People found shot or stabbed inside rooms locked from the inside. Murders occurring in the snow where no footprints were left. Spontaneous human combustion in a cable car. You know, normal stuff. But when such occurrences occur, who better to look into matters that retired conjuror Joseph Spector.

In ten short stories (and one where Spector forgets to show up, the silly sausage), the reader is presented with all sorts of perplexing mysteries. But can the reader triumph in the Grandest Game In The World?

It’s really hard at times to write spoiler free reviews for novels at times, and it’s even harder to write them about short stories. Much more than the description above, and you’re in danger of going into the stories knowing too much. And spoilers for some can be next to nothing. I watched an episode of a mystery show today where I knew what the basic puzzle of the story was – a spin on Three Act Tragedy set-up – and I’d solved it by the time the opening credits began. So forgive me if I tiptoe around the details here.

It’s from Crippen and Landru, who published exclusively short story collections in the US, and it does seem a bit shorter than some of their collections. Eleven stories, with an average page count of 16 pages, but Mead does get a fair bit of plot into the stories.

What is disappointing is that there isn’t a bibliography, so you can’t tell which stories were written first. It’s a little odd, as the tales aren’t in chronological order, and in my opinion, the weakest two stories are the first two, primarily as the ultimate murder method is rather vague – if the second one worked like the thing that inspired it, then it just wouldn’t work. Which is a shame, as it’s a very entertaining story otherwise.

All in all, the stories are very entertaining, with some clever ideas – I did like the method in the cable car story, and there’s a nice spin on the locked room method from SPOILER in the non-Spector story (which, by the way, works best without him).

So, as it’s not cheap, be wary of the relatively low page count, but if you’ve enjoyed Tom’s Joseph Spector novels, then you’ll find a lot to like here.

Oh, and why give the book a subtitle “and other violent entertainments” and not put it on the cover? Weird.