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.

Related:

• Bilson & DeMeo's Houdini Deception
• 'Dear Sweet Harry' brings Houdini home
• The Amazing Harry Houdini

Instagram Live event with Katherine Factor

Rediscovered Books in Idaho will be hosting an Instagram Live event with author Katherine Factor this Wednesday, May 20, from 4:00pm to 5:00pm MDT.

Join us for an Instagram Live event with author Katherine Factor, featuring her Choose Your Own Adventure SPIES: Harry Houdini on the Rediscovered Books Caldwell Instagram Page! 

Choose Your Own Adventure SPIES: Harry Houdini takes YOU to stages around the world—from Paris to Moscow, Coney Island to San Francisco—wowing audiences with your death-defying stunts and magic tricks. But that’s not all that Houdini was up to at the turn of the century...Will YOU agree to a lifetime of spying for the US and British intelligence agencies or is your magic routine life threatening enough? 

Katherine Factor is a freelance editor, book coach, and educator. She has her MFA in Poetry from The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has held positions at Idyllwild Arts Academy and Interlochen Arts Academy. She is a recipient of grants from the Iowa Arts Council, and the Arts Enterprise Laboratory for supporting projects publishing young writers. She is the author of both Choose Your Own Adventure: Mata Hari and Choose Your Own Adventure: Harry Houdini.

Related:

• Choosing Houdini
• Experts weigh-in on 'Secret Life' spy revelation

Bilson & DeMeo's Houdini Deception

Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo are a successful creative team who have written and produced Hollywood movies, television shows, and video games. They are maybe most famous for writing one of my favorite films, The Rocketeer (1991).

What I didn't know until recently was that Bilson & DeMeo's first collaboration was on a Houdini-Sherlock Holmes play while they were Theater Arts majors at California State University San Bernardino. It was called The Houdini Deception.

Set in England in 1908, the three act play featured DeMeo as Sherlock Holmes and Bilson as Houdini. Scenes were set at 221B Baker Street and the London't Hippodrome. For good measure, Mata Hari was also thrown into the mix.

The team split research duties, with DeMeo researching Holmes and Bilson tacking Houdini. "Houdini was a driven human being, a publicity crazy person," the young writer told The San Bernardino Sun-Telegram at the time. "He wasn't all sugar and spice. Hopefully, we'll reflect the real Houdini."

The Houdini Deception made it's debut March 2, 1978, and played several performances at the college theater. Said the writers: "We think we can get our play published for other colleges to do, but as far as film and television productions are concerned, it depends on how the marketable it is at the moment. We think we're realistic about it."

It's fun to see how these successful men entered their creative life via Houdini (and Holmes). One wonders if they ever entered the revolving door of development that was Ray Stark's Houdini movie in the '80s and '90s?

Below is original ad artwork for The Houdini Deception from Bilson and DeMeo's Pet Fly Productions Facebook page.

Houdini is a "Historical Heartthrob"

It's official; Houdini is a hunk! The Handcuff King ranks No. 17 in the new book, Historical Heartthrobs: 50 Timeless Crushes-From Cleopatra to Camus by Kelly Murphy. Houdini falls between Czarina Alexandra and Mata Hari on the list. Not bad, Harry.

The author cites Houdini's Best Feature as "His audacity"; gives him 4 out of 5 on the "Heart Rating"; and offers up this assessment of his physical appeal:

"He was short, stocky, and bowlegged. His pointy nose and reverse widow's peak don't exactly say "come hither," but there's no denying the appeal of such a devoted risk-taker. There was pretty much nothing he wouldn't do. He was, without a doubt, a star."

You can buy Historical Heartthrobs: 50 Timeless Crushes-From Cleopatra to Camus in hardcover or for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Now here's No. 17 in action:

Extended "smooch" footage courstey of Jon Oliver.

'Dear Sweet Harry' brings Houdini home

New Zealand author and poet Lynn Jenner has alerted us to her new book, Dear Sweet Harry, a unique collection of autobiographical stories and poetry that ties her own family history with that of Houdini and Mata Hari.

In Dear Sweet Harry, Houdini raises hell in the streets. A sea monster washes up near Boston and enters vaudeville. Mata Hari writes from Berlin; the Imperial Government arranges for the whole of New Zealand available meat supply to be exported to the United Kingdom; and Grandfather Harry is sent to the Western Front. Lynn Jenner’s first book is the autobiography of an obsession, a tender and virtuoso ‘Hey presto!’ in which a collection of ephemera, tokens and fiery and precise poems casts the pink light of memory. Global, offbeat, remarkable.

Dear Sweet Harry can be purchased now at Amazon.