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shelfofunread's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
A locked room mystery? An ‘impossible’ crime? An illusionist sleuth? An homage to the Golden Age of detective fiction? I knew as soon as I read the blurb for acclaimed short-story writer Tom Mead’s debut novel, Death and the Conjuror that this was one blog tour I very much wanted to be part of!
London, 1936 and Scotland Yard’s Inspector Flint is called to a seemingly impossible crime scene. Renowned Austrian psychiatrist Anselm Rees has been found dead in his locked study, his throat violently slashed. With no way for the killer to exit the room unseen, Flint calls upon the expertise of retired illusionist Joseph Spector to help solve the baffling mystery.
Rees had a selective client base and, at the time of his death, he had only three patients: all celebrities in their respective fields. But why would an actor, a musician, or a writer want to kill a psychiatrist who was helping them with their problems? Could one of Rees’s past cases be the real motive behind his murder? Or could the killer lie closer to home in the shape of Rees’s daughter – and student – Lidia and her boorish fiancé? With no shortage of suspects to choose from, Spector and Flint set out to sort reality from illusion and unmask Rees’s killer before they strike again.
Tom Mead’s affection for Golden Age locked-room mysteries is evident on every page of Death and the Conjurer. There are several references – both overt and oblique – to some of the Golden Age masters and mistresses of the genre, and both Spector and Flint make several knowing nods towards the tropes of the ‘impossible’ crime tale. The result is an energetic homage to the genre that, although aware of the tropes it engages with, consistently uses them in a way that feels fresh and engaging.
Spector is an interesting protagonist: a Jonathan Creek intellect combined with the stylistic flair of a classic stage magician and the enigmatic charm of Sherlock Holmes. Flint makes for a solid foil to the more exuberant elements of Spector’s personality and both characters are written with a knowing nod and a wink to the usual conventions of the police detective/private consultant dynamic. The supporting characters are also an eclectic bunch although there is occasionally a sense that some of them exist to serve the plot more than as characters in their own right.
The simple and direct style of storytelling belies the complexity of the puzzles that Spector and Flint are tasked with solving and the novel definitely kept me guessing right up until the final pages. Whilst personally I would have liked a slightly longer denouement – and a greater exploration of the eventual criminal’s motivation – I enjoyed the way that Mead provide links back to the clues that had been scattered throughout the text so that you could ‘see’ the workings of the story and follow Spector’s solving of the case.
Death and the Conjurer is a wry homage to the classic locked room mystery and introduces an interesting sleuth in the form of Joseph Spector. Whilst I occasionally wanted the characters to have a little more depth, the plotting of this engaging mystery is flawless and kept the pages turning right up until the very end. Fans of the classic locked room mysteries of John Dickson Carr will surely find much to enjoy here, as will anyone who loves a puzzling mystery.
NB: This review also appears on my blog at https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com as part of the blog tour for the book. My thanks go to the publisher who provided a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.
London, 1936 and Scotland Yard’s Inspector Flint is called to a seemingly impossible crime scene. Renowned Austrian psychiatrist Anselm Rees has been found dead in his locked study, his throat violently slashed. With no way for the killer to exit the room unseen, Flint calls upon the expertise of retired illusionist Joseph Spector to help solve the baffling mystery.
Rees had a selective client base and, at the time of his death, he had only three patients: all celebrities in their respective fields. But why would an actor, a musician, or a writer want to kill a psychiatrist who was helping them with their problems? Could one of Rees’s past cases be the real motive behind his murder? Or could the killer lie closer to home in the shape of Rees’s daughter – and student – Lidia and her boorish fiancé? With no shortage of suspects to choose from, Spector and Flint set out to sort reality from illusion and unmask Rees’s killer before they strike again.
Tom Mead’s affection for Golden Age locked-room mysteries is evident on every page of Death and the Conjurer. There are several references – both overt and oblique – to some of the Golden Age masters and mistresses of the genre, and both Spector and Flint make several knowing nods towards the tropes of the ‘impossible’ crime tale. The result is an energetic homage to the genre that, although aware of the tropes it engages with, consistently uses them in a way that feels fresh and engaging.
Spector is an interesting protagonist: a Jonathan Creek intellect combined with the stylistic flair of a classic stage magician and the enigmatic charm of Sherlock Holmes. Flint makes for a solid foil to the more exuberant elements of Spector’s personality and both characters are written with a knowing nod and a wink to the usual conventions of the police detective/private consultant dynamic. The supporting characters are also an eclectic bunch although there is occasionally a sense that some of them exist to serve the plot more than as characters in their own right.
The simple and direct style of storytelling belies the complexity of the puzzles that Spector and Flint are tasked with solving and the novel definitely kept me guessing right up until the final pages. Whilst personally I would have liked a slightly longer denouement – and a greater exploration of the eventual criminal’s motivation – I enjoyed the way that Mead provide links back to the clues that had been scattered throughout the text so that you could ‘see’ the workings of the story and follow Spector’s solving of the case.
Death and the Conjurer is a wry homage to the classic locked room mystery and introduces an interesting sleuth in the form of Joseph Spector. Whilst I occasionally wanted the characters to have a little more depth, the plotting of this engaging mystery is flawless and kept the pages turning right up until the very end. Fans of the classic locked room mysteries of John Dickson Carr will surely find much to enjoy here, as will anyone who loves a puzzling mystery.
NB: This review also appears on my blog at https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com as part of the blog tour for the book. My thanks go to the publisher who provided a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, and Murder
Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Alcohol