Harry Houdini wrote a short novel in 1925, a romantic detective thriller, called The Zanetti Mystery (ghostwritten of course).
Houdini builds his story about the monstrous figure of Zanetti — genius faker, and arch rogue; he shows the methods by which even profound scientists have been hoodwinked by prophets of the occult and materializers of demons and spirits, and tells of the private lives often rivaling Babylon in abandon and luxury– of those who strip both rich and poor by mystery and mummery.
Through the whole fabric of the story there move the amazing characters of the half-world and underworld spies “snowbirds”, “lobby gows”, “stoppers”, “floppers”, “controls”, and “falls”, whom only Houdini can write about, because his special investigations have made him know them all and how they work as links in a chain system which is one of the weirdest forces for fraud and evil in the world. [The Journal]
The short novel (8 Chapters) was serialized over eight weeks in various Newspapers.
- CHAPTER 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
This week, I share Chapter 1 (The Characters) of 8:
CHAPTER I
The Characters:
Zanetti—The Faker, Spiritualist—Medium and Sinister Figure, Who has Never Been Outside of His Elaborate and Mysterious Mansion.
Steinway—The Aged Millionaire Widower and Victim of Zanetti.
Van Haarlem—The Medium’s Chief Detective. Who Looks Up the Unfortunate Victims.
The Gopher—An Underworld Character Employed by Zanetti.
Lucile Linton—Ex Chorus Girl and Social Worker, Who Has Befriended the Gopher and is in Love with
Wallace Haines—Her Sweetheart, a Promising Young Assistant District Attorney
Brent Mitchell—Another of Zanetti’s Private Agent’s.
This is fantastic Joe. Very excited to see you do this. This story isn’t in Pat’s book, so it’s not generally available to read.
Hey, think it’s possible this was ghosted for HH by Walter B. Gibson? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
My guess would be Fulton Oursler, aka Samri Frikell and Anthony Abbot. He was an American journalist, playwright, editor and writer, who aided Harry Houdini in his crusade against fraudulent mediumship, Writing as Anthony Abbot, he was a notable author of mysteries and detective fiction.
This short story is extremely history in light of William Lindsey Gresham’s obsession with Houdini .
Was Gresham influenced by this short story when he wrote Nightmare Alley – at least the parts involving mentalism and seances? I am currently writing an essay on Nightmare Alley.
The Zanetti Mystery may have been his inspiration. The basic plot, about a medium named Zanetti who lands a whale of a client who offers him one million dollars to conjure his dead wife in the flesh bares a striking similarity to William Lindsey Gresham’s bestseller, Nightmare Alley. Gresham would go on to pen a biography of Houdini.