Harry Houdini Meets Doyle & Sherlock Holmes

The man who created one of the most rational and grounded characters in the fictional world, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, believed that he and others could communicate with the spirits of the dead. Indeed, Sir Arthur, in his later life, was a staunch advocate of Spiritualism.

For nearly 30 years, Sir Arthur researched, investigated, and promoted Spiritualism in its many forms. This quest brought Houdini and Conan Doyle together in 1920. They became fast friends and even vacationed together in Atlantic City.

But, while they were personal friends, they were hardly allies with regard to Spiritualism. Both men trotted around the globe: Doyle advocating Spiritualism, and Houdini debunking spirit mediums, fortunetellers, and most anyone claiming supernatural powers.

This contrast is explored in new collection: Sherlock Holmes-The Golden Years.  In The Cure that Kills, Houdini meets Holmes and Watson aboard ship as they steam to America in pursuit of the diabolical Ciarán Malastier. Later, in The Kongo Nkisi Spirit Train, Sherlock meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at a séance in which Holmes subtly unmasks a “mostly fraudulent” medium called Margery.

You can read these tales, and three others, in Sherlock Holmes-The Golden Years – available on Amazon and most on-line and main-street bookstores.