On the evening of another unproductive day of investigation, the detective Flint receives an urgent call from the musician Stenhouse. It’s a locked-room mystery in that fine tradition with a surfeit of clues, red herrings, and suspicions. The rain meant no one could have left by the windows without leaving muddy footprints in the flower beds. The door to the office was locked, as were the French windows, with the keys on the inside. So are Lidia, who stands to inherit, and her boyfriend Bowman, who needs the money. Cookson arrived late in a frantic state seeking the doctor’s advice.įor one reason or another, all three patients become suspects, along with an unidentified evening caller. His body was discovered by his patient, Cookson, and the housekeeper. When Lidia and her playboy boyfriend Marcus Bowman arrive home late one night, they learn Dr Rees’ throat has been slit. They are the musician Floyd Stenhouse, actor Della Cookson and author Claude Weaver. The elder Dr Rees – sometimes referred to as a psychologist and sometimes as a psychiatrist – has gradually acquired a list of only three patients. Mead wisely sets the story a few years before the gathering war clouds would have complicated things even further.
German immigrant Dr Anselm Rees has recently relocated to London, along with his daughter, Dr Lidia Rees.
Flint hopes Spector’s skills at misdirection can lead him to figure out what really happened in this strange case, which involves not one, but two locked-room murders. The story takes place in 1936 London, with its lead characters the elderly showman and conjuror Joseph Spector and Scotland Yard detective George Flint. Debut author Tom Mead is receiving considerable publicity for his historical mystery Death and the Conjuror.
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