Cabaret Macabre
the brilliant new locked room mystery by Tom Mead set in a snowbound English stately home
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
An English country house at Christmas proves the perfect hunting ground for a determined killer. Sleuth and illusionist Joseph Spector investigates his most complex case yet in this gripping new locked-room murder mystery.
'Cabaret Macabre really had it all... The twisted and complex puzzle totally foxed me, and although I hate to admit it, I really didn't have a clue whodunnit! Entertaining and fiendishly clever.' Joy Ellis, #1 bestselling author
Hampshire, Christmas 1938. When prominent judge Sir Giles Drury starts receiving sinister letters, his wife suspects Victor Silvius, a man who was previously locked up for attacking Sir Giles. Meanwhile, Silvius' sister Caroline is convinced her brother is about to be murdered... by none other than his old nemesis, Sir Giles Drury.
Caroline seeks the advice of Scotland Yard's Inspector Flint, while the Drurys, eager to avoid a scandal, turn to Joseph Spector. Spector, renowned magician turned sleuth, has an uncanny knack for solving complicated crimes – but this case will test his powers of deduction to their limits.
At a snowbound English country house in the midst of the Christmas season, a murder is committed in impossible circumstances. Spector and Flint's investigations collide as they find themselves trapped by the snowstorm, in a place where anyone could be the next victim... or the killer.
Reviewers on Cabaret Macabre:
'An intricately plotted golden age locked room mystery. Inventive and intriguing.' Ambrose Parry
'So many intricate layers to this ingenious plot. It truly is the matryoshka of mysteries!' Victoria Dowd
'A twisty-turny, fun and very satisfying mystery.' Alison Moore
'Stunning. Magic and murder and cleverness. Joseph Spector will put a spell on you.' Barbara Nadel, author of the Çetin Ikmen series, adapted into Paramount+'s The Turkish Detective
'There are Agatha Christie-like twists aplenty.' Michael Dirda, Washington Post
Reviews for Tom Mead
'Ingenious' Guardian
'Great fun' The Times
'What more could any fan of classic crime wish for?' Martin Edwards
'A sharply drawn period piece' New York Times
'An intricate "impossible" crime that completely fooled me' Peter Lovesey
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A pair of potential murders give way to two baffling real ones in Mead's ingenious third whodunit featuring retired magician Joseph Spector (after The Murder Wheel). In 1938 England, Lady Elspeth Drury summons Spector to help prevent her husband's murder. Sir Giles Drury has been receiving threatening letters that Lady Elspeth believes are the work of Victor Silvius, who was confined to a sanitorium nine years earlier after he tried to stab Sir Giles. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard inspector George Flint has been approached by Silvius's sister, Caroline, who fears the exact opposite—that Sir Giles is conspiring to have her brother killed. Spector's and Flint's inquiries inevitably intersect, and after the two travel together to the Drurys' country estate, they end up investigating two seemingly impossible murders connected to the family. In one, they discover a frozen body in the middle of a pond with no evidence suggesting how it got there; in another, the victim is gunned down in broad daylight by an apparently invisible killer. As in previous Spector cases, Mead hides all the clues in plain sight, constructing a fair-play puzzle that will delight and challenge readers who love pitting their own wits against the author's. It's another crackerjack entry in an exceptional series.
