Saturday, September 3, 2016

'Houdini’s Girl Detective' out now

Houdini’s Girl Detective: The Real-Life Ghost-Busting Adventures of Rose Mackenberg by Tony Wolf is available now in a print edition and eBook. I've been eagerly awaiting this one since we first got word of it back in May. Here's the cover and description from Amazon:

The 1920s: a time of unprecedented belief in "spiritualism", or the practice of ostensibly communicating with the spirits of the dead. Into this milieu stepped Rose Mackenberg, a private detective trained by the great magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini. Her mission: to investigate and expose "ghost racketeers" who used magic tricks and psychological manipulation to con bereaved people out of their hard-earned cash. "Houdini's Girl Detective" is an illustrated anthology of Rose Mackenberg's original 1929 newspaper article series, detailing her sometimes hair-raising adventures exposing the chicanery of the ghost racket.

You can purchase Houdini’s Girl Detective: The Real-Life Ghost-Busting Adventures of Rose Mackenberg at Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2016 at 8:57 AM

    Has anyone read this yet?

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    Replies
    1. John CoxSeptember 10, 2016 at 7:10 AM

      I'm deep into Bob Loomis' new book at the moment. This one is next.

      Delete
  2. Leo HeviaSeptember 10, 2016 at 11:13 AM

    I'm currently deep in Dave Kaplan's The Chairman. It's the sequel to Volume 1 of his two part Frank Sinatra bio...oh dear, wrong blog...

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    1. John CoxSeptember 11, 2016 at 9:43 AM

      I almost zapped this as spam before I saw it was you posting. :p

      Delete
    2. Leo HeviaSeptember 11, 2016 at 10:29 AM

      Ha! Between Kaplan's book and Eduardo's Houdini bio, I feel like the book reviewer for the New Yorker...

      Delete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2016 at 9:34 AM

    on page 85, Mr. Wolf misidentifies a photograph of Dunninger as one oh Houdini.
    Jon Oliver

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    Replies
    1. John CoxSeptember 11, 2016 at 9:46 AM

      Indeed. That's Dunninger. As this is a print on demand, he could easily fix that, and then we all would have the rare "error" edition. :)

      Delete
  4. Tim King!May 27, 2020 at 5:40 PM

    So Houdini trains his agents including Mackenberg to use chalk for signalling. Do we know where Houdini learned this method? Or is it assumed to just be a field expedient?

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