Nine strangers.
A notorious mansion.
An isolated island.
A suicide that might be murder.
And a locked-room mystery.
The plot: While Inspector George Flint of Scotland Yard investigates the apparent suicide of Rodney Edgecombe in London, Joseph Spector, former magician extraordinaire, heads to Devil's Neck for a weekend seance. When one of the other guests ends up dead, Spector immediately figures out it's murder. But finding the murderer is another matter.
My thoughts: Tom Mead's mysteries are like an homage to those classic locked-room Golden Age mysteries I love to read. There are always clever tricks and deceits in them. And Joseph Spector, a master of illusion himself, can spot them all. He's the other reason I really love these books. He and Flint work so well together. And even though they are apart for most of this book, I love how their two separate investigations come together at the end. There are a lot of surprises along the way, but also enough clues for you to figure it out if you're really clever. Which I was not. But I sure did have fun reading this one!
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Happy Reading!

You had me at the word 'seance'. Not that I've ever been to one, but books involving them are interesting. My current book of short stories is a British Library collection of vintage weird tales about seances. :-)
ReplyDeleteLark, this book does sound good and it's an author that I am not even aware of. Will see what I can find about and from him. Can't ignore a 5-star rating! Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteI love locked-room mysteries. This one sounds great! So glad to heard you enjoyed it! :D
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