The Zanetti Mystery

Houdini's last published book, a romantic murder mystery thriller, was orignally published as an 8 week newspaper serial combining his love of mystery with his desire to expose fraudulent mediums. Thirty-five years of study and thirty-five years of experience gathered in every quarter of the world by the master of a unique profession went into the making of The Zanetti Mystery by Houdini in 1925. Houdini was world-famous as a magician, necromancer, and master of illusion and put the whole of his vast special knowledge into The Zanetti Mystery. Houdini built his story about the monstrous figure of Zanetti – genius, faker, and arch rogue – and showed the methods by which even profound scientists had been hoodwinked by prophets of the occult and materializers of demons and spirits. Through the whole fabric of the story, there move the amazing characters of the half-world and underworld whom only Houdini could write about, because his special investigations made him know them all and how they worked as links in a chain system which was one of the weirdest forces for fraud and evil in the world.