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Published Mar 2016
320 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
A captivating debut novel, meticulously researched and beautifully imagined, about the passionate marriage of Harry and Bess Houdini - a love story that defied death itself.
Before escape artist Harry Houdini died, he vowed he would find a way to speak to his beloved wife Bess from beyond the grave using a coded message known only to the two of them. When a widowed Bess begins seeing this code in seemingly impossible places, it becomes clear that Harry has an urgent message to convey. Unlocking the puzzle will set Bess on a course back through the pair's extraordinary romance, which swept the illusionist and his bride from the beaches of Coney Island, to the palaces of Budapest, to the back lots of Hollywood. When the mystery finally leads Bess to the doorstep of a mysterious young photographer, she realizes that her husband's magic may have been more than just illusion.
In surprising turns that weave through the uncertain days of the dawn of the twentieth century and continue into the dazzling 1920s, Mrs. Houdini is a thrilling tale that will take you deep into the heart of one of history's greatest love stories - asking what drives people to believe in something bigger than themselves - even as it reveals the famous magician's most remarkable feat of all.
"Mrs Houdini is perfectly serviceable historical fiction but sadly doesn't have much of a spark." - BookBrowse
"Starred Review. Moving effortlessly beyond mere fictionalized biography, Kelly delivers a richly lyrical and thought-provoking novel with closing twists that feel as impossible, inevitable, and satisfying - as magical, in short - as one of Houdini's own illusions." - Publishers Weekly
"Readers should not be misled by the title of this well-researched historical novel: the focus is more on Mr. than Mrs . Harry Houdini . In a novel that reads more like narrative biography than fiction, Bess plays the role of supportive and trusting wife..." - Booklist
"The book flirts with spiritual themes and with the idea that the divide between this life and the next may be permeable. But Houdini was, in the end, a down-to-earth kind of guy, and one can't help but wonder what he would have made of the otherworldly turns in this sweet if not quite satisfying novel." - Kirkus
"Victoria Kelly brings immense imaginative empathy to bear on the fascinating story of the woman who stood beside Harry Houdini, on stage, in life, and after his early death. Resonant, haunting and deeply felt, this is a stellar debut from a novelist to watch." - Geraldine Brooks Pulitzer Prize winning author
"For anyone intrigued by magic and illusion, and Harry Houdini in particular, Kelly's fictional biography of Bess Houdini will fascinate...The well-crafted characters and the mystery behind Houdini's vow to communicate with Bess after death propel the plot forward, captivating readers." - RT Magazine
"A magical trip through a magical time - a fresh and absorbing read." - Kate Alcott New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker
"Mrs. Houdini is, in its way, a ghost story, and like every good ghost story, it comes with an ending that will make you shiver. But it's not a shiver of fear that Kelly's fine debut provokes, though there's more than a hint of the uncanny in its pages. It's the shiver one gets from an excellent story skillfully told, with characters whose fates are fully and sympathetically realized." - Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Illumination
This information about Mrs. Houdini was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Victoria Kelly received her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, her B.A. Summa Cum Laude from Harvard University, and her M.Phil. in creative writing from Trinity College Dublin, where she was a US Mitchell Scholar. She is the author of the poetry collection When the Men Go Off to War. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in the anthologies Best American Poetry 2013 and Contemporary American Poetry, as well as Alaska Quarterly Review, Southwest Review, Prairie Schooner, and North American Review. She lives in Virginia with her husband and daughters.
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