Title: Houdini vs. Rasputin
Author: C. Michael Forsyth
Genre: historical fiction, historical mystery, adventure
Another action-packed historical adventure featuring America's most beloved magician- Harry Houdini! This book takes place in Russia in the years 1903-1911, about a decade before C. Michael Forsyth's other historical fiction novel about Harry Houdini, The Adventure of the Spook House. The book opens with Harry escaping from a padlocked train car in Siberia, much to the consternation of the chief of the secret police. The favorable press piques the attention of the Tsar, and soon the Houdinis are performing in front of the royal court. Harry accidentally exposes the Tsarina's spiritual adviser as a fraud, in front of everyone at a dinner party (oops!). Although Harry angers certain members of the royal family over this showdown, the Tsar and Tsarina summon the Houdinis back to Russia eight years later to entertain the royal children. While staying in the royal palace, the Houdinis meet the infamous and creepy Rasputin, who holds the royal family in his spiritual sway while engaging in certain distasteful behaviors on the streets.
Harry is soon recruited by the secret police to catch Rasputin in the act, and Harry's wife, Bess, joins in the investigation, too. And why do the secret police care about a stinky, creepy healer? The more Rasputin hangs around the royal children and the royal family, the more his personal political power and influence grows: "You revealed Monsieur Philippe to be a fraud. We hope that you can do the same for Rasputin. You must break his spell over the Tsarina, or the nation will fall into ruin. Revolution, blood in the streets- and I am being quite literal" (Chapter 10).
Harry traces Rasputin through the streets of Saint Petersburg and follows Rasputin's past in the Russian countryside. What Harry finds is a mystic and healer with uncontrolled, evil impulses. Rasputin and his henchmen seem to be everywhere and aware of Harry's every move. Harry almost dies during one of his public escape tricks, is almost burned alive in a barn, and is chased by Rasputin himself through the snowy landscape of Siberia. While Harry is creating new escape scenarios to entertain the public and pursuing the evil mystic during a group cleansing ceremony, he meets Lenin and the beginnings of the Bolsheviks, and almost has a run in with a young Stalin. Add in motorcycles, horses, and reindeer (oh my!) and you have an action-packed adventure mystery set in the last days of the Russian empire.
