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The Great Merlini #1
Death from a Top Hat
Merlini investigates two locked-room murders, based on a change-of-time gimmick. Beautifully handled, a true classic. - The Mystery Lover's Companion, Art Bourgeau
286 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
About the author
Clayton Rawson
44 books13 followersAka Stuart Towne.
Clayton Rawson (1906 - 1971) was an American mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a professional magician who runs a shop selling magic supplies. He also wrote four short stories in 1940 about a stage magician named Don Diavolo, who appears as a principal character in one of the novels featuring The Great Merlini. "Don Diavolo is a magician who perfects his tricks in a Greenwich Village basement where he is frequently visited by the harried Inspector Church of Homicide, either to arrest the Don for an impossible crime or to ask him to solve it.
Clayton Rawson (1906 - 1971) was an American mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a professional magician who runs a shop selling magic supplies. He also wrote four short stories in 1940 about a stage magician named Don Diavolo, who appears as a principal character in one of the novels featuring The Great Merlini. "Don Diavolo is a magician who perfects his tricks in a Greenwich Village basement where he is frequently visited by the harried Inspector Church of Homicide, either to arrest the Don for an impossible crime or to ask him to solve it.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
January 26, 2019
I didn't enjoy this at all. I appreciate that Otto Penzler is trying to bring interest back to some of the classics of American mysteries, but for me, this was a clunker. I was excited by the premise, involving murder in a locked room and a magician solving the mystery. However, Death from a Top Hat was just boring and wordy. I try to avoid skimming through books but I was having so much trouble getting through this that I had to resort to skimming. I have enjoyed some of the other mysteries in Penzler's American Mystery Classics series but I think the word "classic" is quite a stretch for Death from a Top Hat.
To be honest, I think I was fairly generous with a 2 star rating.
To be honest, I think I was fairly generous with a 2 star rating.
November 10, 2017
I'm partial to mysteries involving magic and magicians. The element of deception is inherent in a locked-room whodunnit and what fun. Who better to escape from a locked-room than a magician? And who better to nail the culprit than another magician? The impossible crimes in this 1930s classic concern a small group of magicians in which two of them are consecutively murdered, clearly by one of the others. The first 2/3 of the novel allows the Great Merlini to speculate as to how this "trick" was accomplished, and with great detail, but there is always some fly in the ointment that makes the solution impossible. Each of the magicians has what seems to be an unbreakable alibi for at least one of the murders. In the last third of the book—and the most exciting part—Merlini reveals not only how, but who. There are clues dropped along the way, but I missed them completely, due to Rawson's art of misdirection as a magician himself. I'm sad there were only four mysteries starring the Great Merlini, but I intend to read them all.
November 30, 2018
I recently read an article recommending the best of classic murder mysteries that were essentially intellectual puzzles. I found the one by Ellery Queen to be very disappointing. This one was far better--more stylishly written (1938) and having two actual drawings of locations, not just floor plans or maps. But it was too clever by several orders of magnitude. It started off with a fine locked-room puzzle. But the suspects and the victim included a magician, an escape artist, a psychic medium, and a ventriloquist. Uh oh. There is a clear and welcome summary of all the possible solutions to a locked room mystery as once explained by John Dickson Carr, the master of this sort of thing, appropriately acknowledged. But then the main suspect is found murdered in a SECOND locked room, murdered in exactly the same way as the first. The police detective in charge is understandably irritated by all this (and thankfully he is not stupid), but the real sleuth is yet another magician, the Great Merlini (yes). I will say in his defense that he is far less annoying than Ellery Queen, and some of his bon mots are actually pretty clever. There is much here about how magicians work, and how misdirection works. There's even a geometric puzzle involving a circle, a triangle, and a rectangle to illustrate classic misdirection. It successfully fooled me and made me feel like a chump when the obvious solution was revealed. But the solution to the murders themselves is so complicated that it takes over 20 pages to tie up all the loose ends, and even so it involves far too much luck and coincidence. Altogether a little like eating nothing but chocolate cake for a week.
