He is a prolific author of short fiction, and recently his story “Heatwave” was included in THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR 2021, edited by Lee Child. DEATH AND THE CONJUROR is his first novel. 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. Can't decide if this book is a serious attempt at writing a bad imitation of a Golden Age mystery, or just a very bad book.

I love a story like this that lets you discover the mystery along with the detective, and in this case, his colleague who is a magician. At one point, the writer even breaks the fourth wall and stops to ask the reader if they've figured the mystery out! I loved that! And of course, I hadn't figured anything out! 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. The case they are tasked with investigating in “Listen to Me” — the bludgeoning of an I.C.U. nurse without a seeming enemy — offers turns and twists that feel earned and organic. Meanwhile, Rizzoli is also preoccupied with constant phone calls from her mother, Angela, who’s convinced that the new couple on her street are up to no good, even though her daughter tells her “there’s nothing criminal about wanting to stay away from the neighborhood sleuth.” In London, 1938, young and idealistic lawyer Edmund Ibbs is trying to find any shred of evidence that his client Carla Dean wasn’t the one who shot her husband dead at the top of a Ferris Wheel. But the deeper he digs, the more complex the case becomes, and Edmund soon finds himself drawn into a nightmarish web of conspiracy and murder. Before long he himself is implicated in not one but two seemingly impossible crimes.I haven’t read Death and the Conjuror, the first book featuring illusionist turned sleuth Joseph Spector, so waiting for him to appear in this one was like awaiting the start of the main act. Actually I’m being rather unfair to young lawyer and amateur magician. Edmund Ibbs, who carries a good deal of the first part of the book. I found him a really engaging, sympathetic figure although, as the book progresses, you learn that not everyone may be exactly what they seem. What, even Edmund? Well, he does find himself in a rather incriminating situation… Never mind rotating on a Ferris wheel, my head was spinning by the end of the book such is the intricacy of the plot and the number of red herrings and false trails the author has subtly inserted into the story.

Secrets, red herrings and sleights of hand abound in an ingenious piece of intriguing escapism.' Guardian

The characters are well depicted so that they instantly become people the reader is invested in, enhancing the total enjoyment in reading The Murder Wheel. I loved the way dialogue helped uncover who they are as people, and not having read the first Joseph Spector book, Death and the Conjurer, didn’t detract at all, but has made me determined to catch up with it because I enjoyed The Murder Wheel so much. I also fully appreciated the scope for reencountering some of the characters in future stories even though this narrative is brilliantly and satisfactorily concluded. 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. This appears to be Tom Mead’s first novel, but he has written much short fiction, and this does not read like a debut. The pacing is slow, with numerous numbing recaps and restatements. No real surprises, very pedestrian drama, and the weakest of murderers. It’s going to take all the ingenuity of Joseph Spector, also fortunately attending Paolini’s performance, to sort out how these events are connected, who is responsible and to exonerate young Edmund.