Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Houdini meets Mata Hari

Agentes H: Enemigo en Nueva York is a Spanish language pulp style adventure by Paulo César Ramírez Villaseñor. Below is the cover and plot description (via Google translate).

Harry Houdini and Mata Hari team up to work on a special mission, set against the backdrop of 1918 New York. Under the codenames "Double Ax" and "H21", the two investigate a strange robbery of an exhibition of Egyptian archaeological pieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in particular, the disappearance of a mysterious mirror. After a series of heinous murders with clear occult overtones, they discover a horrible plan that they must stop before it's too late.

A thriller that combines Alternative History, Espionage Fiction, Detectives of the Occult and a few slight drops of Lovecraftian Horror, all written in pulp code.

Believe it or not, this is not the first fictional pairing of Houdini and Mata Hari. The famous spy joined Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1978 play The Houdini Deception. The 2010 book Dear Sweet Harry offered a poetic take on the couple, as did a 2010 concert in Wellington, New Zealand (poster below). As far as I know, the real Houdini and Mata Hari never met.


You can purchase Agentes H: Enemigo en Nueva York at Amazon.co.uk.

1 comment:

  1. I might be able to find more fiction about Houdini… secondhand bookstores and book fairs are common in the area of Spain where I’m at currently!

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