Escaping From Houdini - Book Review

This review contains major spoilers for Escaping From Houdini and preceding books in the series.

I think that this book was a bit of a flop compared to the others. Maybe it was just because I read it kinda slowly, and also because I'm feeling very negative after The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. It was still good though. I liked the atmosphere that Kerri Maniscalco created in the book. When I was younger I was very interested in magic -- like, illusionists. I had this book that had lots of information on the history of illusion magic stuff and I read it so many times, even though I didn't understand a lot of it. So Escaping From Houdini was nostalgic in a way. That other book is still probably packed away in a box somewhere. I'll have to find it.

This might sound weird but I really liked how cartomancy and tarot cards tied in with the murders. It made them a lot more interesting and added to the theatrical vibe throughout the book. 

Escaping From Houdini was meant to be very dramatic but I think that it got a little too cliché and unrealistic at the end -- with Andreas doing his big reveal/threat up on stage in front of heaps of people then nearly killing Audrey Rose. To be honest I'm not at all a fan of the "main character nearly dies but we know they won't die" trope. The fact that Audrey Rose ended up unconscious in an infirmary bed actually affected how much I liked the book as a whole. I feel like in this situation Audrey Rose's injury/unconsciousness was just put in to fill in time.

I think the ending of the book was also underwhelming because of who turned out to be the killer. It shocked me that Andreas was the killer because in past books, the murderers' reveals were real plot twists. I'm still getting over Anastasia. Andreas was surprising because he was such an obvious suspect. I realised after I finished the book that Audrey Rose and the rest of the investigating squad overlooked Andreas as a suspect. It kinda annoyed me too. 

I think the reason I was so disappointed by the fact that Andreas turned out to be the killer was because nobody had any reason not to suspect him. This was different to the first two books because it was reasonable that people didn't suspect Nathaniel and Anastasia -- Nathaniel was family and Anastasia was "dead". Whereas, ruling Andreas out was just a stupid mistake. I did like the tie to the Bavarian Ripper though. I must admit that somehow I concluded that Mrs Harvey was the killer. She was kinda sus at times though. 

I was also a bit disappointed that Audrey Rose's trauma was brushed aside in Escaping From Houdini. I thought that, for a historical YA book, Hunting Prince Dracula addressed Audrey Rose's trauma quite well. However, EFH almost completely threw that out the window. I know that mystery/horror series protagonists kinda need to be immune to trauma in order to make the books interesting though. I think that the lack of consistency is what disappointed me. 

I think what disappointed me the most is the fact that Thomas was kind of ignored in this book. In the first two books, Audrey Rose and Thomas solved the mysteries together. They had very good chemistry and were very close. However in this book, Audrey Rose was constantly avoiding Thomas and doing stuff behind his back. Escaping From Houdini kind of made me like Thomas less because he had different interests to the narrator, if that makes sense. I feel like in the book Thomas was in a way replaced by Mephistopheles -- or ✨💖Ayden✨💖, as he insists. Come on, seriously? Audrey Rose was basically cheating on Thomas. He deserves better, especially after everything he did for her at the end of Hunting Prince Dracula. The ending seemed kinda forced, too, where Thomas and Audrey Rose were suddenly happily in love again. I did find it sweet that he bought her that cane though. Thomas for the win!
I am sort of hoping that Mephistopheles comes up later in the series though (even though there's only one book left). He was a very interesting and mysterious character. He has a name that I will have to learn to spell. 

Ok so that's it for now. I don't have Capturing the Devil yet, but hopefully I can get to a bookstore and buy it soon. I've actually already read another book since I finished this one, so I feel a bit overwhelmed because I'm reading books faster than I can write reviews for them.

Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco, 14+* ★★★.5

*This age recommendation is only my opinion. Some younger people might feel comfortable reading this book, and some older people might not. That's fine, either way. Warning for sexual references, murder, violence, lots of gore, graphic descriptions of murders, disturbing themes and potentially upsetting themes.