Mrs. Houdini

Starred review from January 18, 2016
Poet Kelly’s splendid debut novel is about Bess, the wife of Harry Houdini, and explores the human longing “to know what is beyond” (to quote Harry) as well as the bittersweet gifts of love. After Harry dies suddenly in 1926, Bess must reimagine her existence without its star player, cope with his debts, and fulfill a private mission. Though his lengthy investigations of spiritualism disproved its claims, Harry has promised Bess that he will contact her after death through codes only she can know. Hungry to reconnect with him, Bess suffers crushing disappointments before glimpsing one code in a photograph by newspaperman Charles Radley. When she meets the young photographer in Atlantic City, more coded messages appear in his work; as they seek explanations together, the pair journey through Bess’s deepest wounds, Houdini’s secrets, and life’s most enduring mysteries. Kelly vividly captures the Houdinis’ public rise, from their impoverished beginnings in Coney Island to worldwide celebrity, and private lives shaped by a deep marital bond, childlessness, and the death of Houdini’s beloved mother, which fueled his obsession with the afterlife. Moving effortlessly beyond mere fictionalized biography, Kelly delivers a richly lyrical and thought-provoking novel with closing twists that feel as impossible, inevitable, and satisfying—as magical, in short—as one of Houdini’s own illusions. Agent: Trena Keating, Union Literary.

January 1, 2016
Master magician Harry Houdini has proved an endless source of fascination to writers and filmmakers. This debut novel shifts the focus to his strong-willed wife, Bess, drawing on real events but conjuring a fanciful end to their long marriage. The two meet as young, struggling performers in Coney Island--Harry performing magic tricks, Bess singing with a female troupe. They marry and endure a hardscrabble life till Harry's daring, ingenious stunts start to attract international attention. Intercut with the story of Harry's rise to stardom is a second narrative tracing Bess' adventures and misadventures after her husband's mysterious death in 1926. Insisting that he promised, on his deathbed, to communicate with her from beyond the grave, Bess falls prey to scheming mediums claiming to relay his messages. Realizing she's being duped, Bess begins to look elsewhere for Harry's presence. She finds coded messages and joins forces with a young photographer who proves crucial to her quest. Unfortunately, this part of the book--which abruptly departs from the historical record--comes off as a little silly, with a Nancy Drew-like quality to it. Throughout, the period details are rich, and it's fun to keep company with the Houdinis as they mingle with Jack London, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and other celebrities of the era. And who wouldn't want to be a fly on the wall at the magicians' salon that Bess--childless and longing for something to call her own--opens in Manhattan? The book flirts with spiritual themes and with the idea that the divide between this life and the next may be permeable. But Houdini was, in the end, a down-to-earth kind of guy, and one can't help but wonder what he would have made of the otherworldly turns in this sweet if not quite satisfying novel.

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