Good Reads meta-data is 203 pages, rated 4.22 by 2403 litizens.
Genre: Krimi; Species: Holmes.
DNA: Edwardian England.
Verdict: Poof!
Tagline: Now you see him, now you don’t.
Erik Weisz (1874-1926) of Appleton Wisconsin is wrongly accused of murder, melée, and mayhem but Sherlock comes to the rescue as only he can, his Boswell at hand. You know Erik, that is, Harry Houdini stunt performer, illusionist, and escapologist extraordinaire.
With a few of the tricks of his trade, Houdini assists Sherlock in identifying and apprehending the villain. Most amusing is Watson’s first airplane ride. Indeed. Of course there is no end to Sherlock’s wiles and the conclusion is foregone, though there are some nice and neat twists and turns along the way that confirm his nostrum: when all possibilities have been eliminated the impossible remains, or something like that.
No trade secrets are revealed and I never did find out how Harry got through that wall.
***
The lengthy entry on Erik in Wikipedia makes for good reading. There I note that after World War I he devoted a great deal of his time, effort, and reputation to debunking fraudulent spiritualists. He became a member of the editorial board of the Scientific American as a result.
This is a title in the series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which books, mostly reprints, are by a different authors. In this one there are several typos, e.g., ‘wanned’ for ‘warmed’ and some formatting errors. I expect the text was converted to digital for the Kindle by an A.I. that couldn’t read.