I found Lincoln's Ghost: Houdini's War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency by Brad Ricca to be an interesting, yet difficult read. I've always been interested in Houdini so I was eager to read more about him.
The book certainly offered interesting material, particularly about Houdini’s anti-spiritualism efforts and his investigations into fraudulent mediums. It's clear Ricca conducted thorough research, unearthing many little-known details about the American Spiritualist movement. It's these details that kept me reading. However, the style and structure presented a challenge for me. The book frequently switched from one time frame to another and the lack of smooth transitions was difficult to follow. I also found the congressional hearing chapters not holding my interest. With so many characters and side stories introduced, it was easy to get lost.
Furthermore, despite the intriguing title, the expected "dark conspiracy against the American presidency" and a deeper dive into Lincoln's ghost felt weak, not playing the central role I anticipated. It often felt more like a series of unconnected stories than a cohesive book. As a Houdini fan, I found many fascinating tidbits but the book tried to do too much without a clear, linear focus, leaving me wishing for a more straightforward account of Houdini's compelling crusade.

I struggle to find a proper star rating. Four stars seems too generous but because I did enjoy the interesting tidbits along the way, four stars is tempting. However, I think three stars seems more appropriate.

I thank Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ability to read this book and in return, I give this honest review.

I have a pet peeve. Maybe most people don't care, but when something is characterized as non-fiction, then I believe it should be free of anything not attributable directly to a primary source. You shouldn't shorten timelines or indicate things you don't know for sure. I have no problem with an author suggesting things as long as they clearly indicate, "hey, I don't know that she was mad at this point, but there's a real good chance." Ricca in his author's note and sources says he has played a bit loose with timelines and other facts. All of this to say, Lincoln's Ghost by Brad Ricca has a few problems, and I consider this the big one.

The second is the problem with the subtitle: Houdini's War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency. The first part is in the book. The second part (along with Lincoln) can not be considered a major part of the narrative. It feels like someone came up with this title by trying to hit keywords which would put this at the top of a Google list rather than what is actually discussed in the book.

Another problem is Ricca's writing. It gets off to a rough start as the first few sentences required rereading just to understand who was who. In trying to make a seance mysterious, Ricca slow plays the names of the people and makes it confusing. It's not the last time. He also uses some tortured metaphors and confounding similes that stop you in your (reading) tracks.

And do you know what is most frustrating? There is a really good story at the heart of this. Harry Houdini did crusade against Spiritualism. There is plenty to write about. I also don't think Ricca is a bad writer. It seems to me he is trying to hard to make this sound like a novel and all of the problems follow. I wish he would have either written the non-fiction version or gone with full fictionalization.

(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.)

I can't even try to give a summary of this book because ultimately, it's a rather unsatisfying telling of Harry Houdini's crusade against the Spiritualists in the 1920s. Parts are somewhat interesting and entertaining, but it mostly feels choppy and confusing. The author has apparently done a lot of research into the subject, but the back and forth narrative as well as the 'popular history' tone didn't work for me. Even though each chapter starts off with dates, I still found any timeline hard to follow. It switches from narratives around Houdini to others frequently and without clear transitions - it feels like the author is trying too hard to create suspense and deepen the mystery, which never felt resolved. Also, interspersed throughout the book is the account of proposed legislation which Houdini, apparently, was the sole champion. Then there's a very weird Epilogue about Bess Houdini, which seems to have nothing to do with Spiritualism at all - it's just... there.

I read a biography about Houdini back in 2007 that discussed his fight with the Spiritualists at some length. It told many of Houdini's experiences exposing fake mediums, some of which were comically entertaining. There's practically none of that here. Abraham Lincoln and his "ghost" also are only lightly mentioned, and I'm not sure if the "dark conspiracy against the American Presidency" was even explained. In spite of the author's clear depth of research (nearly 1/4 of the book is footnotes) it still felt superficial and confusing.

I find Houdini fascinating. I have read several novels and non-fiction books about him, and was curious to see where this one would go. Unfortunately, I didn't find the format of this one to work very well for me. I found the congressional hearing chapters to be distracting and confusing rather than additive to the overall story arc. The back-and-forth kept slowing the pace to the point that my attention started wandering. I expected a little more of a linear connection between government/conspiracy and Spiritualism/mediums, and the way the material was presented just didn't engage me the way I hoped it would...

Thanks to Brad Ricca, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for access to the Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Houdini is a fascinating character in American history and this book deals primarily with his later life efforts against spiritualists, particularly those who scammed people over the years.

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. The author has obviously researched the topic well and is very knowledgeable, but the approach taken using a narrative style and the frequent jumps in timeline made the story difficult to follow. I also found the approach had me thinking about what was based upon known facts and what was created just for the book, so it was hard to treat this as non-fiction.

Book Review: Lincoln’s Ghost: Houdini’s War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency
Author: Brad Ricca
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Brad Ricca’s Lincoln’s Ghost explores the intersection of spiritualism, political power, and one of history’s most famous skeptics: Harry Houdini. The book blends investigative history with elements of the paranormal, drawing connections between Houdini’s crusade against fraudulent mediums and broader anxieties about deception in American political life. Ricca examines Houdini’s conflict with high-profile believers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, while also touching on spiritualism’s cultural reach—from séance rooms to the White House. The book includes figures from journalism, politics, and entertainment, all interwoven into a sprawling narrative that promises a conspiracy tied to the American presidency.

