In this new Joseph Spector locked room mystery, the stage magician turned sleuth investigates a string of crimes all tied to an ancient curse and a small, esoteric museum in London.

It all begins with the death of a watchman at the Brodie Museum. When the man drops dead surrounded by witnesses in a small cobbled yard, it seems the only explanation could be natural causes. And yet the death coincides with the impossible disappearance of a priceless artefact. Before long, it becomes apparent that this was merely the first act in a macabre performance for the ages. Next, a convicted forger is stabbed to death on a crowded Underground train and the killer?who sports a gas mask?vanishes into thin air. Then an academic is bludgeoned to death in a locked room at the museum. All of these strange and impossible crimes appear to be connected to the ancient curse left behind by a long-dead madman: the monstrous murderer of French folklore, Gustave Grimaud.

The bizarre, brutal nature of the crimes, as well as their occult implications, lead Inspector George Flint of Scotland Yard to call on his longtime collaborator, retired illusionist Joseph Spector. If anyone can find a rational explanation for this sequence of horrors, it is Spector, with his insider's knowledge of trickery and illusion. But Flint has a more personal reason for wanting to disprove the notion that a spectral Grimaud has risen from his grave: Flint's soon-to-be son-in-law, government cryptographer Lionel Keyes, is haunted by his own connection to the mad murderer. With Flint's daughter in mortal danger, Flint and Spector find themselves racing against time and against the most devious criminal they have yet encountered.

With this fifth installment of the ?superlative? (Publishers Weekly) Joseph Spector series, which can be read in any order, Tom Mead once again proves that he has ?perfected his take on the locked-room mystery? (New York Times).