January 15, 2019
I chose to read this as it was listed in a Mysteries blog post as one of the top locked-room mysteries that was hard to find. Otto Penzler reprinted this novel last year and wrote its introduction. This Golden Age mystery doesn't entirely play fair with the reader, but it is fun to read for voluminously informative explanations of magic tricks and dialogue. I'm grateful to Mr. Penzler for making this available to modern readers.
June 19, 2021
Written in 1938, this mystery harkens back to the Golden Age of crime fiction. The victim(s) and the suspects are all involved in the world of magic and conjuring. The New York City Police ask for the assistance of the now-retired Merlini who owns a popular magic shop.
This is a locked room whodunit -- and if you think you've read some convoluted plots involving such crimes in the past, wait until you've delved into this one. An enjoyable read that goes on perhaps a bit too long but that doesn't detract from the overall reading experience.
This is a locked room whodunit -- and if you think you've read some convoluted plots involving such crimes in the past, wait until you've delved into this one. An enjoyable read that goes on perhaps a bit too long but that doesn't detract from the overall reading experience.
October 6, 2021
If you like mysteries and magic, then this book is for you. The suspects, killer, victims and amateur detective that assists the police are all involved in the world of magic. This fact is highly relevant as the murder also occurs in a locked room scenario, with no obvious way to figure out how the crime was committed. I enjoyed the Great Merlini (aforementioned amateur detective), who was a more approachable version of the gentleman detective, and the police, who despite being confounded, were no dummies. My one complaint would be that the book relied very heavily on procedure and mechanics, with the motive only being revealed in the last chapter. But given that the author was himself a magician, the tricks that were part of the plot felt realistic and you wanted to learn more.
May 16, 2012
Rawson's first book in one of the great “Golden Age” mystery series is mystifying and intriguing , introducing the Great Merlini, a detective and magician protagonist. Death from a Top Hat is the story of a murdered magician -- a case that can only be solved by a fellow magician.
Clayton Rawson’s work is truly original. A magician himself, Rawson’s work is colored with illusory detail that draws attention to very dark corners of the imagination. One of the four founding members of the Mystery Writers of America, Rawson has been a literary icon for over eighty years whose fiction is a must-read for fans of pure detection, especially for those who enjoy locked-room mysteries.
Clayton Rawson’s work is truly original. A magician himself, Rawson’s work is colored with illusory detail that draws attention to very dark corners of the imagination. One of the four founding members of the Mystery Writers of America, Rawson has been a literary icon for over eighty years whose fiction is a must-read for fans of pure detection, especially for those who enjoy locked-room mysteries.
May 29, 2016
Magicians, ingeniously locked room puzzles to solve... I love these Golden Age locked room mysteries. This is my first Clayton Rawson, that I picked up because I read that if I loved John Dickson Carr that I'd love this book, and I did. It's hard to find Rawson's books, as they're out of print, but happily I just found a set on eBay :)
March 8, 2022
The original Magic Men mystery, LOL. Exactly what it says on the tin: The Great Merlini is called in by the police when a hermit occultist is found dead and surrounded by magicians and conjurers of every stripe. In order to understand the levels of misdirection going on, they need someone well practiced in the art, and Merlini fits the bill. Ross Harte, our narrator, knows of Merlini from his newspaperman days, and is along for the ride because he lives across the hall from the man who was discovered dead.
This was a fun, but very densely layered, mystery. Nearly everyone involved is a magician at some level - even the medical examiner fancies his abilities with sleight-of-hard card tricks! Mercifully, our narrator is just as baffled by the layers of complexity as we non-magician readers are, so the explanations, though dribbled out, are complete by the end. I really enjoyed this and would love to see the other three books in the series re-released.
This was a fun, but very densely layered, mystery. Nearly everyone involved is a magician at some level - even the medical examiner fancies his abilities with sleight-of-hard card tricks! Mercifully, our narrator is just as baffled by the layers of complexity as we non-magician readers are, so the explanations, though dribbled out, are complete by the end. I really enjoyed this and would love to see the other three books in the series re-released.
