Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Shots at Sea: A Houdini and Nate Mystery
Fiction Series
For ages 8 to 12
Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 2007 ISBN: 0374316791
Several months have passed since that fateful day when Nate Fuller ruined the wicked scheme of a confidence trickster and possible murderer. The man who helped Nate in this matter was none other than Harry Houdini, the great magician and escape artist. Now Nate, his mother, and his great aunt going on a new adventure; they are going to cross the Atlantic on the Lusitania, the world largest and most luxurious ocean liner.
Soon after arriving on board, Nate discovers - to his delight - that his friends the Houdinis are also traveling to Europe on the Lusitania. Harry Houdini tells Nate that there is someone on the ship who is even more famous than the great Harry Houdini, and Nate soon gets to meet this person. He is none other than the former president of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt.
During their first evening on the ship, Teddy Roosevelt is walking on deck with Harry Houdini and some other men when a stranger comes up and tries to kill the former Rough Rider. Thanks to Nate’s warning, Roosevelt is not harmed, though Houdini is slightly injured. Someone clearly wants Roosevelt dead, and Nate and Houdini are determined to do what they can to prevent such a terrible thing from happening.
In this entertaining mystery Tom Lalicki takes his boy character on another unpredictable adventure, only this time it is at sea. The author cleverly weaves fact and fiction together to give his readers a novel that is both entertaining and interesting.
