by Terrance Mc Arthur
This week we have a review & giveaway of Revelations of the Impossible Piddingtons. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book, along with a link to purchase the book from Amazon.
Take Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Harry Houdini, put them in petticoats, and make them too young to drink (in our day), roll them into one, and you’d have Kyame Piddington in The Revelations of the Impossible Piddingtons: Adventures in Second Sight by Barry H. Wiley.
Kyame is talented. At the age of eleven, she takes over her late mother’s place onstage in the family second sight act, mastering the code her father communicated by non-verbal positions and gestures. A gifted artist, she memorizes faces, documents, and events in seconds. Their traveling shows were meant to raise money to send Kyame to art school. She picks locks with speed, solves murders, learns martial arts, and recognizes clues that would baffle Sherlock Holmes. When the Chinese tongs of San Francisco cause her grief, the girl leaps into action, as feared as a demon in human form, and just as unstoppable.
Kyame has appeared with her father in Kings River Life in a short story of the Wild West and in a Christmas tale. Wiley has written other stories for KRL, and I reviewed his Beyond the Tempest, which featured a modern mentalist, one with possibly true powers.
Wiley is an expert at evoking place and time. His Tempest brought the island of Bermuda to life, and his 1890s are filled with details that don’t seem like research; they appear to be observations of the world the characters inhabit. He reveals some techniques of magicians and mentalists, but some concepts that would require extensive explanation are merely alluded to in the text. The most important mentalism trick exposed is to make contact with the people that are never noticed because they notice a lot.
The Revelations of the Impossible Piddingtons: Adventures in Second Sight succeeds because of its impossibility. There is no way that a teen-age girl of 120 years ago could do all the things Kyame does, yet it’s so much fun to see it all happen in your mind. Check your reality at the door and revel in the fantasy of a Nancy Drew ninja bringing evildoers to justice while entertaining, mystifying, and scaring audiences.
To enter to win a copy of The Revelations of the Impossible Piddingtons, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “impossible,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen July 9, 2016. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.
Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section.
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Another must read!
Always interested in a mystery of a different time era.
This review makes the book a very desired read. Thanks for the opportunity.
This is a new to me author. This book sounds intriguing and I look forward to reading.
diannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com
I enjoyed the short story that was published earlier so want to read this as it sounds interesting.
Thanks for the chance to win this book! lindaherold999@gmail.com
I thought it was a great read with an interesting organization to the story. The first half takes place in the midwest, focusing on the adventures surrounding the second site act, and the second half takes place in San Francisco and is more of an adventure away from the stage. Between the two halves is an “Intermission” where Wiley talks about some of the historical basis for the feats in their performances.
I was won over by Kyame – a very likable/unlikely superhero-type living with a real measure of self-doubt due to the death of her mother which happened before the start of the story.
SOUNDS INTERESTING. THANKS FOR THE CHANCE! calicolady60@hotmail.com
We have a winner!