April 23, 2020
This is both a sort of encyclopedia of locked room mysteries and a great example of one at the same time. Add some magicians and it is a good read.
Twists and turns abound, just as a new possible solution is offered it is proved not possible in this case. Quips and esoteric quotes are generously provided by Merlini keeping in the tradition of Philo Vance and Ellery Queen (who are mentioned in the book), but actually not so obnoxious. Sometimes the dialogue and explanations go on for too long--the solution is quite long--but overall an entertaining story. Even if you guess who the culprit is, I sincerely doubt any reader can figure out all the twists and turns.
Twists and turns abound, just as a new possible solution is offered it is proved not possible in this case. Quips and esoteric quotes are generously provided by Merlini keeping in the tradition of Philo Vance and Ellery Queen (who are mentioned in the book), but actually not so obnoxious. Sometimes the dialogue and explanations go on for too long--the solution is quite long--but overall an entertaining story. Even if you guess who the culprit is, I sincerely doubt any reader can figure out all the twists and turns.
January 24, 2019
First, I love that these Golden Age books are being republished and rediscovered.... With this one, I was torn between really adoring the author’s writing and phrasing, and really getting rather irritated with the characters. Maybe magic and magicians just aren’t my thing.... The solution was clever but I’m still kinda wondering why the denouement had to happen the way it did (no spoilers, but it didn’t make sense to me).
May 28, 2017
Consider this a lucky find in a used store. Also the fact that I found the first book in the series. The story is told through Harte, a reporter/journalist. He starts by writing an article bemoaning the mystery genre having gone through all its variations and stating so many of the great authors of the time. When he hears a commotion in the hallway - three people are trying to get in to see a man across the hall after they enter- the man is found dead in very peculiar circumstances.
The twist in this case is that the victim and suspects are all magicians of one sort or another. And so the Great Merlini is brought in to help solve the case. Whether you can guess who did it or not, and the author states that if you can find out who can do it you know who did it, the best part is the unwinding of how so many tricks are done.
The author also dabbled in magic, so the focus on magic is certainly apt. Merlini treats Harte as his Watson and the two form a bond to help one another to discover the who and also to help with getting the killer to unmask himself! Would recommend to those who like the golden age mystery, it is another angle that may appeal to you! (Found two other books of this author in the library so will be reading and reviewing those as well.)
The twist in this case is that the victim and suspects are all magicians of one sort or another. And so the Great Merlini is brought in to help solve the case. Whether you can guess who did it or not, and the author states that if you can find out who can do it you know who did it, the best part is the unwinding of how so many tricks are done.
The author also dabbled in magic, so the focus on magic is certainly apt. Merlini treats Harte as his Watson and the two form a bond to help one another to discover the who and also to help with getting the killer to unmask himself! Would recommend to those who like the golden age mystery, it is another angle that may appeal to you! (Found two other books of this author in the library so will be reading and reviewing those as well.)
September 21, 2020
At one point, a character says "then there must be a 7th way out [of the locked room]," and that's a totally reasonable statement in context. Locked rooms don't usually have 6+ solutions, this book rules.
February 4, 2020
So that’s why this book is so celebrated! Respect.
Death from a Top Hat’s similar to JDC’s The Hollow Man in that it explains the locked room whodunit while at the same time perfectly epitomizing it. An alien civilization could run away with the genre if they had access to either of these books alone. Dawson’s first Merlini mystery novel is reminiscent of the first Ellery Queen—just page after page of unrelenting logic—but the writing feels fresher. Personally, the magic/magician stuff is a little hard to follow at times, but the ending is simultaneously fairly-clued and satisfactorily stupefying. Good read.
Death from a Top Hat’s similar to JDC’s The Hollow Man in that it explains the locked room whodunit while at the same time perfectly epitomizing it. An alien civilization could run away with the genre if they had access to either of these books alone. Dawson’s first Merlini mystery novel is reminiscent of the first Ellery Queen—just page after page of unrelenting logic—but the writing feels fresher. Personally, the magic/magician stuff is a little hard to follow at times, but the ending is simultaneously fairly-clued and satisfactorily stupefying. Good read.
