Death and the Conjuror: A Locked-Room Mystery

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It’s perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, and all those other legends from the first half of the twentieth century. It’s a kind of umbrella term which covers all manner of impossible crimes—that is, crimes where there appears to be no way the criminal could actually have committed them. London. Young lawyer Edmund Ibbs has a new client: a woman accused of shooting her husband in the already infamous 'Ferris Wheel Murder' case. The police detective and the magician are great characters and I loved hearing them think their theories out loud. At the beginning of the book, the writer gives us a list of characters. At first, I got a bit anxious trying to remember everyone, but don't worry about that, it'll all come together! I received a free copy of this book with thanks to the author and Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*

What a muddled mish-mash this book is. I’m very surprised a publisher actually considered adding it to their list. From the outset the premise seems very odd. While one has seen detectives of every stamp, it is stretching credulity rather far to believe that a detective would consult an ex-magician on his cases. The rest of the story seems peppered with nonsense, all of which makes for a very unsatisfying read. While there is not much that can be said in its favour, there is much to criticise. This is such a stylish and well written historical mystery set in the interwar period in England. Stage magician Joseph Spector joins forces with Scotland Yard inspector Flint to solve several "impossible" crimes. Readers who enjoy figuring out how before the sleuths will find a fiendishly clever puzzle. I gave up trying to beat the mystery about halfway in (impossible crimes upon impossible crimes) and just enjoyed the ride. It's 1930s London and there is a murder. Psychiatrist Anselm Rees has been murdered and the murderer has disappeared under impossible circumstances. What we have here is a closed room mystery but actually there is more than one closed room mystery before the story is over. It's the job of Scotland Yard Inspector George Flint to find the murderer and when confronted with the impossibility of the crime he calls on retired stage magician-turned-part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. Many thanks to NetGalley and Mysterious Press for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review The Murder Wheel. All opinions and comments are my own.

I loved all the characters. Touching on the different types of psychomachia was clever and made the characters more tangible. Della really was a conundrum and I would have actually liked to have known more about her for my own curiosity. The only character I didn't much care for was the daughter Lidia. I think she was deliberately made unlikeable which shows how much skill the author has.

The epilogue didn't do it for me, however. I think the initial solution was perfectly satisfying and the author didn't need to introduce a last-minute twist. Who are the suspects? Dr. Lidia Rees, daughter of Dr. Anselm Rees, seemed to be matter of fact about her father's demise. Her playboy boyfriend had many secrets. What of Patients A, B, and C? Why did the Rees family emigrate to London from Vienna? So many unanswered questions. I enjoyed this story very much and the narrator did an excellent job narrating this book. You do have to really like this kind of old fashioned story telling where, in the end, the explanation for everything is long, detailed, verging on impossible, and requiring numerous contortions and eye squinting to really see how things pull together. But it was fun and I felt like I was right there in the parlor with all the characters while Spector laid out the happenings for us. Such clever fun although too clever for me.German immigrant Dr Anselm Rees has recently relocated to London, along with his daughter, Dr Lidia Rees. Mead wisely sets the story a few years before the gathering war clouds would have complicated things even further. The elder Dr Rees – sometimes referred to as a psychologist and sometimes as a psychiatrist – has gradually acquired a list of only three patients. They are the musician Floyd Stenhouse, actor Della Cookson and author Claude Weaver. Many thanks to NetGalley and The Mysterious Press for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review Death and the Conjuror. All opinions and comments are my own. No matter how large or small an illusion, there is one thing to remember: your audience is in front of you. Keep them there. —The Master of Manipulation, “Ruminations” First of all, and what annoyed me from the start, the writing style. This book is mostly dialogue, and barely any description. To me this made the story more difficult to read, and the characters felt a bit flat, because I was simply missing more descriptions of how the moved, and handled the situations. Now the characters just felt very flat, because you basically only got to know them through the conversations that were happening. The author should use more show than tell. This was a pitch perfect pastiche of golden age mysteries, from personae dramatis to the appropriately convoluted solution to the puzzle. Twisting and turning and casting suspicion this way and that, with a bunch of perfectly golden-age-style characters all of whom could theoretically do a murderous turn or two, this challenging murder nugget has a lot to offer. The lead detective and the detecting magician certainly have enough to stay busy.

There are a number of characters, but once again Tom has focussed on a small cast, pivotal to the storyline, such as lawyer Edmund Ibbs, who I would say is our main player, and of course Inspector Flint, and Joseph Spector himself. They are joined by bankers and spouses, magicians, magicians' assistants, theatre workers, gambling men, criminals and whatnot. But the handful he has focussed on, he has given them so much time that you can really invest in their story. When a customer at the market dies after imbibing one of their bubble tea concoctions, the cousins become suspects, especially since it turns out Celine had added potentially lethal gold flakes to the drink because “it needed more razzle-dazzle, like those cupcakes with those harmless silver balls on them.”

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When Lidia and her playboy boyfriend Marcus Bowman arrive home late one night, they learn Dr Rees’ throat has been slit. His body was discovered by his patient, Cookson, and the housekeeper. Cookson arrived late in a frantic state seeking the doctor’s advice.