Spirit Sleuths

June 10, 2024
“It is the early twentieth century and the spiritualism movement is soaring
in America,” writes Jarrow (American Murderer), setting the scene for this spine-tingling work. In the wake of WWI and the influenza outbreak, people turned to spiritualism, “desperate to communicate with their dead loved ones or to learn the fate of those lost” to these events. They flock to mediums performing seances in dark rooms thick with incense and eerie tapping noises; some even spent their life savings or quit their jobs at the advice of purportedly omniscient fortune tellers. But according to famous magician Harry Houdini (1874–1926), spiritualism “is all hocus-pocus”—and he can prove it. Determined to expose fraudsters, Houdini uncovered the mediums’ parlor tricks and demonstrated their methods onstage. While his work did much to expose fraudulent magicians at the turn of the 20th century, Jarrow asserts that spiritualism is still alive and well: “In 2022, people in the United States spent more than $2.2 billion a year on psychic services.” A mesmerizing read that not only details the rise of spiritualism, and the role Houdini played in debunking it, but implores readers to rely on critical thinking skills to evade deception. Ages 10–17.