The Houdini Specter — Daniel Stashower

In 1898, the Great Houdini's confidence in his own abilities is matched only by the indifference of the paying public. Now the master escape artist has the opportunity to make a name for himself -- by exposing the tricks of the medium Lucius Craig, darling of New York's gullible society set. Though he can easily re-create Craig's ghostly trickery, Harry and his brother Dash can't explain how the medium manages to conjure up a "spirit" while tied to a chair by Houdini himself -- or how the apparition is able to stab a seance attendee to death and disappear with seven other people in the room watching! Houdini's certain someone is framing the infamous fraud for murder. But unraveling this tangled web could prove a knotty problem indeed -- and it might release a ghost or two that will not go away...