The Houdini Inheritance
Emma Carroll has produced another intriguing and well-researched historical novel. The Houdini Inheritance tells a complex tale well. Set in 1926, and moving from a down-beat English seaside resort – chief attraction, ‘gritty cockles’ – to New York’s Coney Island, it interweaves the story of small-time entertainers with that of real-life characters and arch-enemies, Harry Houdini and notorious medium, Margery Crandon.
Glory and Dennis are best friends. Their mothers, one a singer and the other a tattoo artist, are both away in Coney Island for the summer, working. Harry Houdini arrives, a little oddly, to perform a show in Sidford-on-Sea; followed equally suspiciously by Margery Crandon, there to perform a public séance. The plot thickens as the children become involved with both. They end up travelling to Coney Island themselves, there to expose the trickery of Crandon and help the Houdinis with one last trick, whilst discovering the truth behind Glory’s mother’s failure to write home and why she always avoids Glory on her birthday. In true melodramatic form, the story involves a switched trunk, a shoot-out and a missing sibling.
This book has great pace and narrative tension, with sharply observed characters and clear, clever dialogue. The sidewalk advertising posters in Coney Island are a treat in themselves – who wouldn’t want to see ‘Marvin the Mathematical Goat’, ‘Magic Toenails’ or ‘Seagulls in Jars’?
“Are they alive?’ I wondered.
Effie pulled a face. ‘Hideous either way.”
The children are easy to empathise with; the adults appropriately obstructive but ultimately reliable. Careful attention is paid to diversity issues within the story’s historical context. A fun read for children aged 10 – 14.
