What Rough Beast
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REVIEW BY RON KAPLAN
Author Harry R. Squires has created an interesting twist on history with a thriller that teams two famous figures that remain illusive and fascinating. His debut novel, What Rough Beast, pairs one of literature's most prolific writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes, with Harry Houdini, the master magician and escape artist. The result is a match made in mystery heaven. In What Rough Beast, Conan Doyle is feeling overwhelmed. It's 1903, and he has killed off his famous creation and turned all his energies to caring for his terminally ill wife. Reluctantly, he agrees to travel to London for a meeting with his agent. Accompanied by his young son, he decides to take in a show featuring the famous Houdini. When the performance is interrupted by a troublemaker from the audience, Conan Doyle steps in to aid Houdini by distracting the rowdy crowd with promises to resurrect the Holmes saga. The two quickly strike up a friendship, and before one can say abracadabra, Houdini has enlisted his new ally to help expose Maximilian Cairo, a medium he suspects of trying to flim-flam the widow of an old friend. Cairo, however, is more than your fake fakir. As much as Houdini (an expert in how the con is run) is loathe to admit it, Cairo does have some skills when it comes to the dark arts. What Cairo conjures up in an effort to prove his proficiency has the pair and their party battling for their lives. It's a host of characters right out of central casting, including the obligatory attractive and dynamic female, the likes of which Conan Doyle has never before met. The story follows a roadmap of twists and turns, with small victories and major setbacks as the two men battle more than they bargained for. Rather than straightforward detection, What Rough Beast encompasses mythology, religion, art, fantasy, science fiction and philosophy as it tensely winds its way. While What Rough Beast is a work of fiction, it's interesting to note that Conan Doyle and Houdini did strike up a friendship that centered around Spiritualism. Both were fascinated by the subject, but their views differed completely. Houdini never became a believer and spent much of the later part of his career exposing psychic frauds. Doyle took the opposite view and was described by one biographer as "the St. Paul of Spiritualism." Eventually their opposing views caused a split, and the friendship withered. But this chilling novel gives us a chance to imagine what would have happened if all of Houdini's street smarts and Conan Doyle's powers of deduction were combined. If this was a "flesh and blood" book, rather than an e-book, it could be described as a "page-turner." In this format, one might call it a "mouse-clicker." Either way, Squires has created an imaginative and tasty story for mystery and fantasy fans. Ron Kaplan is a baseball fan who often wonders how two terrific players, like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, or Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, might have been as teammates.
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