His debut novel is DEATH AND THE CONJUROR, featuring magician-detective Joseph Spector. He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the International Thriller Writers’ Organization. Tom Mead is a UK crime fiction author specialising in locked-room mysteries.

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. 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.Ī 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.

When the investigation dovetails into that of an apparently-impossible theft, the detectives consider the possibility that the two transgressions are related. 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. Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. For who better to make sense of the impossible than one who traffics in illusions?

Stumped by the confounding scene, the Scotland Yard detective on the case calls on retired stage magician-turned-part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. 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.

Tom mead death and the conjuror