May 15, 2013
In my opinion the best Locked Room ever.
However, it is a mystery smashes brains, without the extraordinary atmosphere that could create Carr. So I think that at the end "The Hollow Man" by Carr and this novel could be considered at par.
The novel contains the second Locked Room Lecture (enunciated by the "Great Merlini") in the history of the genre, after the one in "The Hollow Man" by Carr, ruled instead by Dr. Fell
However, it is a mystery smashes brains, without the extraordinary atmosphere that could create Carr. So I think that at the end "The Hollow Man" by Carr and this novel could be considered at par.
The novel contains the second Locked Room Lecture (enunciated by the "Great Merlini") in the history of the genre, after the one in "The Hollow Man" by Carr, ruled instead by Dr. Fell
May 20, 2017
Caution: This book contains on average 2.3 clues per page. Maybe I exaggerate a little but not much. The plot was so intricate that I had to go back and reread parts of it several times. The interaction between the Inspector and the magicians became more and more humorous as the story developed and additional magician characters were introduced.
Trivia: This locked room mystery is the inspiration for the 1939 Robert Young movie Miracles For Sale. The book, as usual, is better than the movie.
Trivia: This locked room mystery is the inspiration for the 1939 Robert Young movie Miracles For Sale. The book, as usual, is better than the movie.
March 16, 2024
Clayton Rawson wasn't super prolific, but is a pretty big name in locked room mystery circles. On Hoch’s famous list, this novel is identified as the seventh best locked room mystery of all time (although that list is surely pretty creaky by now; it was produced in 1981 and only includes one novel that wasn’t written in English). His novels are all available in ebook format, and this book in paperback at time of writing.
This novel is upfront with its intentions. In the first chapter, we’re told that it recounts a seemingly impossible crime, and that after Merlini solved it, the police inspector had no objections except that “he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t seen it all along.” In the second chapter, the narrator is writing an essay on mystery novels, where he argues that all of the possible variations of suspects and clues have been used, that nobody could create an original detective, and that people should therefore stop writing them. In the third chapter, a scholar of black magic is found dead, strangled in a room that was sealed shut from the inside, lying inside of a pentagram. But how? And whodunnit?
Because it’s upfront, one forgives this novel for things one would criticize others for. The suspects, on the whole, are very flat. But what’s the use of complaining? The book looked you in the eye and told you that it doesn’t care about any of that. Merlini is … fine. He sometimes tells puns and recites limericks? Is that a personality? But again, lots of Great Detectives are basically collections of quirks, and since this novel positions itself as a love-letter to that type of novel, it’s pointless to kvetch. Here’s a seemingly impossible puzzle. Can you solve it or not?
That said, there are pacing issues that it being a puzzle novel doesn’t really excuse. The first half of the book takes place entirely in two rooms, and feels more leaden than miraculous. When we should be marveling over the impossible death, we are instead suffering through a chapter-long summery of the dead man’s occult library, complete with footnotes.
And as for the solution, hm. I do like the central "twist" to the first murder. The second murder is silly, in a way you might or might not be willing to excuse on account of the novel's age. More than anything else though, I ended the novel with the feeling that the killer had done a bunch of nonsense and taken an absolutely hideous risk for no reason. The novel gestures at the idea that creating a locked room would make a murder impossible to prosecute, because you couldn’t explain to the jury how the crime was committed. The problem with presenting that as a motive for an impossible crime (Carr did it in The Ten Teacups as well) is always the same—the writer refuses to commit to the bit and let the police in on who the killer is. It's not true that the killer can't be prosecuted because nobody can explain their trick; the killer can’t be prosecuted because the police don’t know who they are, which is the exact same situation that would have arisen if the killer had walked into the first victim’s room, shot him, and then walked out without all the rigmarole.
