Magician Archives – Carol's Notebook

The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead

June 10, 2023June 21, 2023 by Carol6 Comments

I love the combo of magicians and murder. Add in the Golden Age feel and Mead's Joseph Spector novels have me hooked. This time around, Edmund Ibbs is a rather new solicitor helping represent Carla Dean who is accused of killing her husband at the top of a Ferris Wheel. Ibbs, an aspiring magician, takes a break from work to attend a performance of the Great Paolini. A second dead man is revealed during one of the tricks, a man slightly connected to the Dean murder. Luckily, Joseph Spector, retired magician and sometimes Scotland Yard consultant, is also in the audience. What follows is a high-stakes investigation by Spector and Ibbs. The characters are well-written and believable. There are several potential suspects and a big baddie who may or may not be involved. As in any good mystery involving magic, there are plenty of misdirections and distractions. We've got essentially two locked-room mysteries here and while the author plays fair...

The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian

February 14, 2023February 14, 2023 by Carol2 Comments

There are some things I loved about The Raven Thief and some things I could do without. The mystery itself is well-done. Tempest and her grandfather are invited to a "seance" to rid a woman's house of the bad vibes of her ex-husband. Right in the middle, however, her ex drops onto the table - dead, surrounded by raven feathers. Ash, Tempest's grandfather, becomes the chief suspect, so of course, Tempest has to do everything she can to clear his name. Tempest is a former stage magician, so is the perfect person to figure out how the "trick" was done. I'm pretty sure it's a fair play mystery, that the reader gets all the same clues as Tempest and her sidekicks, but I didn't put them together. These books rely a lot on misdirection on the killer's part that our magicians and builders need to unravel, which is fun. I enjoy the puzzle of it. Tempest is a great character, too...

Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

August 31, 2022November 15, 2022 by Carol5 Comments

Is it any wonder I enjoyed Under Lock & Skeleton Key? It's a locked room mystery, more or less, with delicious descriptions of food, multiple secret rooms and staircases, and even a family curse. Tempest comes from a magic family- even if none of them are currently performing. The family construction business does keep up the tradition though - it's all about creating hidden rooms, secret staircases, and the like. The misdirection theme runs throughout the book, almost too repetitively. The mystery itself is well done. The whodunnit didn't surprise me exactly and I was glad of a certain twist near the end. This is one of those books that's more about the how, which was actually pretty simple in the end, but I didn't put the pieces together. I like Tempest and her family. They are interesting and charming and feel real in their concerns. Her friends make a great team too and I hope we see more of...

Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead

August 24, 2022August 24, 2022 by Carol6 Comments

It's no surprise Death and the Conjuror caught my eye. It's set in London in 1936, the Golden Age as far as mysteries are concerned. It features a locked room mystery, something I've been reading a lot of lately, and our sleuth is a magician, which is a fun touch - after all, who would be a better person to solve the impossible? A psychologist seeing three rather unique patients is found dead in his locked study. Inspector George Flint is in charge of the case, but he knows he needs help and calls his friend, magician Joseph Spector. There are a fair number of suspects each with his or her own secrets. Actually, there are all around a lot of characters involved - the dead man's family and clients, the folks from the show Spector is helping put together, the cops obviously - and two mysteries, the murder and a stolen painting, taken from a locked chest in a locked...

The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths

May 26, 2020May 26, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

The Blood Card is the third in the series featuring DI Edgar Stephens and the magician Max Mephisto. This is a wonderful historical thriller located in the world of theatre variety shows and the gypsy community. It is the third in the series but the first I have read and it works very well as a standalone. It is set in the period leading to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. In London, Max is performing at the Theatre Royal, while in Brighton, Edgar is looking into the death of Madame Zabini, a fortune teller on the pier. Max and Edgar are summoned by General Petre who takes them to the murder scene of their old wartime commander, Colonel Peter Cartwright. There is a playing card left with the body, the Ace of Hearts, known in the theatrical community as the blood card. Petre asks them to look into the murder discreetly. Max and Edgar are horrified at...

Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

Smoke and Mirrors, the second book in Elly Griffiths series featuring DI Stephens, and actor/magician Max Mephisto, is set in Brighton about a year after the events in the Zig Zag Girl, during the winter of 1951. Max and the Great Diablo are performing in a pantomime in town. These type of pantomimes seem to be a very British thing. It's a theater play that involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy, and in this case magic, and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story. They are usually produced around Christmas, I'm not sure why. When two young children go missing, and are later found dead in a snowbank surrounded by candies, DI Edgar Stephens, and his officers, Emma Holmes and Bob Willis, are tasked to investigate. With a frightened community demanding that the killer be found, and little evidence to go on, Stephens turns to his old friend Max for information after drawing a possible link to...