July 7, 2008
Mystery lovers will get a kick out of this rollicking whodunit featuring swashbuckling soothsayers, outlandish séances, magic tricks and more. Set in the Roaring 20s, the fact-based narrative follows Scooter King, a sharp-witted 13-year-old who finds a dead body in Harry Houdini's Burmese Torture Tank and vows to unmask the murderer before he or she strikes again. Meanwhile, Scooter's mother is grasping at fame as a spiritual medium—albeit by counting on Scooter to manipulate various instruments and gadgets behind the scenes—and fighting off Houdini's attempts to expose fortunetelling frauds. The storytelling is pure fun, as the author uses flavorful period details (Scooter's mother says that even a “Bolshevik” could make himself rich: “All you have to do now is sit long enough on a flagpole, or dance the Charleston until you nearly drop dead”), and Scooter, the narrator, gets his perspective across with plenty of slang (“a lot of applesauce”; “the eel's hips”). As if staging a magic show of his own, Lawrence (The Wreckers
) builds suspense and adds plot twists right up until the climactic conclusion. Ages 8–12.
August 1, 2008
Gr 5-7-Lawrence explores Houdini's attempts to expose the spiritual fakery of mediums and séances in this novel set in June 1926. Thirteen-year-old Scooter King's mother is a medium; his hero is Houdini. When the great escape artist appears at the Orpheum, it is Scooter who finds a dead man in Houdini's Burmese Torture Tank. Certain that the killer meant to get rid of his idol, Scooter is determined to identify the culprit. Then, two more killings occur. The book is full of period referencesto Stanley Steamers, flagpole sitting, the Charleston, etc., as well as slang, such as "the bee's knees," "the cat's pajamas," "the eel's hips," all of which at times bog down the story line. Houdini's eccentric personality is evident, and Scooter is a well-developed character. Secondary figures, however, are one-dimensional. Kids will enjoy learning how some of the illusions and tricks used by mediums work. Most touching is Scooter's coming-of-age awareness that mediums, even his mother, are likely fake. Tom Lalicki's similarly well-researched "Danger in the Dark: A Houdini & Nate Mystery" (Farrar, 2006) integrates history into mystery in a more lighthearted, entertaining way. An afterword explains how Lawrence became interested in Houdini and which parts of the story are true."Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME"
Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2008
Lawrence takes a grand leap intime, place, and tone fromnovelslike The Wreckers (1998). This book unfolds in New YorkCity in the mid-1920s, during the height of the spiritualist craze.Protagonist Scooter King, 13, knows about mediums; he helps his mother with the chumps who attend hers'ances.Then Houdini arrives, determined to root out fakes, and murder follows.Readers accustomed to the High Seas Trilogys derring-dowont find it here. However, the idea thatHoudini used some of the same tricks as the fake spiritualistsis definitely intriguing, andLawrencedoes a pretty good job of conveying the magicians quirky personality. He isless successful presenting the rest of the cast, though (Scooter is far too mature for his years), andhis attempts to solidify the cultural backdropby using expressions suchas all to the mustard andnow he had a mash on my motherwill likely yank readers right out ofthe story. Its Lawrences wonderful, detailed insight into the tricks of the mediums tradethat saves the day.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2009
Scooter King, son of an unscrupulous spiritualist, finds a drowned man inside Harry Houdini's Burmese Torture Tank. Scooter gets caught up in the mystery, teaming with Houdini to solve the case. Lawrence sets his story perfectly in the time, with particular emphasis on the razzle-dazzle of vaudeville. Newspaper-style chapter headings give a date-by-date account of happenings in the novel and the world.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
July 1, 2008
During the roaring twenties, Harry Houdini had two goals: he wanted to contact his beloved dead mother from beyond the grave and to discredit fake spiritualists of the times. Lawrence's latest adventure story puts young Scooter King (helpmate to one of those unscrupulous spiritualists, his mother Madam King) right in the middle of Houdini's witch hunt. Scooter, fascinated with the great magician, goes to see Houdini's Burmese Torture Tank on display at the Orpheum. Instead of finding some hints about how the master performs tricks, Scooter finds a drowned man inside the tank -- one Henry Day, part of Houdini's opening act. Scooter gets caught up in the mystery of Day's death, all the while trying to help his mother make a living and operate under the radar of better-known spiritualists. But eventually all the plot threads converge, with Scooter and Houdini teaming up to solve the murder. Lawrence sets his story perfectly in the times, with particular emphasis on the razzle-dazzle of vaudevillian speech. Chapter headings, titled like newspaper extra editions, give a date-by-date account of happenings in the novel and in the world, such as the June 2, 1926, antics of flagpole sitters and Admiral Byrd's adventures at the North Pole.
(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)