Boo! Some nifty Halloween magic items and news stories await you in this month's installment, along with a full-scale review of Ron Bauer's new serialized magic tricks.

JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN -- Steve Fearson has done it again with a grisly little effect called "Final Cut." The effect is starkly simple: you take a wicked-looking pocket knife (shown at left) and slice your thumb open. I've seen Geno Munari create a sensation with this basic effect, but Geno's method uses real blood. Fearson's new take on the effect is truly diabolical, and no one gets hurt. I recall a David Roth lecture where David mentioned, re one of his coin tricks, "If you liked the trick, you're going to love the method." That's how I felt about "Final Cut." Tres cool! Available from Steve at 1120 Las Vegas Blvd South, Suite 111, Las Vegas, NV 89104. $24.95 pp.

BOOKS R US -- H & R Magic Books has recently issued List 20, a whopping compendium of book titles available from Richard Hatch and Charlie Randall. Many of these titles are unavailable and unadvertised elsewhere. Contact Richard at hatch@ghg.net on how to get on their mailing list.

DAVID BLAINE TALKS TO THE DEAD -- The October 1998 issue of Detour magazine ("the scary issue") contains another too-die-for promo piece on David Blaine, in an article called "Ouija!" David conducts a Ouija seance at New York's Limelight club, a former church turned nightclub.

HATCHET JOB -- The British glossy for men, FHM, skewers magic in its October 1998 issue, with special attention to Siegfried and Roy, Paul Daniels, and David Copperfield, in a seven-page travesty called "This Show Must Not Go On!" The issue elsewhere features the lewdest puppet I've ever seen -- with a hilarious caption. There's an act here for someone.

HOW TO HAUNT A HOUSE -- Two fine additions to the "how to haunt a house" genre appeared this year, The Complete Haunted House Book by cruise ship magi Tim Harkleroad ($29.95), and Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween, by Joseph Pfeiffer ($9.95). Both are great and contain magical ideas. The latter book, I'm sorry to report, tips the method for the needle through the arm.

THE RON BAUER COLLECTION -- I've long been a fan of the magic of Ron Bauer. Ron has recently begun serializing some of his favorite tricks, at ten dollars a pop. Check out a complete review of his first nine monographs.