The Murder Wheel
Illusionist turned sleuth Joseph Spector investigates a sinister conundrum at a 1930s theatre in this thrilling mystery novel from Tom Mead, author of Death and the Conjuror, one of Publishers Weekly‘s Mysteries of the Year 2022.
Only Spector’s uniquely logical perspective can pierce the veil of deceit in a world of illusion and misdirection, where seeing is not always believing.
In London, 1938, young and idealistic lawyer Edmund Ibbs is trying to find any shred of evidence that his client Carla Dean wasn’t the one who shot her husband dead at the top of a Ferris Wheel. But the deeper he digs, the more complex the case becomes, and Edmund soon finds himself drawn into a nightmarish web of conspiracy and murder. Before long he himself is implicated in not one but two seemingly impossible crimes.
First, a corpse appears out of thin air during a performance by famed illusionist “Professor Paolini” in front of a packed auditorium at the Pomegranate Theatre. Then a second victim is shot dead in a locked dressing room along one of the theatre’s winding backstage corridors. Edmund is in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time, and attracts the suspicion of Scotland Yard inspector George Flint. Luckily, conjuror-turned-detective Joseph Spector is on the scene.
Selected by Crimereads as one of the Best Traditional Mysteries of the Year
Selected by The Telegraph among the best crime fiction of the year
Capital Crime Award: Historical Crime Novel of the Year (Nomination)
CWA Historical Dagger Award (longlist)
Praise for The Murder Wheel
“What an absolute treasure! Tom Mead writes with the sophisticated and knowing voice of another era, with a skilled sleight of hand, and with deep knowledge of psychology, magic, and human nature. The Murder Wheel is an engaging, perplexing, and irresistible riff on locked room mysteries—you’ve never seen a series of crimes as delightfully complex, or as brilliantly crafted. You will not be able to put this down, and what’s more, you will never be able to solve all the puzzles within puzzles. But you will stand and applaud, as I did, at the marvelously fair solutions. I promise you’ll be given all the clues, dear murder mystery readers, but, trust me: give up trying to identify whodunnit, and simply enjoy the journey to an elegant and satisfying conclusion, where the impossible becomes—presto!–possible.”
Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling novelist, five-time Agatha Award-winner and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winner
Reviews of The Murder Wheel
“Tom Mead borrows his ‘impossible mysteries’ from the Golden Age of mystery writing and adds a subtle droll twist. Clues and hints fall like confetti in winter, brightening the darkest scenes of murder and hidden-away lives of potential villains. I defy even the cleverest of readers to know who committed the murders until the cerebral Spector reveals all.
“There is a delicate, enticing, engaging, lightly-touched stream of humour throughout. The reader, whilst absorbing the grim details of murders, is encouraged to smile, perhaps a brief laugh.
“Mead’s first mystery novel, Death and the Conjuror, was globally lauded by readers and critics alike, The Murder Wheel is an even better follow-up.”
Shots