellar is determined to debut his Floating Lady levitation when the touring company returns to New York City from Albany. The illusion was conceived years earlier by Kellar's mentor, The Wizard of Kalliffa (a.k.a. Duncan MacGregor). Levitation was common among magicians, but this one was to be spectacular in that the person levitated would float out over the stage and high above the audience. MacGregor's wife, assisting her husband by taking the role of the Floating Lady, fell to her death from a great height when the illusion failed. In tribute to the MacGregors, Kellar wants to perform the illusion on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mrs. MacGregor's passing. He has only a matter of days to refine it. Working with the Great Man and his stage crew, Harry and Dash devise an effective means of doing so, receiving Kellar's ecstatic gratitude.


        The performance has every member of the troupe holding his breath as the beautiful Francesca Moore seemingly levitates high up into the theater's dome, "borne aloft by the hypnotic force of animal magnetism." The audience is enchanted. But then something goes horribly wrong, and Francesca Moore plummets seventy-two feet to her death.


        It seems a terrible accident until, during an autopsy, it's learned that Miss Moore's death resulted from drowning, apparently—and impossibly—in mid-air. When one of the stagehands, Jim Collins, is arrested for murder, Harry and Dash are determined to prove his innocence and uncover the real murderer. This they do when Kellar and a rival magician, Servais Le Roy, team up to perform the illusion once again, putting Bess and Harry's lives in peril.


        Stashower does an excellent job of bringing the era to life while serving up a well-paced story that's loaded with action, suspense, a great puzzle, and a lot of humor. Dash Hardeen is not a vacuous Watson who marvels at his brother's brilliance. He, in fact, is the brainier of the two. Harry provides the brawn, as well as unchecked egotism that spawns some wonderful comic moments.


        Recommended without reservations.



Barry Ergang ©2014

Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang's fiction, poetry and non-fiction have appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. Some of his work such as Stuffed Shirt, Dances of the Disaffected, and PUN-ishing Tales: The Stuff That Groans Are Made On are several titles among others available at Amazon and at Smashwords. Visit his website: http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/

FFB Review: "The Floating Lady Murder" by Daniel Stashower reviewed by Barry Ergang

THE FLOATING LADY MURDER (2000) by Daniel Stashower

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

An episode from the second season of Monk titled "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico" contains a tantalizing premise for fans of impossible crime stories: a young skydiver plunges to his death, which is witnessed by his friends on the ground. An autopsy subsequently reveals that the fall didn't kill him; he drowned, apparently in mid-air.

        The episode's moments that dealt with Adrian Monk's obsessive-compulsive behavior were often hilarious, but as a mystery it was huge let-down for a couple of reasons. It didn't play fair with the viewer, and the solution was basically a "cheat" because it concerned events only Monk knew about.

        The Floating Lady Murder, the second in Daniel Stashower's series featuring Harry Houdini and his brother Dash Hardeen as detectives, employs a similar premise. It doesn't play entirely fair with the reader, but the solution doesn't cheat so it's not likely to disappoint him either.




        In 1898, Harry Houdini—except in his own mind—has not yet achieved the fame that would later make him known throughout America and abroad. His brother Dash, the story's narrator, though a somewhat accomplished performer himself, serves primarily as Harry's booking agent. Lately he's been unable to secure jobs for Harry and Harry's wife Bess, Houdini's on-stage assistant. Thus, when he reads that Harry Kellar, "the dean of American magicians," is hiring additional crew members for his troupe, Dash suggests that he, Harry and Bess apply. In his vanity, Harry balks at the notion until Dash and Bess persuade him of the wisdom of it.

        They are hired, and soon learn that Kellar is determined to debut his Floating Lady levitation when the touring company returns to New York City from Albany. The illusion was conceived years earlier by Kellar's mentor, The Wizard of Kalliffa (a.k.a. Duncan MacGregor). Levitation was common among magicians, but this one was to be spectacular in that the person levitated would float out over the stage and high above the audience. MacGregor's wife, assisting her husband by taking the role of the Floating Lady, fell to her death from a great height when the illusion failed. In tribute to the MacGregors, Kellar wants to perform the illusion on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mrs. MacGregor's passing. He has only a matter of days to refine it. Working with the Great Man and his stage crew, Harry and Dash devise an effective means of doing so, receiving Kellar's ecstatic gratitude.

        The performance has every member of the troupe holding his breath as the beautiful Francesca Moore seemingly levitates high up into the theater's dome, "borne aloft by the hypnotic force of animal magnetism." The audience is enchanted. But then something goes horribly wrong, and Francesca Moore plummets seventy-two feet to her death.

        It seems a terrible accident until, during an autopsy, it's learned that Miss Moore's death resulted from drowning, apparently—and impossibly—in mid-air. When one of the stagehands, Jim Collins, is arrested for murder, Harry and Dash are determined to prove his innocence and uncover the real murderer. This they do when Kellar and a rival magician, Servais Le Roy, team up to perform the illusion once again, putting Bess and Harry's lives in peril.

        Stashower does an excellent job of bringing the era to life while serving up a well-paced story that's loaded with action, suspense, a great puzzle, and a lot of humor. Dash Hardeen is not a vacuous Watson who marvels at his brother's brilliance. He, in fact, is the brainier of the two. Harry provides the brawn, as well as unchecked egotism that spawns some wonderful comic moments.

        Recommended without reservations.

Barry Ergang (c) 2011

**************

Barry Ergang's own impossible crime novelette, "The Play of Light and Shadow," is available for e-readers at Amazon and Smashwords, along with some of his other work, for a mere ninety-nine cents. Formerly the Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine and First Senior Editor of Mysterical-E, winner of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Award for the best flash fiction story of 2006, his written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. For links to material available online, and fiction available for e-readers, see Barry’s webpages. 

Remember, too, that he has books from his personal collection for sale at http://barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/ He'll contribute 20% of the purchase price of the books to our fund, so please have a look at his lists.