This is the third in this most brilliant series and, as always, although the main story is self contained, to get the very best from it, especially with regard to the characters, I would recommend playing catch-up first. I did just that when I realised this was book three, and I don't regret it!
So... we start with a bit of backstory... Victor Silvus has been residing in a private sanitarium since attacking Judge Sir Giles Drury who he accuses of being responsible for the death of his girlfriend a few years since. Drury's wife, Lady Elspeth believes that Silvus is responsible for threats that her husband has been receiving and seeks out retired stage magician (and part time sleuth) Joseph Spector to help her. Meanwhile Silvus's sister Caroline takes her concerns about her brother's safety to the police, Inspector George Flint.
So... two sides of the same case being investigated by two very different people... just wait til they collide!
And that's all I'm saying as, if you have read the series before, you'll know that it's gonna get convoluted and interconnected... and it does, deliciously so... have your wits about you as you continue...
I love this series as it is old school investigation set in the Golden Age of detective books. Paying homage to some of the great authors of that era. Characters are brilliantly drawn and all play their parts with aplomb. Plotting is always so very clever and well explained, making sense all the way through, even when first assumed to be impossible! Chock full of secrets, lies, manipulation, obfuscation, it's an absolute delight for readers who like to guess but who love to be challenged! One thing I do have to say is that in amongst all the above, the respect for the reader remains. Which is not always the case with this genre book.
And the ending, when it came... genius!
All in all, a cracking addition to an already well impressive series, roll on next time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Have I read a book series out of order again… yes, I have dear Reader but book one and two is now on my TBR.

I really liked Tom’s writing style as it immersive and I couldn’t help but be drawn into the story. The story also had had great pacing, and I really enjoyed the atmospheric setting that Tom created. I can’t comment on the first two books in this series but there were so much packed into the pages of this book there was a lot of deaths, it was packed with mysteries, more suspects than a game of Cluedo and each death is more creative than the last. As the stakes were raised and the body count rose, the intensity in the book never let up.

The only way I can explain this book is an extraordinary balancing act between keeping the plot moving forward and so many death and possible guilty parties. This book could have easily become a hot mess but instead we have an astonishing piece of crime writing. This mystery had me completely intrigued, had me questioning everything and these two combined elements made it hard to put the book down.

I guarantee you won’t be able to anticipate all the twists and tricks Tom woven into this tale.

The Plot

A wealthy judge is in fear for his life after receiving threatening letters. Spector and his wife thinks it’s connected to someone he put away in a private sanatorium. Meanwhile, the patient’s sister is worried that the judge will murder him.

My thoughts

I liked that this book had a Victorian atmosphere to it, although it was set in the golden age of crime fiction. It also opened with a great hook to the novel and had some intriguing chapters. For me personally, I found that the novel jumped around in a few places, and the central murder plot was too elaborate. I would have preferred a more character driven story and to have seen more of Spector’s (our detective’s) character and life, although this may have been done in the other two books which I haven’t read. You may enjoy it if you like elaborate plots.

The opening of this mystery is gripping! It all starts with a body in a trunk and a faceless man.
A man imprisoned in a sanatorium who thinks someone is trying to kill him and his sister determined to get the truth.

There are so many layers to this mystery, it’s an intricately plotted, devilishly difficult locked room mystery. The characters in Meads books are always great, they walk off the page fully formed. It’s twisty, fun and a fantastic addition to that classic crime genre that so many of us just adore!

‘Spector permitted himself the slightest of smiles. It was the one thing the case had been missing. A locked room.’

I found myself unable to put this one down, there are so many twists and turns, it’s a great puzzle. I figured out one part but the rest I gasped at the ingenuity of it to be honest!

Another fabulous locked room mystery from Tom Mead

Another wonderfully intricate, superbly enjoyable mystery from Tom Mead. Spector and Flint are a delight to read and the mixture of puzzle and story is great. It’s the former that draws you in, but the characters are so well depicted that you get pulled into their messy lives as well. Great stuff.

Oh, I really did enjoy this book, and I adore Joseph Spector as a character. How I have let these books pass me by so far, I don't know, but I do intend to remedy that as quickly as I can. This is Golden Age crime fiction of the most delightful kind, and Cabaret Macabre is a wonderful mixture of vengeance and sleight of hand. A multiple murder mystery where the victims are nearly all as loathsome as the killer, and one that foxes not just the local constabulary, but dear old Mr Spector too ... or so it would appear.

