"A bright new voice in horror"

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 the medium Max Cairo. Conan Doyle accepts and goes to the séance where Cairo is exposed as a fraud. He invites the eight members of the séance to come back the next day to see real magic being performed

The octet returns and Cairo draws a septagon and warns everyone not to step over it while he brings Dionysus to Earth. He succeeds but Harry walks into the septagon and Dionysus escapes. Members of the séance are struck by a boost of creative genius and give into their basest desires because Dionysius' magic touches each of them. Harry and Conan team up to find a way to send Dionysus, who wears the form of a monster back where he came from before all of England is infected by the madness he spreads.

H.R. Knight is a bright and welcome new voice that horror fans will greatly appreciate. Edwardian England comes to life in WHAT ROUGH BEAST and the atmosphere definitely has a gothic feel to it. The team up of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini is a brilliant plot device and it would be fantastic if these two men are featured in future novels. Dionysus appears as a hideous monster to the humans who are unfortunate enough to encounter to him and he brings out the beast that resides in all of us. Mr. Knight has a unique voice that provides a refreshingly original storyline.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted January 25, 2005

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.