The spiritist movement swept the US and Europe after World War I prompting Scientific American to test mediums to determine if they were the real thing or just performing magic tricks (Houdini was on the committee because he would be very likely to recognize tricks when he saw them). One woman, Margery, seemed promising. That is until Houdini unmasked her as no more authentic than any of the others they had tested. Parts of the book are very fascinating and parts are utterly dull. It’s drawn largely from transcripts of seances, most of which went pretty much the same with minor differences in the details. Because of this, the book is extraordinarily repetitive. If you are very interested in the spiritist movement, The Witch of Lime Street
is a decent book to read. You just might want to skim during the boring, repetitive parts.
3 (out of 5) Stars
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