Category: reviews

In 1930s London, celebrity psychiatrist Anselm Rees is discovered dead in his locked study, and there seems to be no way that a killer could have escaped unseen. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. Stumped by the confounding scene, the Scotland Yard detective on the case calls on retired stage magician-turned-part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. For who better to make sense of the impossible than one who traffics in illusions?

Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. As he and the Inspector interview the colorful cast of suspects among the psychiatrist’s patients and household, they uncover no shortage of dark secrets—or motives for murder. When the investigation dovetails into that of an apparently-impossible theft, the detectives consider the possibility that the two transgressions are related. And when a second murder occurs, this time in an impenetrable elevator, they realize that the crime wave will become even more deadly unless they can catch the culprit soon. 

A tribute to the classic golden-age whodunnit, when crime fiction was a battle of wits between writer and reader, Death and the Conjuror joins its macabre atmosphere, period detail, and vividly-drawn characters with a meticulously-constructed fair play puzzle. Its baffling plot will enthrall readers of mystery icons such as Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, modern masters like Anthony Horowitz and Elly Griffiths, or anyone who appreciates a good mystery.

Tom Mead is a UK crime fiction author specialising in locked-room mysteries. 

He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the International Thriller Writers’ Organization. 

His debut novel is DEATH AND THE CONJUROR, featuring magician-detective Joseph Spector.

My thoughts: this was a lot of fun, harking back to my beloved Golden Age detective stories (honestly still some of the best crime fiction) with a magician turned “consulting detective” called Spector (excellent name) assisting the police investigation into the locked room mystery death of the psychiatrist Dr Rees (think Freud, complete with the large house in North London and dysfunctional family). The suspects are his three patients, his daughter and her fiancee.

As the pair delve into the lives of the Doctor and his patients, more mysteries appear, who was the man in the alley, what happened to the lift operator and who was the mysterious visitor the housekeeper couldn’t identify? No spoilers here, so grab a copy and follow the sleights of hand, the misdirection and try to guess where the case will go next!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

A 1970s debate on equality is overshadowed by a deadly secret…
Spring 1970. Sussex University is hosting a debate about equality for women. But when one of the debating group goes missing, attention turns away from social injustice to something more sinister.
It seems every one of the group has something to hide, and when a second tragedy occurs, two of the delegates – amateur sleuth Janie Juke, and reporter Libby Frobisher – are prepared to make
themselves unpopular to flush out the truth. Who is lying and why?
Alongside the police investigation, Janie and Libby are determined to prise answers from the tight-lipped group, as they find themselves in a race against time to stop another victim being targeted.
In A Notable Omission we meet Janie at the start of a new decade. When we left Janie at the end of The Invisible Case she was enjoying her new found skills and success as an amateur sleuth. Here
we meet her a few months later, stealing a few days away from being a wife and mother, attending a local conference on women’s liberation to do some soul-searching…

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Isabella is never happier than when she is immersing herself in the sights, sounds and experiences of family life in southern England in past decades – specifically those years from the Second World War
through to the early 1970s. Researching all aspects of life back then has formed the perfect launch pad for her works of fiction. It was during two happy years working on and completing her MA in Professional Writing when Isabella rekindled her love of writing fiction and since then she has gone on to publish seven novels, six novellas and two short story collections.
This latest novel, A Notable Omission, is the fourth book in her successful Sussex Crime Mystery series, featuring young librarian and amateur sleuth, Janie Juke. The early books in the series are set
in the late 1960s in the fictional seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, where we meet Janie, who looks after the mobile library. She is an avid lover of Agatha Christie stories – in particular Hercule Poirot. Janie
uses all she has learned from the Queen of Crime to help solve crimes and mysteries. This latest novel in the series is set along the south coast in Brighton in early 1970, a time when young people were finding their voice and using it to rail against social injustice.
As well as four novels, there are six novellas in the series, set during the Second World War, exploring some of the back story to the Tamarisk Bay characters.
Isabella’s love of Italy shines through all her work and, as she is half-Italian, she has enjoyed bringing all her crime novels to an Italian audience with Italian translations, which are very well received.
Isabella has also written a second series of Sussex Crimes, set in the sixties, featuring retired Italian detective, Giuseppe Bianchi, who is escaping from tragedy in Rome, only to arrive in the quiet seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, to come face-to-face with it once more. Isabella’s standalone novel, The Forgotten Children, deals with the emotive subject of the child migrants who were sent to Australia – again focusing on family life in the 1960s, when the child migrant policy was still in force.
Find out more about Isabella and her books by visiting her website.

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My thoughts: having been raised by a feminist (hi mum!) who was a young woman in the 70s, and probably aware of similar events as the one Janie and Libby attended, gave me some idea of what it would be like. Some of the rights we take for granted were still being hashed out at this time and the women (and men) who campaigned for them are to be commended.

However, this particular group doesn’t seem that focused on women’s rights but on their own complicated connections – most of the group have known each other since school and not always been exactly friends. It’s all a bit messy and after one member disappears, and another has a potentially fatal accident, Janie and Libby start asking questions. The answers lie somewhere in the group’s past, but who’s telling the truth and who has plenty to hide?

A clever and engaging read, Janie and Libby are an interesting pairing, the married mother, happy in her library job, worrying about her family, and the no strings attached journalist, intent on building her career and seemingly happy to be single. Their respective skills and insights into human nature make them a good crime solving team and friends too.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

December 1962. EleanorO’Dowd, a middle-aged piano teacher, is found stabbed and bludgeoned to death. As the Great Freeze of 1963 takes hold, local vicar’s daughter Daphne Morgan finds herself forced to navigate the confusing currents of the adult world, where she must face up to her own crimes and what she knows about the murder. A novel about memory and the power of the imagination…

SiânCollins was born in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. An Edinburgh graduate, she taught Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature in South Africa, worked as an assistant editor on The Lancet, and ran English and Drama departments in several well-known London secondary schools. She returned to Carmarthenshire to teach, write, and relish life in the beautiful Tywi Valley. Her debut novel, Unleaving, was published in 2019.

My thoughts: seen through the eyes of a child, following the murder of her much disliked piano teacher, this charts the life of a small Welsh town, reeling from the tragedy. The police are convinced a local man – deaf mute Johnny – is their perpetrator, and his inability to communicate makes it all too easy to point the finger at him. But Daphne knows that’s not true, she saw something, or did she?

Meanwhile she and her school friends have worries of their own, have they been cursed? Are they responsible for the village’s recent troubles?

Told with a kind tone and full of the misunderstandings and tiny concerns of children, as well as the growing awareness of the unfairness of life, this is a gentle but moving story of a place and its people.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.