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Death from a Top Hat: A Great Merlini Mystery (An American Mystery Classic) Paperback – October 2, 2018

by Clayton Rawson (Author), Otto Penzler (Introduction)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 81 ratings
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A detective steeped in the art of magic solves the mystifying murder of two occultists.

Now retired from the tour circuit on which he made his name, master magician The Great Merlini spends his days running a magic shop in New York’s Times Square and his nights moonlighting as a consultant for the NYPD. The cops call him when faced with crimes so impossible that they can only be comprehended by a magician’s mind. In the most recent case, two occultists are discovered dead in locked rooms, one spread out on a pentagram, both appearing to have been murdered under similar circumstances. The list of suspects includes an escape artist, a professional medium, and a ventriloquist, so it’s clear that the crimes took place in a realm that Merlini knows well. But in the end it will take his logical skills, and not his magical ones, to apprehend the killer.

Reprinted for the first time in over twenty years, Death from a Top Hat is an ingeniously-plotted puzzle set in the world of New York stage magic, which was at its pinnacle in the early twentieth century. In 1981, the novel was selected as one of the top ten locked room mysteries of all time by a panel of mystery-world luminaries that included Julian Symons, Edward D. Hoch, Ellery Queen’s co-creator Frederic Dannay, and Otto Penzler.

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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 4
    The Great Merlini Mysteries
  2. Print length
    312 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    American Mystery Classics
  5. Publication date
    October 2, 2018
  6. Dimensions
    5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1613161018
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1613161012
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Good entertainment, with diverting red herrings to mislead the reader."
― Kirkus, Kirkus

"A cornerstone of detective fiction."
― Dilys Winn, The New York Times

"One of the all-time greatest impossible murder mysteries."
― Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

About the Author

Clayton Rawson (1906–1971) was a novelist, editor, and magician. He is best known for creating the Great Merlini, an illusionist and amateur sleuth introduced in Death from a Top Hat (1938). Rawson followed the character through three more novels, concluding the series with No Coffin for the Corpse (1942). In 1941 and 1943 he published the short-story collections Death out of Thin Air and Death from Nowhere, starring Don Diavolo, an escape artist introduced in the Merlini series.

Otto Penzler, the creator of American Mystery Classics, is also the founder of The Mysterious Press (1975); MysteriousPress.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company; and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won a Raven, the Ellery Queen Award, two Edgars (for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 1977, and The Lineup, 2010), and lifetime achievement awards from NoirCon and The Strand Magazine. He has edited more than 70 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ American Mystery Classics (October 2, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1613161018
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1613161012
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 81 ratings

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Clayton Rawson

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
81 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephen H.
5.0 out of 5 stars Magicians and Murder
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2023
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I love magic. Learning the methods does not make a well-performed illusion and less entertaining for me. This story is packed with tricks, illusions, and red herrings. I defy you to figure out who committed the murders and how they were committed. Some of the writing is dated, sure, but it did not diminish my enjoyment.
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Pam L.
4.0 out of 5 stars How to use Magic Tricks to Get Away with Murder
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2021
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Two magicians are murdered in similar ways and each in a locked room. These are "impossible murders" in that there is no way the murderer could have gotten out of the locked rooms--and yet, it happened. All the suspects are also magicians and the police enlist the help of another magician, Merlini, to help them understand how magicians' tricks of sleight-of-hand, deception, and distraction could have been used in these murders.

Overall, I liked this book and I do recommend it, but I have both positive and negative comments to offer.

Negative first so I'll end with the positive:
1. This 300 page novel could have been shortened by 100 pages. There is too much excessive dialogue, lots of digressions and unnecessary explaining. One example: Merlini spends many pages talking about a dozen or more books about magic and the occult, giving the title and author, then a summary and historical significance of the book. Pages and pages of this. None of this information was necessary to the story. Beyond that, there was just too much unnecessary dialogue which slowed down the pace.

2. The book was written in 1938 so it reflects many biases of the time. I can't fault the author for this because he was a product of that time, but it was a bit annoying and at times shocking to read today. Of course there were biased views of women expressed (men thought in times of stress women faint or get hysterical), but truly shocking were two incidents of policemen recklessly shooting. (Although in today's climate of police shootings I guess I shouldn't be shocked by the laissez-faire attitude of 1938.) One policeman shoots through a locked door to get in, saying he gave no thought to whether he might shoot someone inside. Really? You didn't care if you might kill someone? Another policeman who has been tailing a taxi but can't catch it decides to shoot through the back window of the taxi even though the driver and passenger have committed no crime, and causes the taxi to crash and put the driver into the hospital. But, oh well, when the lead detective hears about these incidents he has no concerns at all about anyone getting hurt. And of course, all the characters smoked constantly. Almost every page had descriptions of lighting up, blowing smoke, using the cigarette to pause and think or emphasize a point. I know that was common in the 1930s, but there was just SO MUCH smoking. It is jarring to me today when almost no one smokes anymore.