Another complaint, something that I see more than I'd like to in this kind of novel. I said that I'm fine with the characters being flat, because the author was trying to do something else, but there's one thing I can't abide, when, after a killer is revealed, the detective makes sweeping statements about their personality in ways that are supposed to make sense of the novel, but the killer has never demonstrated for the reader any of the traits they're supposed to have. That is, Rawson realizes that the killer behaves pretty nonsensically; but, Merlini explains, they're an "egomaniac" so they don't act the way a regular person would act. I maintain that if you claim you're writing fair-play detection, and a character being an egomaniac is a necessary piece of the solution, you have to portray them as such, or at least give some hint that they have that quality.
This novel is upfront with its intentions. In the first chapter, we’re told that it recounts a seemingly impossible crime, and that after Merlini solved it, the police inspector had no objections except that “he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t seen it all along.” In the second chapter, the narrator is writing an essay on mystery novels, where he argues that all of the possible variations of suspects and clues have been used, that nobody could create an original detective, and that people should therefore stop writing them. In the third chapter, a scholar of black magic is found dead, strangled in a room that was sealed shut from the inside, lying inside of a pentagram. But how? And whodunnit?
Because it’s upfront, one forgives this novel for things one would criticize others for. The suspects, on the whole, are very flat. But what’s the use of complaining? The book looked you in the eye and told you that it doesn’t care about any of that. Merlini is … fine. He sometimes tells puns and recites limericks? Is that a personality? But again, lots of Great Detectives are basically collections of quirks, and since this novel positions itself as a love-letter to that type of novel, it’s pointless to kvetch. Here’s a seemingly impossible puzzle. Can you solve it or not?
That said, there are pacing issues that it being a puzzle novel doesn’t really excuse. The first half of the book takes place entirely in two rooms, and feels more leaden than miraculous. When we should be marveling over the impossible death, we are instead suffering through a chapter-long summery of the dead man’s occult library, complete with footnotes.
And as for the solution, hm. I do like the central "twist" to the first murder. The second murder is silly, in a way you might or might not be willing to excuse on account of the novel's age. More than anything else though, I ended the novel with the feeling that the killer had done a bunch of nonsense and taken an absolutely hideous risk for no reason. The novel gestures at the idea that creating a locked room would make a murder impossible to prosecute, because you couldn’t explain to the jury how the crime was committed. The problem with presenting that as a motive for an impossible crime (Carr did it in The Ten Teacups as well) is always the same—the writer refuses to commit to the bit and let the police in on who the killer is. It's not true that the killer can't be prosecuted because nobody can explain their trick; the killer can’t be prosecuted because the police don’t know who they are, which is the exact same situation that would have arisen if the killer had walked into the first victim’s room, shot him, and then walked out without all the rigmarole.
Another complaint, something that I see more than I'd like to in this kind of novel. I said that I'm fine with the characters being flat, because the author was trying to do something else, but there's one thing I can't abide, when, after a killer is revealed, the detective makes sweeping statements about their personality in ways that are supposed to make sense of the novel, but the killer has never demonstrated for the reader any of the traits they're supposed to have. That is, Rawson realizes that the killer behaves pretty nonsensically; but, Merlini explains, they're an "egomaniac" so they don't act the way a regular person would act. I maintain that if you claim you're writing fair-play detection, and a character being an egomaniac is a necessary piece of the solution, you have to portray them as such, or at least give some hint that they have that quality.
March 30, 2020
This is a 1938 locked room mystery written by Clayton Rawson and is the first book in the Great Merlini series. Merlini is a magician who helps police solve crimes. The setting is in Manhattan in late 1930s. The story involves two back to back locked room murders. All the suspects are all magicians or people related to that business. It turns out that the two victims, Cesare Sabbat and Eugene Tarot (both magicians) were blackmailing the murderer Dave Duvallo. Dave Duvallo used two different locked room methods to kill his blackmailers and to deceive the police and disguise his involvement. This book is very much a timeline and suspect alibi checking game with an interesting twist on how Duvallo cleverly manipulated the alibi timeline using a disguise and a clever inpersonation. Ultimately Merlini was able to see through it and helped the police, his friend Inspector Homer Gavigan, to solve the murders by setting a trap for Duvallo.
