Two of the most extraordinary men who ever lived clash in the thrilling novel Houdini vs. Rasputin, set in Tsarist Russia. While performing before Tsar Nicholas II, the world’s greatest escape artist Harry Houdini becomes pitted against a formidable foe: Rasputin, the powerful and sinister mystic. Rasputin has made puppets of the Tsar and his wife Alexandra. To save the nation from ruin, a small band of patriots recruits Houdini to expose the imperial “spiritual advisor” as a charlatan. Houdini wages an epic battle of wits and wills with the charismatic fiend.
The American magician’s daring and ingenuity are put to the test in an adventure that takes him from the grand palaces of St. Petersburg to the frigid wastelands of Siberia. Along the way, Houdini makes allies and enemies of a host of real-life figures, including the mischievous imp Princess Anastasia, the colossal former boxer and royal bodyguard Jim Hercules and the Black Sisters, practitioners of the occult who scheme to use Rasputin for their own ends. Meticulous research brings these people and the Russia of the early 1900s to life.
Rasputin with his bevy of fanatical female followersl.
Rasputin is one of history’s most fascinating villains, at once a barely literate Siberian peasant and a Nietzschean superman, a Christ-figure to his followers and the Antichrist to his foes, a faith healer and a debaucher of enormous sexual appetites. He has at his disposal an army of goons, femme fatales, Gypsies, hypnotized assassins and fanatical members of the mysterious Khlysty cult. However, Rasputin’s greatest strength is his own extraordinary personal magnetism. Gathered around him is a circle of female devotees known as the Little Ladies. To help Houdini bring Rasputin down, the magician’s feisty wife Bess infiltrates this coven.
A still from the Houdini movie serial Haldane of the Secret Service.
As in Houdini’s movie serials, he escapes from one peril after another: buried alive under six feet of snow; trapped in a burning barn by Rasputin’s henchmen; chained to a rack in the medieval torture chamber of Ivan the Terrible. The pace steadily accelerates until Harry’s final confrontation with his nemesis on a frozen river. Houdini did in fact perform for the Tsar and Rasputin did arrive in the capital that same year. Many real events are incorporated into this work of fiction. If you enjoy stories packed with mystery and adventure, blending history with fantasy, check out this book!
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Reblogged this on A Creative State of Mind and commented:
Check out this new release by C. Michael Forsyth. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year!