Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday
October 6, 2026. We will be discussing, Death and the Conjuror by Tom
Mead. This is the first book featuring Joseph Spector, who is a retired stage
magician who helps the police with challenging crimes.
The book description from the publisher’s website is, “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. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon.
Stumped by the confounding scene, the Scotland Yard detective on the case calls
on retired stage magician-turned-part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. For who
better to make sense of the impossible than one who traffics in illusions?
Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but
even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. 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. When the investigation dovetails into that of an apparently-impossible
theft, the detectives consider the possibility that the two transgressions are
related. 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.”
We will be meeting at 6:30 pm. For more information, and the
Zoom link if interested, see Sara at the Reference Desk.
