Reviews with content warning for Torture - A la caza de Houdini

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Reviews tagging 'Torture'

A la caza de Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

9 reviews

ekatherine26's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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kathrynleereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco put Audrey Rose and Thomas on a ship traveling from the U.K. to New York City alongside a carnival troupe determined to make the voyage memorable. But what really sears the trip into everyone's mind are the no less than seven bodies that turn up on the ship.

While I enjoyed this book immensely, I rated it lower than the first two in the series for a few reasons.

First, while I loved Mephistopheles as a character, I found the love triangle between him, Audrey Rose, and Thomas to be wholly unnecessary.

I think he would have made a wonderful platonic companion for Audrey Rose without complicating her other relationships and I just don't think it really added anything to the story.

Next, the comparison between sleight-of-hand and science was a good one, but I think that it was stretched just a little too far.

Audrey Rose making questionable decisions in the name of science isn't a new phenomenon. However, actively hurting those around her in an effort to further her scientific understanding of the carnival "magic"? It just didn't feel authentic especially when most of what she was learning wasn't sleight-of-hand or magic in any way, it was just the ins and outs of the different carnival acts.

Finally, I found the connections between the playing and tarot cards found at the murder scenes to be interesting, but ultimately too confusing. By the end of the book, when we were finally learning what each card meant, I had forgotten which card had been found where and whose body had been staged in what enactment.

I ended up needing to go back through and write out the victims with the cards that were found near them and the ones they were posed to recreate.

Honestly, I'm not sure how this could have been done better, and it may have just been me, but I needed a way to better keep all of these straight, especially with the mixing of the playing cards and tarot cards.

In the end, I'm glad I read Escaping from Houdini, and I'm excited to dive into Capturing the Devil.

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uselesspirateraven's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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issiwerro's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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our_novel_guild's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I started this book 4 months before finishing it... I LOVE Thomas Cresswell and pray every day I find a man like that, but there was something about this book that made it difficult to read.
Probably the

love triangle. I am probably the world's greatest hater of cheating and love triangles. And there was cheating present in this book.

However, if you can move past that this book is another testament to Maniscalco's incredible world building and attention to detail.
I'm excited for book #4.

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