Glory and her friend, Dennis watch the world-famous escapologist, Harry Houdini, throw himself off the pier wrapped in chains. Holding their breath, they sigh with relief as he emerges moments later.
The adventure for the pair is only just beginning. After rescuing Mrs Houdini’s dog, Glory and Dennis are rewarded with tickets to the show that evening. Glory gives Houdini a pair of ancient handcuffs to escape from but even the great magician is unable to break free. Glory has left the key at home so the whole crew return to her small house where her sister, Effie, is in charge as their mother has gone, with Dennis’s mother, to Coney Island for the summer to work as a tattooist.
Unbeknownst to Glory, Houdini swops his trunk holding all his secrets, for the one belonging to her family. When the news that he has died reaches Glory and Dennis the pair are heartbroken but realise they must return the trunk. The only safe way to do that is to take it to Coney Island where Mrs Houdini is going to take part in a competition. Her husband had been the reigning vaudeville champion. To honour his name, she wants to win the competition once more.
Glory, Effie, Dennis and his grandmother decide to make the journey across the ocean, but are followed by Houdini’s enemies, Mrs Crandon, her daughter Mae and son Raven.
Mrs Houdini realises she cannot perform the dangerous underwater trick and asks Glory to take her place in the show.
Realising that it has all got out of control, when Mrs Houdini’s dog is kidnapped, and she is threatened at gunpoint, Glory finally refuses. She knows it is more important to be there for the people she cares about.
In a grand finale, Mrs Crandon is captured, Mrs Houdini is applauded at the show and understands her husband’s reputation will last forever and Glory and Dennis are reunited with their mothers.
In a last twist, we learn that Dennis’s mother is awarded the vaudeville crown for singing, and Glory’s mother has been working in the hospital and with premature babies and will continue her nursing training when they return home.
To read ‘The Houdini Inheritance’, is to enjoy a thrilling, fast paced page turner of an adventure. This is one you will not want to put down.
Full of the cutthroat world of show business, sleight of hand and magic, you never know what might happen next.
Glory and Dennis are fascinating characters, bursting with energy and a thirst for life.
Emma Carroll has taken the story of the great Harry Houdini and brought it to a new audience. Immediately we are taken back in time but so many of the children’s issues will be recognisable to today’s readers.
This is a story about acceptance of who you are, kindness and magic.
I think this would be a super book to read aloud to a class.
@emcarrollauthor
@faberchildrens
Thank you to Faber for the review copy.
