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"Gripping thriller with an escape from reality."
Reviewed by Anne Barringer
Posted January 14, 2005

Something evil's afoot, and what team could be more capable of handling that evil than one comprised of the world's greatest writer/detective's mind and world's greatest escape artist? The turn of the 20th century sees Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with nothing tangible to occupy his time. His beloved wife is Read more...

"A bright new voice in horror"
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted January 25, 2005

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's wife is dying of consumption and needing a respite from nursing her he and his son Kingston travel to London to watch Harry Houdini perform. Doyle and his son meet the magician who invites the writer to come with him the next night to debunk Read more...

Read an Excerpt

Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle face ecstasy and madness in 1903 London.

Writing as Harry R. Squires, originally published by Warner Books in August 2001.

Summary

It's 1903 and Harry Houdini (the great escape artist) seeks the help of Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes.) Houdini wants to discredit Maximillian Cairo—an infamous Occultist and the most debauched man in London. But the two men get more than they bargained for when they interrupt a magic ritual.

What Rough Beast by Harry Squires That night they set something loose—something that no one can face and stay sane. Something that runs amok—spreading death and madness throughout an unsuspecting Edwardian London.

Both men are tortured by self-doubt for the first time in their lives. Have their logical minds been tainted by this brush with frenzy?

Moreover, Conan Doyle is increasingly drawn to Justine Luce, a young suffragette with startlingly progressive ideas. Houdini, too, finds himself tempted by desires he may not be able to resist.

Their sole hope to understand what is happening to them lies with the only witness to the first murder. But the man refuses to reveal what he's seen—even to save his life.

All of Houdini's street smarts and all of Conan Doyle's powers of deduction combined may not be enough to prevent madness from overwhelming the world.