Death and the Conjuror

 Death and the Conjuror written by Tom Mead is a new mystery featuring Jospeh Spector, a elderly magician and conjuror.  In what is the beginning  I am sure of a new series he is working on solving a locked room murder with the Scotland Yard detective, George Flint.

This mystery takes place in 1936 in the dreary streets of London.  A prominent psychologist is found murdered in his home office with all the windows locked and the door locked. He is found by his housekeeper, Olive Turner when she goes to let in one of his patients, the actress, Della Cookson, known as patient B.   No one, Olive tells the police later could have come or gone without her knowledge.  She could hear everything and she let the guests in and out over the course of the evening.

Flint is completely  baffled and turns to Spector to help him solve the crime. Spector knows the people in the theatre and the worlds of the other patients involved, Patient A, a musician, and B, an author.  He also as a professional trickster is good at figuring out the various ways a locked room could be accessed to commit murder.

Through out the book as we meet the different suspects and learn their stories and connections, Spector also practices some simple magic tricks then gives the reader the answer to how those tricks are accomplished.  They are each slight of hand and if read carefully help to lead to the thoughts about the crime could have been committed, or they could be just red herrings, like a  slight of hand trick to direct the eye away from what is really happening right in front of the them.

An entertaining and well conceived idea for a new mystery series and an interesting new pairing of detective and assistant.