I find the book unnecessarily complicated. Rawson spent too much time throwing in a lot of unnecessary factoids on magic, the magic trade the occult and magic history. It also provides good descriptions on how different magic and parlor tricks work. For somebody who is into magic this book could be very interesting. However, from a pure mystery story perspective, all those long writeups are a huge distraction. Merlini also has a habit of being long winded and talks in riddles, which not only infuriates his friend Inspector Gavigan but the reader as well.
The book also has a very good discussion by Merlini quoting John Dickson Carr and The Three Coffins and elaborates on the various ways a locked room murder can be put together.
I find the book unnecessarily complicated. Rawson spent too much time throwing in a lot of unnecessary factoids on magic, the magic trade the occult and magic history. It also provides good descriptions on how different magic and parlor tricks work. For somebody who is into magic this book could be very interesting. However, from a pure mystery story perspective, all those long writeups are a huge distraction. Merlini also has a habit of being long winded and talks in riddles, which not only infuriates his friend Inspector Gavigan but the reader as well.
The book also has a very good discussion by Merlini quoting John Dickson Carr and The Three Coffins and elaborates on the various ways a locked room murder can be put together.
July 24, 2019
3.5, rounding up because it was nice to read a detective story that has friendly police instead of antagonistic.
Let's see: two occultists/magician-adjacent people, found dead in separate locked rooms. All the suspects are similar performers: a medium, a magician, an escape artist, a ventriloquist, and more. Faced with this and what looks like completely sealed rooms the victims were murdered in, the police call in magician and magic shop-owner Merlini.
It was enjoyable--Merlini is more even-tempered and has better interpersonal skills than we might expect of a golden age detective, and his relationship with the police (or at least, the main police inspector) is friendly. And while Merlini is, of course, the main attraction, the police inspector is no dunce. A nice change from what we usually see, honestly.
The story kept me guessing and guessing--both murders occur in locked rooms, and all the suspects are performers. Until the final trick was revealed, I was ready to believe anyone had done it.
The book's downside comes in its wordiness. There's a lot--a lot--of talking and explaining, and while the conversations are nice, I wish they'd been broken up with action a bit more (even if the action was just "walking to get lunch")--it was sometimes hard to absorb all the conversation that happened at one time.
Let's see: two occultists/magician-adjacent people, found dead in separate locked rooms. All the suspects are similar performers: a medium, a magician, an escape artist, a ventriloquist, and more. Faced with this and what looks like completely sealed rooms the victims were murdered in, the police call in magician and magic shop-owner Merlini.
It was enjoyable--Merlini is more even-tempered and has better interpersonal skills than we might expect of a golden age detective, and his relationship with the police (or at least, the main police inspector) is friendly. And while Merlini is, of course, the main attraction, the police inspector is no dunce. A nice change from what we usually see, honestly.
The story kept me guessing and guessing--both murders occur in locked rooms, and all the suspects are performers. Until the final trick was revealed, I was ready to believe anyone had done it.
The book's downside comes in its wordiness. There's a lot--a lot--of talking and explaining, and while the conversations are nice, I wish they'd been broken up with action a bit more (even if the action was just "walking to get lunch")--it was sometimes hard to absorb all the conversation that happened at one time.
December 28, 2018
#1 in the Great Merlini mystery series. This 1938 series debut by author Clayton Rawson is a flavorful period mystery but a slow read due to the plentiful clues, theories, and explanations. Narrated by Ross Harte, magazine writer, friend to Merlini and known to Homicide Inspector Homer Gavigan. The murders take place in locked rooms and the suspects are all members of the magician community. The NYC locations are interesting as are references (Beebe and his bathyscape, Sonja Henie going in circles, and Prof. Rhine's experiments in parapsychology at Duke University) that would have been quite familiar to a 1938 audience but not as much to a modern reader. I enjoyed the puzzle.