The book features a series of near impossible locked room murders, where there is a plethora of suspects, but seemingly no opportunity for any of them to have commited the murders. I say, near impossible, as clearly someone could, and indeed did, pull off near perfect murders and at times it appears as though they might just get away with it. The patriarch of the family, a famed justice, is receiving death threats, and as if that weren't enough, we have the case of a man in prison for attempted murder who fears that his own life may be in danger. So much going on, so many mysteries, and so many distractions, that it is easy to see why the killer is weaving their way through the action undetected.

I really enjoyed the mysteries threading through this book, the various little plots and subplots that served to keep the mind whirring and had me wondering just which of the many people we meet might be a killer. It was clear it would be one of them, that is was not some as yet undeclared villain who had the family in their sights, and believe me, Tom Mead has given us so many reasons for people wanting them dead, it was less like a list and more like the who's who of family, friends and foes for the ill-fated Drury clan. The clues are carefully spaced, and cleverly revealed, and if you are very canny you may well pick up on a few of them. But the story is infused with more than the odd red herring too. It is not just Joseph Spector who is capable of the double bluff, the misdirection whilst he indulges in his little magic tricks. Tom Mead pulls off a few blinders too.

Speaking of Spector, he is like the Hercule Poirot of the Magic Circle and I loved it. He has a very clear intelligence, and keen observational skills, just the way in which the author portrays him in the story you know that not a single action, or comment, goes unmissed. It gets filed away in a mind which is clearly always whirring, and the way in which he employs the odd magical flourish to make his point and reveal those big secrets, and a good dose of humour too, and it really did appeal. It was like a very early version of Jonathan Creek, although with perhaps a touch more showmanship on the part of Spector. Inspector Flint is another great character, and whilst confounded by some of the mysteries Spector makes short work of, the way the two work together is a delight.

I would like to say that I had the guilty suspect all wrapped up early in the book and, to a degree, I did, but just for completely the wrong reasons and completely the wrong crimes. This is a book which in which the crimes are not easily solved, and there are elements that might be compared to another, very well known Agatha Christie novel, but if I say which, it might give too much away. Certainly the bodies pile up at an alarming rate, and there are parts of the story that it is impossible to second guess, just as any good mystery should be. But the book kept me fully intrigued and glued to the page, determined to find out the solution to the most exasperating of puzzles.

If you love a golden age crime novel you really do need to be reading about Joseph Spector. This can work as a stand alone, but I feel there may be a lot of fun to be had in the first two books too, so why not just read all three. Definitely recommended.

I love Tom Mead's books! I always have a bit grin on my face when I read them, they're well written great storytelling and characters, but they're also just great fun and enjoyable. I absolutely adored the first two books in the series: Death and the Conjuror, and The Murder Wheel.

Even though I know how to pronounce "macabre", whenever I see the title I keep pronouncing the two words to rhyme with "cabaret", which keeps making me laugh for some reason.

I still can't figure out how Tom writes these books. Murder mysteries and thrillers are difficult anyway but a locked room mystery? By their very definition they are an impossibility, and yet he's manage to create three impossible novels, and it still astounds me.

They're a bit of cosy crime, classic whodunnits, thriller, historical, with a little comedy; it really does have something for everyone. It's got a real Agatha Christie, traditional locked room story nostalgia about it that, whilst thrilling and entertaining, also provides comfort and warmth.

I suppose you can read the books out of order as they are all individual cases, but you'd definitely get more out of it if you've read the first two beforehand. It gives more time for character development and you really get absorbed in this world Tom's created. He has managed to create a spectacular sense of time and place, no matter the era or location.

I think this series would make excellent films. Almost in the vein of Kenneth Branagh's Poirot movies (although they're not perfect, they are wonderfully nostalgic). Having the same actor through all of them, keeping familiar aspects, make it a bit like Poirot or Morse or Marple; I think they'd be a wonderful watch, and it'd be interesting to see how Tom's seemingly impossible creations translate to screen.

This one is quite violent. Not overly so, it still works in context, and whilst I can't remember exactly the methods of the deaths in the first two books, this one seemed particularly gory, which was an interesting choice, but I think the balance with the traditional locked-room aspect is right.

I remember getting to about 80% of the way through and I STILL couldn't figure it out. It's all there, laid out for you, clues and hints, some things are even confirmed, and yet I still couldn't wrap it up, which is obviously very good for a whodunnit, you don't want it to be too obvious.

Were bits more unbelievable than others? Yes. Did I care? No. All of the traditional whodunnits have an element of impossibility about it, but I think that's what adds to its enjoyment.

I was worried that, by keeping the same main characters, and the same locked room mystery format, that the series might get a bit samey and lose it's excitement, but somehow Tom has managed to keep all the familiar aspects we want, but much each book fresh and different.

