Jim “Zig” Zigarowski isn’t a soldier, but he serves his country. When there is a disaster, a bombing, a plane crash, he is called in. As a mortician at Dover Air Force Base, Zig was a part of the team that stepped in after 911, who helped with soldiers coming back from war zones, and when there is a small plane crash in Copper Center, Alaska, killing all seven passengers, Zig makes sure to be there.

The plane had been carrying the Librarian of Congress and two soldiers who worked for him. The librarian was a personal friend of the President, appointed by him specifically for the job. But the soldier that Zig grabbed was Sgt 1st Class Nola Brown. He knew her. She was in Girl Scouts with his daughter Maggie, and once saved her from an accident at a bonfire, although not without some damage to her ear.

Zig believes strongly in honoring all of the fallen who come through Dover. He works with precision and patience to make these soldiers look their best, and he wants to do no less for Nola. He just has one problem. This soldier isn’t Nola. There are some physical similarities to the girl he knew. She’s about the right age. But this woman’s ears are perfect. And when Zig finds a note that she had written and swallowed as the plane was going down, he worries that Nola is in trouble. The note says, “Nola, you were right. Keep running.”
After all the years he’s spent at Dover and all the families he’s helped prepare their loved ones for their funerals, Zig has made some friends and learned some tricks. So he calls in favors and takes chances to try to find out where Nola is and what she might have gotten mixed up in. But trying to find her puts him in the line of fire. Will Zig be able to find Nola and save her life, the way she saved Zig’s daughter’s life? Or are they going up against a magician who can escape the most complicated cage?

Brad Meltzer’s The Escape Artist is a layered story about growing from childhood traumas and finding a way to become more than your worst tragedy. Witten in dual perspective, telling Zig’s story as well as Nola’s, bouncing back and forth in time, this novel unfolds slowly, often hiding the big moves with the small moves, as all great magicians do. With a deep understanding of the contemporary military and a strong curiosity about America’s history, Meltzer offers up a unique understanding of the secrets of the Secret Service, especially about renowned magician Harry Houdini’s role in it.

I listened to the audio on this one, with Scott Brick narrating Zig’s chapters and January LaVoy reading Nola’s chapters. I thought both narrators read beautifully, offering up the right amount of intelligence and emotion (or lack of emotion, for Nola), and adding lots of auditory interest. Listening to The Escape Artist, the time flew by, leaving me wondering why I don’t listen to more audiobooks because this was such a perfect listening experience. Even with a lot of characters, Meltzer writes in a way that makes it all flow so beautifully that it’s easy to keep everyone straight.

I loved everything about The Escape Artist. Learning about Houdini’s part in our history was fascinating, and the story that unfolds with Zig and Nola was thrilling. It had ups and downs, it had moments that made me grin and lots of things that brought tears to my eyes. I loved these characters, and watching them go on these journeys was so heart-warming. Zig breaks people into two groups: heart, or no heart. The Escape Artist is nothing but heart, so if you’re looking for a big-hearted book about America and our place in it as individuals, then this book will take you on quite a ride.