An Interview with Larrian Gillespie: Author of Houdini: The Man Who Died Twice

From childhood actress to urologic surgeon, Larrian Gillespie, MD has completed her 10th book and her first in the true crime investigation/biography/memoir genre- Houdini: The Man Who Died Twice. It seems she has a knack for investigating and has uncovered never-before-recognized documents and interviews with people who contributed to the death of the famed escapist and magician, Harry Houdini.

She is a sailor, professional chef, teacher of The Pharmacology of Flavor, drug developer, and was the first woman to captain the UCLA women’s fencing team, winning a bronze medal in her sport. She lives in Los Angeles and Northern California, where she contemplates why Mendocino is such a murderous town.

Tell us about your book.

Was Harry Houdini’s death really caused by a ruptured appendix — or did the official story hide something darker?

This true crime investigation reopens the cold case of the world’s greatest escape artist using medical evidence, eyewitness accounts, death certificates, and the paper trail Houdini left behind.

A century after his death, the mystery of Harry Houdini still refuses to stay buried. The official story says the world’s greatest magician died from a ruptured appendix after being punched in the stomach. But the documents, witnesses, medical evidence, and timing tell a more complicated story.

Part biography, part forensic investigation, and part cinematic true crime narrative, Houdini: The Man Who Died Twice traces Houdini’s final days through hospital records, eyewitness accounts, spiritualist enemies, family tensions, and the tangled motives of those who surrounded him.

Along the way, it resurrects the world of vaudeville, spiritualism, and early twentieth‑century fame — a world where truth was as slippery as a handcuff key and reputation could vanish in a puff of smoke.

Houdini: The Man Who Died Twice is more than a history; it’s an autopsy of legend — a search for the man behind the myth, and the truth behind the greatest escape of all.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

It would be impossible to have the book out by a July deadline with a major house publisher. I have published books through standard publishers and knew I was facing 2 years at best. So the only way to get the book done, printed, and distributed by July 1 was to handle everything myself.

What tips can you give other authors looking to self-publish?

To make a small fortune in publishing, start with a big one. This is not a cheap process. You need to fund your own PR work.

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

As I started this journey on March 5, 2025, and 2026 is the 100th anniversary of Houdini’s death, I was forced into an impossible deadline, as printing alone has a 2-3 month lead and the first major convention was July 1, 2026. As a result, I actually researched and wrote 12-14 hrs daily. It was a DO IT or DIE situation.

I was simultaneously working with someone to help me use Word for layout and editing, then another doing the book cover, then researching what was selling in book covers, looking at books to decide how I would format it/layout all the images, text, designs, special markers….much like completing a very complex surgery that ordinarily takes 6-7 hours. I kept constant reminders of deadlines for each moving part.

Tell us about the genre you wrote in, and why you chose to write this sort of book.

I wrote a biography as a true crime historical medical anthropological investigation…WHEW….and that had not been done before to my knowledge. But the research was telling me this was a murder case and not an “accident,” and too many players were coming into view as I discovered more documents that had not been understood by non-medical writers.

Now that your book is out, has it won any awards?

I am beyond ecstatic that the book is now a Finalist in the first Kirkus Indie Awards for biography/history, and was chosen one of the best books for 2026 by Kirkus Indie, in addition to receiving a Kirkus Star review. Booklife, part of Publishers Weekly, also gave it an A rating. The magic community response has been equally as complimentary, calling my work “a riveting story treated as a cold case file and narrated like a film noir…the evidence is compelling and the investigator is eminently qualified.” It’s a controversial book and is shaking up the legends about Houdini.