Review: Death and the Conjuror

Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was a very interesting book, and I really enjoyed it. The story felt like a throwback to the good old detective stories of the 1930s and 1940s, with its locked-room murders and cast of fascinating suspects, plus our Scotland Yard detective and the eccentric yet highly perceptive retired magician who helps him solve the case.
One dark, rainy evening in the fall of 1936, an internationally renowned psychiatrist is found murdered in his locked study. No one can figure out how the murderer got in, much less the murder took place, or who could have been responsible. Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard calls on his old friend Joseph Spector, an enigmatic character and "professional trickster," who may be able to give some insight into the crime. The two men have a varied and intriguing array of suspects and persons of interest to look into, including the doctor's patients, his striking and intelligent daughter who is a doctor in her own right, her ne'er-do-well fiance, and mysterious dark-clothed figures who go skulking about in the gloom. The reader is challenged to solve the mystery along with Flint and Spector, and it is a challenge gladly accepted!
The characters in this book are well-done--just enough about them is revealed to make them fully-dimensional and interesting, but not so much detail to bog the story down. The plot is well-crafted and is a quick, easy read. The mystery is tantalizing and the reader knows if he or she just thinks about it hard enough, the answer will materialize right in front of them.
The book was not perfect. There were a few instances in which I wondered, "why are they waiting so long to to ask ... about ... ?" or "why has no one thought about ... ?" and I got just a bit frustrated. But those few things did not mar my enjoyment of the book at all.
If you enjoy Agatha Christie novels, the old Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone, or if you liked The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I would absolutely recommend this book. I hope that in the future we get to see Flint and Spector investigate more unsolvable crimes!

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