Bess never forgot Harry’s promise to her that he would find a way to communicate from beyond the grave. From the couple’s early struggles for success at Coney Island to the glittering palaces of Europe, where the pair became an overnight smash, and back again to America, the novel brings to life a love story that supersedes even death. The writer combines thorough research with energetic imagination to give her audience a fascinating tale about relationships against the setting of the Roaring ’20s. Those who thought they knew Houdini, his magic and his obsession with the hereafter, are privy to the ups and downs of this couple throughout his meteoric rise to fame.

It was also a time in this country when people were exploring what happens after death, and séances with the dearly departed were celebrated. Theirs is a passionate marriage set against the backdrop of a new era in American history. It is the story of two people, Ehrich Weiss, better known as Harry Houdini, as told through his loving, faithful wife Bess Houdini. Houdini, is that glimpse behind the famous magician’s curtain. A poet herself, she quotes Irish poet William Butler Yeats in this novel’s frontispiece: “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”Įveryone knows about escape artist extraordinaire Harry Houdini, but behind every great man is an even better woman, or so the adage goes. in creative writing from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and went on to earn her MFA in creative writing in 2009 from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Victoria Kelly was born in New Jersey and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University.

Mrs houdini