Nevermore [Audio Cassette]

William Hjortsberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1994

Set in 1920s New York City, this dazzling thriller combines pulse-racing action, a brilliantly deranged serial killer, and visits from beyond the grave. 2 cassettes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the Jazz Age and featuring Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as protagonists, Hjortsberg's gothic mystery centers around spiritualism and a murderer who is modeling his crimes after those in the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle join forces in this historical mystery with occult overtones. In his later years, Doyle has become a true believer in mediums who speak with the spirits of the dead. Houdini, as a master of illusion, takes pride in exposing and debunking such fraudulent people. Despite their opposing views, a mutual interest in the occult draws them together in a respectful friendship. When murders patterned after the tales of Edgar Allan Poe begin to occur, Houdini and Doyle are as fascinated as the rest of the citizens of New York. When they discover that all the victims have a distant relationship to Houdini, they decide to work together to solve the mystery. Nevermore is an enjoyable though sometimes gruesome adventure that is much enhanced by the author's use of the many details behind Houdini's amazing escapes and magic tricks. For popular collections.
--A.M.B. Amantia, Population Action International, Washington,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Victory Audio Video Services (June 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571210121
• ISBN-13: 978-1571210128
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,168,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Despite ups and downs in prose and development,worth a read., February 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Nevermore (Paperback)

I'd recently read a history of Houdini that described his friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle. The book literally takes the real facts of that friendship and moves them into a fiction--a mystery that entwines fictional and metaphysical situations to create a Sherlockian, theosophian enterprise in the spirit of other books that try to continue the Holmesian tradition, but this time with its author cast as the main detective.

The book takes awhile to pull all its threads together, so patience is required. But, the prose when not presenting dialogue offers a nice change from the usual mimicry of this time period and adds a new touch here and there. Certainly moments when Victorian discretion is not a bother!

As I post this, there are other personal reviews, pro and con, plus a published review that mentions a flat ending. I definitely had to go find my 'complete Poe' to get the last allusion to his work, which wasn't a problem with the other situations in the story that referred to his stories. Somehow, I don't think the image chosen was really thought through beyond its utility to link one used in a Poe story with the real-life situation of Houdini's watery death. But this death isn't part of the story (still a future event). How Doyle's gesture might help, much less what the last warnings of Poe's ghost meant, present confusion.

Perhaps this was an attempt to end this novel like Poe's writings--after everything is explicated, the introduction of a surrealistic image that leaves the reader smack back in the unknown and now left to his/her own devices for figuring how to get out of it. Or...it just could be a case of an author who is also a movie writer, forgetting that he needs a more complete ending, since it's not likely there's going to be a "sequel."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An appealing mystery mixing real people and Poe's ghost, July 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Nevermore (Paperback)

I am not really a fan of most mysteries, but I found this one to be very appealing. What does it have? It credibly brings together Harry Houdini and Conan Doyle who shared a common interest in spiritualism, mixes in a fascinating (lady) psychic, and then provides a macabre tale of murder. An interesting twist in the plot is the regular appearance of the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe who appears to Conan Doyle, a believer in spirits. I enjoyed the book very much, in that I found it to be very well plotted, with believable characterizations of Houdini and Doyle. There were many twists in the book, and enough to keep me turning pages as the plot progressed. I'd very much recommend the book to people interested in either Houdini or Conan Doyle (or Sherlock Holmes for that matter). My only qualm is that I don't think the appearance of Poe's ghost added much -- it would have been a good mystery novel set in the past (somewhat on the level of the Alienist) without the elements of a ghost story

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Liked It, December 19, 2003

By 

Simon Donnybrook (Kansas City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nevermore (Hardcover)

Houdini and Conan Doyle are two of my favorite people from history. This story was fun and enjoyable. It reminded me of "The Alienist" quite a bit, too. It is fun stuff--spritualism, magic, illusion, detective work...all
happening during a great time in history.