Very, very, clever whodunnit in the style of the Golden Age. I enjoyed the main character being a conjuror and liked learning how the tricks were done. Most unusually for a book like this, I felt a real sympathy with the characters who had lost someone they loved. I will definitely look out for more from this author.

Brilliantly inventive and enjoyable mystery, the third in the Spector series. The crimes are almost ostentatiously convoluted, although all the clues are there and carefully explained at the end (with footnotes!) so it is genuinely possible to work out who is responsible (for the record, i did not!).

The relationship between magician and policeman is well developed by this stage in the series, and the 1930s setting feels vivid. I’m looking forward to a fourth - we’ll likely be up to 1939 and the oncoming war will give an interesting opportunity.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book.

The first part of the novel is really well written and intriguing, like a crime thriller on the TV. It then leaves that whole scene and we are introduced to the main characters of the novel. Essentially the book is about a suspicious death that happened ten years ago and it was ruled as a suicide however it was thought it was actually murder. The Drury family who were with the victim on that fatal night twn years ago go away to their big country house and everyone starts to get killed off.

I really liked the fact the main character was a magician and not a police officer, but worked alongside the police to assist with tricky cases involving deception. As people are killed in more unfathomable ways I found I was rather gripped to the book.

There were a couple of bits that caused me confusion - on page 32 it said "sic transit gloria" and I have no idea what this means. Also page 177 mentions a fire and I imagined a big building fire and was like how did I miss the fire? I flicked back and found it was referring to a small dustbin fire, which I hadn't thought that important at the time and had forgotten about.

I really enjoyed the Interlude before chapter 19 where the author invites you to guess who the killer is. I had my suspicions but I was not correct. The killer was actually rather convoluted and I would be surprised if anyone could guess it - I'm surprised the author could even think it up. However I appreciated how Spectre went into detail explaning it all and then Flint surmised. The little twist was also surprising - I totally did not guess. I quite liked the end as well.

I do like whodunnit books and I often can make a good guess at the killer. I enjoyed the fact I had no real idea who the killer was, but I think I would like more of a sporting chance to work it out next time - perhaps I need to read more of Mead's books so I can make a more educated guess next time!!!

I thought I was going to love this book but honestly I struggled.

I found there were so many characters that were intertwined I found it hard to keep track of was who and how they were related.
The mechanisms of the puzzles were a bit ludicrous (body in the lake) and I just found it irritating.

Definite room for improvement.

Tom Meads books are just so clever and entertaining. Spector and Flint are such great characters . I just wish that I could spot more of the clues as I go along. The whole series is great, please write many more.

Almost a decade ago a young woman died under suspicious circumstances, but the mystery of her death has never been solved. The aftermath left one man, Victor Silvius confined to a private sanatorium for attacking Sir Giles Drury, the judge he held responsible for the death of the woman he loved.

Now, in 1938 the old case is coming back to life and Scotland Yard inspector Flint and Joseph Spector, former magician and occasional sleuth, are asked to investigate. Unfortunately, their involvement doesn’t prevent further bloodshed. In fact, it isn’t long before Spector and Flint are up to their necks in murders which all appear to be impossible and require all of Spector’s skills to eventually unravel.

If the description of this book makes it sound as if there’s a lot going on in the story, you are right. In fact, the blurb barely scratches the surface when it comes to (impossible) murders, victims, and mysteries. There is so much happening in this story that it should be too much and overwhelming. And, I want to say that in the hands of a lesser author this story and the solutions to the mysteries wouldn’t have worked. Tom Mead works some kind of magic of his own in this book which allows him to tell a story at neck-breaking speed without overwhelming the reader.

Eighteen clues are masterfully hidden in this story and tagged so that the reader can check and discover, like I did, that Tom Mead plays fair with his audience. All the information the reader needs to solve the mysteries in this story is available to those who pay close attention. I for one have to admit that I missed most but, I’m proud to say, not all of them.

This is the third Joseph Spector mystery I’ve read and with every book I’m more in awe of Tom Mead’s storytelling and mystery-creating prowess. The release of the next book in this series can’t come soon enough for me.

Related reviews:
Death and the Conjuror: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/05/death-and-conjuror-by-tom-mead.html
The Murder Wheel: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-murder-wheel-by-tom-mead.html

Thanks to Aria & Aries and Netgalley for this ARC. Book one was brilliant and so was book two, so i was a little worried about book 3 but there was no need, the plot was as twisty as the others, even up to the last few pages. This is an excellent series going from strength to strength.

Superb plotting and writing made this book a joy to read. The twists are smooth and the characters are intriguing. I like how the writer has 1930s style voice down to a tee. I almost thought this was a republished 1930s thriller. I will look out for more from this writer.