There is something to compare to Sherlock Holmes, because just like Scotland Yard turns to Sherlock for help, so does Scotland Yard turn to Spector for help. Sure, it’s fun, and I was kept engaged, but Joseph Spector is no Sherlock Holmes, and Tom Mead does not measure up to the likes of Agatha Christie. So many things could have not worked out for the murderer that I came away feeling it is very contrived. Other than the fact that the reader is missing some details, way too many details in the solution fit together too nicely. I won’t elaborate, because I don’t want to write any spoilers. But, in fact, there are details mentioned in the solution that the reader was never made aware of. The author tries to be oh-so-clever, but it is overdone, and towards the end he tells the reader (or listener) that all the information is there to be able to solve this crime.

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. 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. A magician-turned-sleuth in pre-war London solves three impossible crimes

Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead