The Case of the Vanishing Paperback
There is a kind of poetry to this, though I admit I would have preferred less poetry and more functioning catalog software.
As release week approached for Houdini: The Man Who Died Twice, the Kindle edition remained visible on Amazon. The paperback existed behind the curtain: active, listed, prepared for launch.
But on the public stage, it vanished.
For a book about Houdini, the timing is almost too perfect.
Picture the scene: the lights dim, the audience leans forward, the cabinet is opened, and where the paperback should be, there is only smoke. Somewhere in the wings, the old spiritualists may be whispering again, trying one last time to keep Houdini from making his entrance.
Amazon has identified the issue as an internal catalog error. That is the practical explanation. But Houdinarians know that Houdini’s story has always lived between spectacle and evidence, between what the audience sees and what is hidden just out of view.
This time, the illusion is not onstage. It is in the system.
The book has not disappeared. The investigation is ready. The questions are waiting.
The Kindle edition remains available on Amazon for immediate download.
And for those who want the paperback in hand, Cipher House Books holds the key.
Direct paperback and Collector’s Edition hardback orders are available now with FREE SHIPPING while Amazon works through its catalog issue.
Houdini escaped trunks, ropes, cells, and sealed boxes.
Now his paperback has to escape the catalog.
