John ZubrzyckiBesprekingen

This was a bit drier & more academic than I expected. The chapter about “disproving” the rope trick was probably the most fun.

I would have enjoyed the early chapters with descriptions of truly _supernatural_ tricks if they dug into how such rumors came about; as it is, they are more like a catalogue.

Scholarly½

A diamond larger than the famous Kohinoor was discovered in South Africa, smuggled to London, and offered for sale. What follows is an eventful journey that imparts a story, a history to the gem – a history that is much sought after by a collector. Following bizarre course of events, the Imperial Diamond or Jacob’s diamond, as it is presently known as, had ended up in the hands of the Nizam of Hyderabad, subsequently used as a paperweight before being forgotten inside a rotten old slipper. Now in the possession of the Government of India, the diamond fades away in a vault, and is only occasionally displayed in exhibitions.

Read the complete review at http://thebookoutline.blogspot.in/2012/11/book-review-mysterious-mr-jacob.html

The rather amazing story of the decline of the grandest hereditary princedom in India following democratic reforms in 1947. The last Nizam inherits an empty title in 1967, along with one of the world's largest personal fortunes - which quickly evaporates through a combination of fraud, the vagaries of the Indian judicial system and the monumental, all-encompassing financial ineptitude of the Nizam. Read August 2011.