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.