Bright and charming Audacity Jones finds herself on another adventure that takes her out of Miss Maisie's School for Wayward Girls to New York City along with her best friend, Bimmy, her sly cat, Min, and Cypher, the relocated chauffeur. There they meet famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, who is the middle of planning his biggest theatrical disappearing act yet, making an elephant vanish in a crowded theater. While working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, Cypher is hired by Houdini to keep an eye on Theo Quinn, the mastermind behind the trick. Still, sabotage lurks around every corner. Calling on Bimmy's background as a circus performer and her acquaintances who have migrated to the stage, this caper is magical. A subplot concerning a baby elephant and animal cruelty is especially heart-wrenching but educational. In this follow-up to Audacity Jones to the Rescue (2016), Larson sprinkles the story with the colors, sounds, and excitement of the Big Apple and vaudeville, while the ever-cheerful Audacity Jones really does steal the show.

Eleven-year-old Audacity (Audacity Jones to the Rescue) and best friend Bimmy venture from Miss Maisie's School for Wayward Girls with Cypher, now a detective, on a new adventure in NYC. They must stop a plot to sabotage Harry Houdini's latest illusion: making an elephant disappear. Multiple viewpoints converge to swiftly propel the story forward while historical elements imbue the mystery with an appropriate old-fashioned feel.

Audacity Jones returns for her next adventure, this time helping Harry Houdini in his quest to make an elephant disappear.Making an elephant vanish turns out to have a double meaning. When the white girl and her brown-skinned friend, Bimmy, leave for New York, Min, her supremely confident cat, finds a way to follow and meets Punk, a sad, imprisoned baby elephant. In addition to helping Houdini, Min and Audacity try to rescue Punk from abusive captivity. Houdini, rather oddly for a professional magician, has not perfected his trick before running advertisements for it. Much of the book's suspense, however, depends on that negligence. Although the first book in the series took place in 1910, Larson here fudges the historical timeline, as she explains in her author's note. (Harry Houdini indeed performed a trick in which he made an elephant disappear, and young Archibald Leach, later the movie star Cary Grant, did perform in New York City, but much later.) Historical liberties don't stop Audacity and her troupe—especially Min—from engaging in an enjoyable adventure while still evoking the 1910s. Larson focuses most of her story on the Houdini plotline, but the Punk plotline, which tugs at readers' hearts, becomes the more memorable of the two. The author also promises to devote some of her royalties to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. A suspenseful little mystery with heart. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Gr 4-6 Audacity Jones and her friend Bimmy leave Miss Maisie's Home for Wayward Girls for an exciting escapade in New York City. Audacity has been enlisted to help keep Harry Houdini's next big illusion, the disappearing elephant, from being sabotaged. The trio, along with scientist Theo (who helped Houdini create the trick), pretend to be a juggling act so they can be in the middle of all the action and watch for potential suspects. Narrator Lyssa Browne admirably plays a wide array of characters, especially the clever and mysterious Min the cat. VERDICT The story will inspire listeners to learn more about the real Houdini. Theresa Horn, St. Joseph County Public Library, South Bend, IN