The Great Merlini is the owner of Miracles for Sale, a Manhattan magic shop. Merlini's mastery of misdirection enables him to assist his friend with the NYPD, Insp. Homer Gavigan, who has two bizarre murder cases to solve. In one, anthropologist Cesare Sabbat was found on a pentagram in a locked room all of whose keyholes were stuffed with cloth on the inside. Around the pentagram were written the names of various deities and demons, including that of Surgat, "who opens all locks." The second case is quite similar.
The Great Merlini is the owner of Miracles for Sale, a Manhattan magic shop. Merlini's mastery of misdirection enables him to assist his friend with the NYPD, Insp. Homer Gavigan, who has two bizarre murder cases to solve. In one, anthropologist Cesare Sabbat was found on a pentagram in a locked room all of whose keyholes were stuffed with cloth on the inside. Around the pentagram were written the names of various deities and demons, including that of Surgat, "who opens all locks." The second case is quite similar.
September 10, 2019
A good mystery novel is like a good magic trick. It needs to be clever enough that you're a bit dazzled when the ending is revealed, but it can't be so complicated that you're left feeling bewildered rather than tricked. The novelist (or the magician) needs to keep you up to speed with him long enough that when the outcome arrives, you're surprised because it didn't seem possible. Death from a Top Hat doesn't quite manage this, and the result felt so overcomplicated that by the end I was willing to just take Clayton Rawson's word for it that the whole thing worked out. Additionally, just like a magician needs to play fair with the audience (aside from pulling the wool over their eyes), a novelist can't introduce ridiculous explanations without offending the reader's sensibilities a bit. That's why it comes off less as a clever twist and more like fantasy.
I'd probably try the next one in the series, but my hopes aren't up for it.
I'd probably try the next one in the series, but my hopes aren't up for it.
November 4, 2020
A locked room puzzle. Probably a good choice for fans of the genre.
Usually I'm down for a mystery with magicians, this one was just too overstuffed. By the time we encountered a ventriloquist, it was getting to be a bit much. The hypnotist was a step too far. The motive for the murders randomly gets presented in the last few pages of the book almost as an afterthought. This is much more of a puzzle book, so if you are really into Dickson Carr and like books where the motive doesn't really matter and the characters are little more than chess pieces without anything close to a personality, you'll probably enjoy this more than I did. By the end I was having a little trouble working through the specifics of the locked room of it all. The author is clearly in conversation with Dickson Carr through much of the book, there are explicit references and footnotes to Dickson Carr novels and there are some objects and methods I recognized from other Dickson Carr novels. (That was kind of cool in its own way. "Why is Merlini randomly looking at a random object and why is the author drawing our attention to it? Oh right, I remember that book.")
Usually I'm down for a mystery with magicians, this one was just too overstuffed. By the time we encountered a ventriloquist, it was getting to be a bit much. The hypnotist was a step too far. The motive for the murders randomly gets presented in the last few pages of the book almost as an afterthought. This is much more of a puzzle book, so if you are really into Dickson Carr and like books where the motive doesn't really matter and the characters are little more than chess pieces without anything close to a personality, you'll probably enjoy this more than I did. By the end I was having a little trouble working through the specifics of the locked room of it all. The author is clearly in conversation with Dickson Carr through much of the book, there are explicit references and footnotes to Dickson Carr novels and there are some objects and methods I recognized from other Dickson Carr novels. (That was kind of cool in its own way. "Why is Merlini randomly looking at a random object and why is the author drawing our attention to it? Oh right, I remember that book.")
February 20, 2019
A reclusive occultist is found dead in his locked apartment; it was most likely murder. Most of the suspects have connections with the magical arts: a sleight-of-hand magician, an escape artist, a mentalist and his wife/partner, a clairvoyant. The police accept the assistance of now-retired magician The Great Merlini. In short order, another body is discovered -- again, in a locked room. Are the two deaths connected? If so, how? And who among the suspects had motive and opportunity to kill?-- A fitfully intriguing story with colorful characters, but I didn't find this book to be worth the encomia lavished upon it.
