I’ve always been drawn to locked-room mysteries, the baffling mysteries where the crime looks truly impossible. The mystery becomes not only who did it, but also how. It’s the ultimate puzzle. The best locked-room mysteries include gothic elements that make you wonder if something supernatural is responsible, but then are resolved with a satisfying rational explanation—like Scooby-Doo for adults. I’ve written more than a dozen mystery novels, but until now, I’ve only focused on locked-room mysteries in my short fiction. In my new Secret Staircase mystery series, I’m focusing on these puzzles in my novels. Here, I’m sharing some of my favorite locked-room mysteries that feature truly ingenious puzzles.
Multiple ingenious impossible crimes feature into the first Jessica Blackwood thriller by magician Andrew Mayne. A killer calling himself the Warlock claims to be using supernatural powers to perform deadly miracles, and only former stage magician Jessica Blackwood, now an FBI agent, can see through his tricks. Because magicians create misdirection for a living, they’re perfect characters to unravel seemingly impossible crimes. As a bonus, Jessica Blackwood is a terrific character you’ll root for.
Meet Jessica Blackwood, FBI Agent and ex-illusionist.
Called in because of her past to offer expertise on the mysterious 'Warlock' case, Jessica must put all her unique knowledge to the test as the FBI try to catch a ruthless killer.
Needing to solve the unsolvable, and with the clock ticking, they're banking on her being the only one able to see beyond the Warlock's illusions.
The first in a brilliant new series, Angel Killer will have you feverishly turning the pages, and in Jessica Blackwood, Mayne has created a complex, sassy and unforgettable new heroine.
This book has a good chronic-illness rep and a well-written neurodivergent character! It’s an exciting heist/escape story that I saw advertised as being similar to another book I love (and it was!).
Aside from diverse characters and plenty of action and suspense, this book also has excellent world-building. I really want to read more about the world of Teshovar, where magic-users are hunted and their powers “silenced” by a mysterious evil ruler. There’s a nice twist at the end, too!
The Great Akithar is the most famous stage magician in a realm where real magic is outlawed. Over the past decade, Akithar and his troupe have built a reputation–and a home–in the dense coastal city of Klubridge. Every night, he thrills audiences with his controversial performances. Backstage, Akithar hides a secret more dangerous than any of his engineered illusions.
Far inland, an ancient and mysterious tyrant dispatches an elite band of mage hunters to crush magical insurrection. When their hunt brings them to Klubridge, they suspect that Akithar’s magic might be more than mere stage…
Perry's female
first-person narrator feels authentically womanly—albeit
a Seneca kick-ass woman versus my ordinary amateur detective. He pulls this off
effortlessly.
Perry is also a master of elongated
suspense. You have to keep reading. You can’t stop. One surprising thing leads
to another, and only Jane’s bag of tricks enables her to protect the woman she
is trying to hide from nasty criminals. On the run with her charge for most of
the book, the plot builds to a very satisfying conclusion.
“A challenging and satisfying thriller . . . [with] many surprising twists.”—The New York Times
Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness—not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of…
I’m a devourer of Golden Age Detective Fiction, and a writer of locked-room mysteries inspired by the classics. When it comes to old-school mystery writers, my favourites are John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, and of course Agatha Christie. What I love about that era is the brilliance of the puzzles, and the way those writers really engaged with the reader and (in some cases) addressed them directly, challenging them to solve the crime along with the detective. Additionally, I’m fascinated by stage illusions (though I’m terrible at performing them myself), and this has also had a major influence on my writing.
This is a bizarre and obscure one-hit wonder that definitely needs to be rediscovered.
The style is crisp and witty, with nicely barbed dialogue. The puzzle is utterly bizarre – just the way I like them. And while the book itself doesn’t feature magical themes per se, it’s actually written by a magician.
I admire You’ll Die Laughing for its sheer originality; having read many murder mysteries, I can honestly say I’ve never read one that repeats the trick at the heart of this decidedly idiosyncratic novel.
"I think I'll die ... ho ho ... laughing!" So exclaimed the practical-joking host of the elegant weekend party, after the siren that was attached to the flush lever on the commode went off. That set the mood for the rest of the weekend as the high-powered guests, including the mysterious analyst Dr. Guelph and a bunch of show-biz personalities, "enjoyed" the hospitality of the Grimsby brothers, Ben and the obnoxious Jesse. After choking down octopus and a dessert made of raw eggs, the party-goers were ready to murder Jesse, and each of them told him as much. Well, it…
I was reading from a young age, but I didn’t start devouring books until I found the fantasy genre. I firmly believe that there is a set of books out there that every person can love, even if they don’t consider themselves a capital-R, serious Reader. It would be a great waste for someone not to know that fantasy literature might be their special thing. If someone is searching for a genre of fiction that they could fall in love with, I sincerely hope that these books can open the doors to other worlds.
The public library in my hometown came through for me and happened to have what would turn out to be one of my favorite reads. Though this is a book smack in the middle of a series (book 8, I think?), I didn’t know that before checking it out, and it didn’t dampen my appreciation for the story at all.
It works just fine on its own, thank you very much. I was drawn to the conflict set up in the book, one of magic born not of spells and learning but powered through chaos, disorder, and fire! What’s not to love about that?
After Cerryl's parents are killed by powerful white mages, he is adopted by a family that notices that his father's keen magical ability has been passed on, and they eventually send Cerryl to the city of Fairhaven to find his destiny as a great magician, in the latest installment in the Recluce series.
