The Last Illusion

From the author of In Farleigh Field...

With wit, charm, and historical detail, multiple award winner Rhys Bowen makes early twentieth century New York come vividly to life in The Last Illusion.

Irish immigrant and PI Molly Murphy is thrilled to have a ticket to see the illusionists that are all the rage. Indeed, Harry Houdini himself has returned from Europe for a brief run on Broadway. But Houdini can’t even take the stage when, to the crowd’s shock, the opening act saws into his assistant—for real. The stunned performer accuses Houdini of tampering with his equipment, and he’s not the only one critical of “The King of Handcuffs” who, by raising the stakes in his shows, has put other acts out of business. With everyone on edge, Houdini’s wife hires Molly as an investigator and bodyguard...but how can she protect a man who risks his life every night?

Rhys Bowen is the author of the award-winning Molly Murphy and Constable Evans mysteries and In Farleigh Field. Her novels have garnered an impressive array of awards and nominations, including the Anthony award for her novel For the Love of Mike and the Agatha Award for Murphy's Law. Her books have also won the Bruce Alexander Historical Award and the Herodotus Award, and have been shortlisted for the Edgar, the Agatha, the Macavity, the Barry, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award.

She has also written Her Royal Spyness, a series about a minor royal in 1930s England, and she is the author of several short stories, including the Anthony Award–winning "Doppelganger." Her story "Voodoo" was chosen to be part of the anthology of the best of 50 years of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Ms. Bowen was born in Bath, England, and worked as an announcer and studio manager for the BBC in London, before moving to Australia and then California. It was here she started writing children's and young adult novels, and then moved on to mysteries with the Constable Evans novels. When not writing she loves to travel, sing, hike, play her Celtic harp, and entertain her grandchildren. She lives in San Rafael, California.