March 1, 2019
A Classic Reprint of a 1938 novel:
Ross Waite, ex-newspaper writer now free-lancing, hearing a commotion in the hall, discovers that a group of people have come to meet with the across-the-hall-neighbor, a stand-offish fellow by the name of Sabbat. They break into Sabbat's rooms and find him dead in the middle of a pentagram chalk-drawn on the living room floor. All the exit doors are locked, with a bit of cloth handkerchief stuffed into the keyholes and the kitchen door is also bolted from the inside. Waite draws his ex-stage Magician friend, Merlini, in to help the police in their investigation of what quickly turns into 2 murders.
Ross Waite, ex-newspaper writer now free-lancing, hearing a commotion in the hall, discovers that a group of people have come to meet with the across-the-hall-neighbor, a stand-offish fellow by the name of Sabbat. They break into Sabbat's rooms and find him dead in the middle of a pentagram chalk-drawn on the living room floor. All the exit doors are locked, with a bit of cloth handkerchief stuffed into the keyholes and the kitchen door is also bolted from the inside. Waite draws his ex-stage Magician friend, Merlini, in to help the police in their investigation of what quickly turns into 2 murders.
December 4, 2021
I grabbed this book because it was first in a series and I had read two other books and figured, "Why not?" Well. It took me a LONG time to read this book. I can usually finish a book this long in a week and it took me over 5 months. It just didn't hold my interest. I like the series because Merlini is a detective who comes with the background of being a magician. This book had too MANY peformers (also a medium, an escape artist, and a ventriloquist) and it ended up being very confusing with some misconceptions about hypnotism. If you want to read a locked room mystery involving a two different dead magicians, I'd highly recommend reading it in as few sittings as possible.
September 18, 2018
Magicians, Murder, and Mystery, oh my! If you like "impossible" mysteries or "locked room" stories, this novel is for you. Cerebral, witty, and inventive this classic was a new read for me. God bless Otto Penzler for republishing it. This one will make you think and unlike some puzzle mystery writers I could name (*cough* cough* Agatha Christie *cough*) Clayton Rawson plays fair. This was really terrific and I hope that Penzler publishers will consider releasing the other Merlini novels. I know I want to read them!
March 10, 2020
One of the best locked-room mysteries ever written and after finishing reading it, I know now why it is called rightly so .As is usually the case with most detective novels, if the murder is difficult to explain, then the identity of the murder easily revealed once you can explain how the murder was committed .Naturally , the motive was lack-luster (compared to the thrills of the two mind-bending solutions to the two locked room murder mysteries).But the atmosphere of the novel was also unique- all suspects,victims,mystery -solver and the murderer himself-were magicians.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2022
There are a lot of unusual dimensions to this book that make it a better than average golden age mystery and a very pleasant surprise. Self-aware, ironic and kind of meta - with lots of references to people, events and written histories (with footnotes!) that are all likely fictitious. Wordy in places but fun.
I mostly read this because it was part of the American Mysteries Classics series from the Mysterious Press - I've been pleasantly surprised by mostly of the books I've discovered through that series.
I mostly read this because it was part of the American Mysteries Classics series from the Mysterious Press - I've been pleasantly surprised by mostly of the books I've discovered through that series.
June 21, 2022
Moonlighting as a consultant for the NYPD, former touring magician, The Great Merlini now has a magic shop but takes great pleasure in helping when police are stumped by a case. First one, then another, occultist is found dead in a locked room. Often humorous, laugh out loud funny, this book was thoroughly enjoyable. This is a puzzle mystery. Had so much fun reading this book reprinted from original from twenty years ago. Keep them coming please!! This collection of American Mystery Classics is wonderful.
September 19, 2017
This is exactly what ebooks are good for - reissuing older books I would not ordinarily have found. This series is locked room / impossible crime from the 30s & 40s. The main character is a semi-retired stage magician & many of the stories are salted with slight of hand and other diversions. Like much of the era, very little overt sex or violence & a lot of snappy repartee. If you like the chance to guess the murderer, these will suit you very well.
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