Gabriel Brownstein The Man From Beyond

The Man From Beyond

Gabriel Brownstein

Norton, Sep 2005, $23.95, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0393051528

In 1922 renowned writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and famous magician Harry Houdini meet over the debate whether spiritualists can communicate with the dead. Doyle believes so while Houdini is a skeptic. In fact at a s ance in New Jersey hosted by Doyle's wife, a spiritualist, she makes contact with Houdini's mother. While Doyle defends Margery as a communicator with the dead, who predicts future calamities, Houdini tries to debunk her.

While the two men argue the merits of Margery and Lady Doyle, twenty-two years old newspaper reporter Molly Goodman follows them in hope of a scoop. However, the debate seems over before she obtains anything meaty. While doing a magic trick Houdini fails to surface from a locked box dropped in the Hudson River; he actually frees himself but much further upstream, but everyone assumes he is dead. How he plans to reappear in Manhattan and what he will do next needs to decided as he is not finished with the spiritualist.

THE MAN FROM BEYOND is a fantastic historical fictionalized account of the age of spiritualism as predominantly seen through the eyes and camera) of the twenty something reporter but also based on real life debates between Doyle the believer and Houdini the skeptic. Readers will feel they are sitting in on a s ance hosted by Margery, who's an intriguing character as she predicts future events instead of communicating between loved ones from the other side. Though a villain adds suspense, historical fans will wonder why bother as this terrific 1920s tale robustly stands on its spiritual underpinnings.

Harriet Klausner