I won't waste time writing a review of this book because I already wasted enough time reading it. ( )

This was a very interesting book about the challenges often involved in separating fact from fiction.

This is the story of Martin Strauss who killed the famous Harry Houdini, not once, but twice. At the beginning of the novel, we discover that Martin is suffering from a condition that will create false memories and leave him unable to distinguish between memory and imagination. As the story unfolds, we quickly come to recognize some of Martin's recollections as obviously false, but what about other parts of his story? Martin typifies an unreliable narrator!

Interspersed with Martin's telling us what happened are sections about Harry Houdini, told in the third person. Here the author has blended historical fact with fiction, again building a story which challenges the reader to distinguish between the two.

This makes for a highly engrossing read, where not only the plot itself in interesting; so is the very structure of the novel.

Maybe now I'll finally read The Cellist of Sarajevo! ( )

What an interesting, unique story. I can't resist a story with Houdini in it and I lucked out and found this book at a Dollar Store.

This story is about Martin. He has just been told by his doctor that he has an issue that will confuse his memories. Martin will remember things that didn't happen and feel as though they are his actual memories. How sad!

The book goes between stories, chapters alternate about Houdini and Martin.
Some of the book takes place in the 1920's, some an undefined year called "the present day".
I started to wonder early on, was Martin Houdini? Did Martin even know Houdini? When you can't believe the narrator's memories, you have to question everything.

This was a well written book that I tore through in about 24 hours. ( )

While reading this book I realised that I do not know anything about Harry Houdini, except for that for what he did. But fact and fiction goes into each other here. Just as the narrator does not really know fact from fiction either. He has memories that are not real.

This book is then about Harry Houdini and how he became the most famous performer in the world. From his humble beginnings to performing for royalty. Other than royalty he meets detectives from Scotland Yard, Arthur Conan Doyle and spiritualists. He may perform "magic" but he does not like those who pray on those who do not know better.

The other POV is of Martin Strauss, the man who killed Houdini twice. It all comes through flashback as he is visiting a doctor. He wonders about his fake memories, and about Alice who has come to him for answers.

I still wonder about what is really true, and what is not. I had to go check myths and theories about Houdini. But it was also interesting to learn more about those tricks. They seem so real, I know they are fake, but still, well that is magic. ( )

This book artfully blurs fact and fiction to create an interesting novel. It is narrated in part by Martin Strauss, a man who in the present day, has just learned that he has a medical condition which will cause him to eventually lose his mind; he will be unable to distinguish between memory and imagination, or to put it another way, he won’t know what is fact and what is fiction.

Martin introduces himself to the reader as the man who killed Harry Houdini, not once, but twice. In telling his story, the reader also learns the story of Houdini (although be warned…while some parts of this are absolutely truthful, other parts are fictionalised). The chapters alternate between Martin in the current day, Martin in 1926/27 and Houdini’s life.

What is true – and what forms a large part of Houdini’s story here – is that Houdini was intent on debunking so-called mediums and psychics. He was concerned that a lot of powerful people were reliant on the advice they received from psychics, and was determined to reveal spiritualism as being fake and the people that practiced it as fraudulent. Unsurprisingly, this made him a lot of enemies, and that thread is a strong feature throughout this book.

I enjoyed the parts about Houdini, which are told in the third person, but I think I actually preferred the parts about Martin Strauss. In this book, Strauss is the man who famously punched Houdini in the stomach, shortly after which Houdini died (although it is now known that he actually died as the result of appendicitis, which may or may not have been aggravated by an unprepared for punch). Strauss is an entirely fictional character 0 in real life, the man who threw the punch was named J Gordon Whitehead.

For me, the real theme of the book is memory – what is real, what we construct for ourselves, and how we separate fact from fiction. We know from the beginning that Strauss is an unreliable narrator, but he also knows this and is desperate to impart the truth to Houdini’s daughter Alice (the result of an illicit liaison; it turns out the famous escapologist was also a rampant womaniser) before it is too late.

The ending does contain a twist which I certainly did not see coming, and I’m still not sure how I actually feel about it. Much the same as I feel when watching a magic trick, I know that I have had somehow had the wool pulled over my eyes, but I’m still trying to go back through events in my mind, working out where exactly the trick was pulled off.

Overall, this is an interesting story and well written. I think I would like to read more by Steven Galloway. ( )