I was really excited to read this book because I’m fascinated by paranormal topics like life after death, ghosts, and spiritualism. I expected a compelling blend of those themes with Houdini’s personal connection to and crusade against spiritualist frauds.

I thought the book was very well researched and filled with interesting material about Houdini’s anti-spiritualism efforts and his investigations into fraudulent mediums. I especially enjoyed the sections about Houdini’s clashes with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I found those parts engaging and well grounded.

That said, I struggled with the structure of the book. I found the constant time jumps and lack of transitions confusing. For example, a chapter might begin with Houdini writing a newspaper column, jump into unrelated anecdotes about other mediums, and then abruptly return to that original moment. It made the timeline hard to follow, and I felt like the narrative kept losing its thread.

I also felt overwhelmed by the number of characters introduced throughout. There were so many names and side stories that I sometimes lost track of who was who or why they were important.

Given the title—Lincoln’s Ghost: Houdini’s War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency—I expected a much stronger focus on the presidency or on Lincoln himself. While Houdini’s brief encounters with presidents are mentioned, they don’t play a meaningful role. I was really hoping for a deeper dive into Abraham Lincoln’s own spiritual beliefs or the cultural mythology around his ghost, but those sections felt thin.

Overall, I think the book tried to do too much. It seems like it wanted to be both an academic deep dive and a popular narrative, but in trying to balance both, it ended up feeling scattered. I would have preferred a more focused and linear story centered around Houdini’s crusade and the spiritualist movement of his time.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an advance copy.

This was quite interesting. I have always enjoyed the stories about Houdini and what a fascinating person he was. This book about the spiritual society and fighting them in Congress. What a hoot he was on the floor. I enjoyed this book.

I want to thank NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for this advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

There's some good research in this book, with little known details about the American Spiritualist movement and its advocates, but the writing lacks texture and flow. I thought his other books were more engaging.

This is more of a series of anecdotes than a narrative with a cohesive theme. The segments were sometimes so disconnected that I got lost in what the topic was supposed to be. Granted, there were some really interesting bits, but I had trouble following a lot of it.

Sigh. Here's another book that sounded so interesting, I couldn't wait to dive in. However, this turned out to not be one of those books.

The writing was a bit clunky, and I found that once I got to the meat of the book, I was no longer interested.

(Note: this review is based on an advanced, pre-publication copy provided by the publisher, which is much appreciated.)
Ricca provides abundant anecdotes and transcripts of Harry Houdini’s efforts to debunk mediums, seers, fortune tellers and the like. Often Houdini offered a tremendous amount of money for real evidence of spiritualist claims. While the history is here, mostly capturing efforts from the 1910s through the 1920s, the narrative is often disjointed and muddled.

The book jumps back in forth in time. Likewise, it often shifts from Houdini’s perspective to some of his antagonists’ perspectives that it’s difficult to keep track. There are so many antagonists, and their stories are not collated, it’s hard to put their perspectives or behaviors in line. Many Senate hearing reports have them in one place but it’s hard to recall their backgrounds sufficiently to understand any significance to their testimonies or challenges to and from Houdini.

The reporting of the caucus room hearings has disjointed, anachronistic, archaic language that it’s difficult for modern readers to understand what is happening and why their statements were or weren’t important. Ricca could have helped us with some clarifications or amplifications of the quoted conversations and witness statements. The writing is also a bit stilted such that many times I had to re-read sections to perceive the antecedents for pronouns, figure out how particular sentences fit in with the context of the rest of the paragraph and so on.

A portion of the subtitle seems misleading in that it’s not clear where the “dark conspiracy against the presidency” occurs and who the instigators are. We have the anecdotal evidence of mediums supposedly being invited to conduct seances at the White House for Lincoln, Coolidge, Harding and maybe more. If it had been known it may have caused a bit of kerfuffle, but presidents have weathered many worse controversies before and after the 1920s. But why did the Spiritualist society focus on those presidents is not explained? Nor is it explained why we needed to know the conundrum regarding Erich Weiss’ (Harry Houdini’s) birth in Appleton, Wisconsin or in Hungary? And the epilogue related to Bess Houdini is interesting but not related at all to main narrative of Houdini’s battle against Spiritualism. How did some details about their marriage or acting careers influence the crux of their crusade? Ricca doesn’t answer this.

A Houdini fan may find much of this fascinating. And it does give us a view into a slice of Americana in the 1920s. Other books on the same subject may be a bit more coherent in the telling, however.

I was intrigued by the premise here and read 10% but sadly, I'm just not feeling this one. We open with a governmental hearing on spiritualism where each representative is described by party, hair type and color, etc. So many good books out there, I can't stick around for one that's not piquing my interest fairly quickly.

Narrative nonfiction is a popular genre, and this will appeal to true crime fans, also. Houdini is known as a magician, but less people know about his crusades against fraud. This will be an easy recommendation to my readers.