3. Also in those days it seems it was a "requirement" for the lead character to have some quirky behavior in order to make him seem like a "real" person. But in this book the investigative magician Merlini has an irritating and rude habit of constantly flipping a half dollar and making it disappear, then appear, then disappear, then reappear, and then on and on and on, while people are talking, all through the book, with no purpose in terms of the story line. By doing this the author didn't make him seem like a "real" person, but like a ridiculous caricature who was very annoying. It was tiresome and boring to keep having to read about him flipping the coin.

The Positives:
1. A very intricate plot and a clever locked room mystery. And since the author is a magician himself his magician Merlini explains a number of "magic' illusions and deceptions. He explains how a few of these tricks actually work, and how they were used in the murders, so that is really fun to find out how some of these tricks work. He explains things and then still comes up with another clever, "magic trick" explanation.
The central issue of the mystery was: How would a talented magician use his or her ability in conjuring illusions to get away with two murders? This aspect of the novel was done extremely well and was fascinating, and I knew that I was being deceived by the murderer's illusions and that kept me reading to find out what they were.

2. I love mysteries that include a map of a town or a diagram of the floorpan of a house where the murder occurred. In fact I often buy a mystery because of that and study it for clues and a better understanding of how something occurred. This book does those diagrams one better. For each of the two murders there is a detailed drawing of the floor plan. Basically the roof is removed and we see a view into the entire apartment, not a line drawing as most are, but a photographic-like drawing of all the rooms, furnishings, decor, and the dead body. It was so much fun to study these. if you're a person who loves maps and diagrams in your mysteries, you'll love these. They are the most realistic ones I've ever come across.

3. The author uses numerous footnotes to cite the books his characters mention. Almost like this is a scholarly paper. It does have the effect of proving to the reader that he isn't making up some of the outrageous claims and beliefs about magic and the occult that some people have. It did make it more interesting to realize the author wasn't making up this bizarre stuff.

4. He also uses footnotes at the end when Merlini explains who the murderer is and how the murders happened. He will mention a clue given early in the book and what it revealed to him, then in a footnote at the bottom of the page he will cite the page the clue appeared on. No other author I've read does this and now I wish they all would do it, because when this happens I always spend a lot of time trying to find those early clues and read them again to see how I missed them. I greatly appreciate that this author kindly helped me do that so easily. Basically the author says this clue happened back on page 23, so then I can immediately find it and see how with sleight-of-hand the author put the rabbit in the hat but I missed it.

In spite of a few negatives, I really enjoyed this book and I loved the clever plot and the "magic tricks". I recommend this book if you love locked room mysteries, a story that keeps you guessing, magic tricks, and maps and diagrams of the murder scene.
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Thomas R Yerg
5.0 out of 5 stars Death from a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2013
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Death from a Top Hat was written in the 1930s by Clayton Rawson who by profession was a magician, The Great Merlini. The author narrates the story through a minor character - a detective author named Ross. The Great Merlini is a consultant to the police, who helps solve the case providing an inside view to magic tricks as he pursues the murderer.

I concluded that the author represents himself twice through the character of Ross and the Great Merlini. The novel begins with the author thinking about how to write a detective novel and gradually fades into the story. (If you don't like this approach, wait ten pages; it is worth the wait - particularly if you like detective movie dialogue from the 1930's and 1940's.)

Most of all I liked the vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. If you like writing that doesn't dumb down the vocabulary, you will like this novel and you will find some expressions that will make you smile or reveal how the spoken language of English has changed over the last 80 years.

Also, if you are interested in the history of magic you will find a long list of sources.
3 people found this helpful
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Mary B.
3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Decent Classic Mystery
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2019
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Everybody in this book seems to be a magician, so naturally, there's a lot of sleight of hand going on. A psychic is included in the mix, but there are no paranormal thrills, not even a seance. After the murder, most of the book seemed to involve discussions of one theory of the murder after another, with very little action. The ending, involving magic tricks as it did, was hard for me to visualize. Still, I liked it enough to read the next book in the series, and I liked that one better. (An author's first book is often not his best one.)

I'd have given this book 3-1/2 stars if I could have, but it just wasn't snappy enough for 4.
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Top reviews from other countries

Clive L.
5.0 out of 5 stars On time, in good condition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2020
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Craig Stanton
5.0 out of 5 stars Hey Presto! Which wizard was it?
Reviewed in Australia on November 25, 2020
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A snazzy multiple locked-room mystery with more magicians than you can poke a stick at! A great romp marred only by the number of typos increasing towards the last page, a downside of the OCR production this work has been put through. Definitely worth wrestling with, however!
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A Reader
2.0 out of 5 stars Heavy going
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2019
Verified Purchase
Old-fashioned, heavy-going and very convoluted. Two dead bodies are discovered in separate flats across town. In the end, I didn't care who did it.

The part I liked most was the scene in which a character disappeared from a taxi. That was first-rate. I only wish the author hadn't solved the mystery by the end of the chapter in which it was expounded.

Try his short stories instead.
One person found this helpful
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