I have been a huge fan of fantasy since I was a child, starting off with high fantasy before trying out urban. The genre helps me escape from the real world for a while and fires my imagination. I write fantasy books because there is no limit on what you can do with characters and storyline. I write for pleasure and I hope others get enjoyment out of my work. I read a lot, not to get ideas, but just for the pure pleasure of reading. There is just something about the feeling of turning the pages of a printed book you can’t get anywhere else.
This is the first book in a series that goes on and on, following the life of a couple of characters as the world changes around them. Spanning two different worlds, this first book builds up a number of characters you want to keep reading about. As the series continues through time, new threats to the two worlds introduce new characters. What I like most about this series is it keeps moving the worlds forward instead of stagnating.
In the westernmost province of the Kingdom of the Isles, upon the world of Midkemia, an orphan kitchen boy named Pug was made apprentice to the magician Kulgan.
Here starts an adventure that will span lifetimes and worlds. Discover where the story begins.
The world had changed even before I discovered the foreign ship wrecked on the shore below Crydee Castle, but it was the harbinger of the chaos and death that was coming to our door.
War had come to the Kingdom of the Isles, and in the years that followed it would scatter my friends across the world.…
At heart, I believe every one of us is creative. It doesn’t matter if you express your creativity through words, notes, metal, wood, food, fabric, or paint. Personally, I love to sketch, paint, write, and sculpt. There is something magical about bringing your imagination to life and sharing it with the world! Our art allows us to share our emotions, dreams, memories, and culture with the world. As a fantasy author, I wanted to create a place where art can transform the physical world too.
Like many fantasy novels, The Paper Magician revolves around a character who feels small, lost, and powerless.
Although Ceony Twill desperately wants metal magic, she gets assigned to paper and decides to make the most of it. Since I’m half-Japanese, I immediately thought “origami!” when I read about the folding magic. It is the first book in a trilogy and I found the story to be a light, fast read.
Holmberg’s Victorian, gas-lamp world feels familiar, and though I found the characters a little thin (paper joke intended!), I enjoyed Ceony’s adventure. My favorite characters were two of the paper creatures, Fennel and Jonto, and I dare you not to adore them too!
"Charlie is a vibrant writer with an excellent voice and great world building. I thoroughly enjoyed the Paper Magician." -Brandon Sanderson, author of Mistborn and The Way of Kings
Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she's bonded to paper, that will be her only magic...forever.
Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to…
Magic hooked me at the age of eight and never let go. I began with a Mysto Magic Set, graduated to books and more books, joined magic societies, and studied with a true master, Tony Slydini, and finally began writing books about magic and magic lore (The Secrets of Alkazar,The Sorcerer’s Companion—A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter). What keeps my interest alive is the astonishing flow of invention that daily bubbles out of the magic community. And lucky me, I perform weekly at a fabulous little venue in the town where I live. This is a great time to learn and perform magic.
The first of five volumes, Card College Vol. 1, introduces the serious student to the essentials of artistic card magic utilizing sleight of hand. Much of the material requires diligent practice, often for years, but what a payoff when you master it!
All the latest techniques of card magic are here, accompanied by clear illustrations, a superb selection of tricks, and insightful essays on the psychology and presentation of magic.
Giobbi is an excellent teacher and I return to these books often. It will be a long while before anything replaces this series.
I have enjoyed mathematics and writing since I’ve been a kid, not only enjoying doing research in mathematics but assisting others to appreciate and enjoy mathematics. Along the way, I’ve gained an interest in the history of mathematics and the mathematicians who created mathematics. Perhaps most important, my primary goal has been to show others how enjoyable mathematics can be. Mathematics has given me the marvelous opportunity to meet and work with other mathematicians who have a similar passion for mathematics.
Have you ever been to a mathematics lecture where the speaker wore a tuxedo and baffled the audience with his mystifying knowledge of numbers? Well, I have and the speaker was Arthur Benjamin, who combined mathematics and magic. He even displayed this knowledge with Stephen Colbert on his earlier show The Colbert Report. It is our good fortune that he describes much of this mathematical wizardry in this fascinating book.
A New York Times Bestseller Arthur Benjamin . . . joyfully shows you how to make nature's numbers dance." ,Bill Nye The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examples,from ice-cream scoops and poker hands to measuring mountains and making magic squares,this book revels in key mathematical fields including arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and calculus, plus Fibonacci numbers, infinity, and, of course, mathematical magic tricks. Known throughout the world as the mathemagician," Arthur Benjamin mixes mathematics and magic to make the subject fun, attractive, and easy to understand for math…
This novel's central character is a fictionalization, not of another character, but of an author, Thomas Mann. Tóibín presents the known outer details of Mann’s
life well—his work, his fame, and the cultural and social upheavals of 20th-century Germany—but I find the intimate inner life of the great writer most fascinating.
Drawing on Mann’s
published works as well as his posthumously published diaries, Tóibín can enter Mann’s mind and heart as he interacts with his wife, his brother, his
children, particularly Klaus (nicknamed Essi), his sexuality, and above all,
with his forbidden love for the young Tadzio, the love interest of Mann’s novel
Death in Venice.
I found that Tóibín’s work has the quiet gravitas
and beautiful prose of Henry James.
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE
From one of our greatest living writers comes a sweeping novel of unrequited love and exile, war and family.
The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism.
He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected…
