I mentioned a while ago that there are plans to screen a show based on Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle.
It has just been announced that the series will star Stephen Mangan, of Green Wing and Episodes and Michael Weston of House as the ‘real-life friends, real-life adversaries and real-life crime solvers’.
According to Variety:
The series revolves around master magician, escape artist and paranormal debunker, Harry Houdini (Weston) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Mangan), the prolific writer, paranormal aficionado and creator of “Sherlock Holmes,” as they grudgingly join forces with New Scotland Yard to investigate inexplicable crimes with a supernatural slant.
The ten-part drama will screen in 2016 on Fox and ITV Encore (I don’t know what that is). Could this be the next Jonathan Creek?
Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews 
“Could this be the next Jonathan Creek?”
It would be good if it were, since the present Jonathan Creek has deteriorated much in quality.
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American author Walter Satterthwait had Doyle and Houdini teamed as a crime-fighting duo in his brilliant book “Escapade” published in 1995. (All Satterthwait’s books are worth checking out.)
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Is “Escapade” a locked room/impossible crime mystery ?
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Yes it is, Santosh. There are loads of Doyle/Houdini books out there. Sadly most of them are not worth anyone’s time like the one I read that turned Houdini and Doyle (along with Lovecraft and Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau) into knockoffs of Marvel comic book superheroes (ARCANUM by Thomas Wheeler). I liked Daniel Stashower’s series with Houdini and his brother Theo (also a stage illusionist who called himself Hardeen) solving baffling crimes. Houdini is arrogant, egocentric and almost always wrong while Theo turns out to solve each case. Very clever and very true to the personality of Houdini. Best one is THE FLOATING LADY MURDER. There are two others: THE DIME MUSEUM MURDERS and THE HOUDINI SPECTER about debunking some fraudulent spiritualists.
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Well, I have just obtained both Escapade and The Floating Lady Murder and will soon be reading them !
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