Tm Mead is a MASTER at the locked room mystery. This story is so twisted, and turny and swirly and squiggly. I was all over the place. However, we done on the epilogue it was a clear as mud what a mastermind story teller

I thank NetGalley and Mysterious Press for an advance reader copy of “The House at Devil’s Neck.” All opinions and comments are my own.

Don’t know how a new Joseph Spector novel can be better than the last, but “The House at Devil’s Neck” certainly lives up to every degree of merit possible when checking off the boxes for a “locked room” mystery. And throw in a bit of “All Will Be Revealed” courtesy of the miraculous magician when it comes to supernatural doings, missing persons and a murder/suicide woven in from Inspector Flint’s side, well, readers can expect nothing but the best from author Tom Mead.

Readers will as usual have to pay careful attention as Mr. Spector Explains It All, the truly “cunning plan” for a diabolical killer to (attempt to) undertake. And if that wasn’t enough, as the book ends, we get a portent of things to come. It is September, 1939.

Utterly delightful, a triumph of plotting, “The House at Devil’s Neck” is the kind of book one looks forward to reading. Hopefully Mr. Spector has many other mysterious doings to work his way through.

i’ve been a huge fan of tom’s books from the beginning, and this one may have surpassed them all. he excels at both atmosphere and plot, and i will read every joseph spector book he writes, and anything else he puts out there!

An apparent suicide in a London townhouse uncannily mirrors a similar incident from twenty-five years ago, prompting Scotland Yard's George Flint to delve deep into the past in search of the solution to a long-forgotten mystery.

Meanwhile, Joseph Spector travels with a coach party through the rainy English countryside to visit an allegedly haunted house on a lonely island called Devil’s Neck. The house, first built by a notorious alchemist and occultist, was later used as a field hospital in the First World War before falling into disrepair. The visitors hold a seance to conjure the spirit of a long-dead soldier. But when a storm floods the narrow causeway connecting Devil’s Neck to the mainland, they find themselves stranded in the haunted house. Before long, the guests begin to die one by one, and it seems that the only possible culprit is the phantom soldier.

Flint's and Spector's investigations are in fact closely linked, but it is only when the duo are reunited at the storm-lashed Devil's Neck that the truth is finally revealed. Tom Mead once again creates a brilliant homage to John Dickson Carr and the Golden Age of mysteries with this intricately plotted puzzle.

The House at Devil's Neck by Tom Mead is an incredibly complex book that spans generations with a twisty plot and not one, but three closed room mysteries.
Mead weaves a tangled web for his main character Joseph Spector and Scotland Yard's George Flint to unravel; Spector at an isolated former war hospital called Devil's Neck, and Flint on the mainland. Suspects for each of the three murders abound, and Spector is incredibly detailed and technical as he explains his reasoning and solves the case. Readers are kept turning the pages anxiously right up to the big reveal.
I did find myself dragged out of the storyline repeatedly by unnecessarily grandiose descriptors, some of which could not be found in either the Oxford dictionary on my Kindle Paperwhite, or on Wikipedia, and that were difficult to determine the meaning of through context. I found these definition searches disruptive to the overall reading experience. I also found some of Spector's explanations difficult to follow, and the ultimate solution, while intriguing, somewhat convoluted.
Overall, however, the book was an entertaining read, with interesting characters.
Thank you for the ARC of #TheHouseatDevilsNeck to #NetGalley.

An alleged haunted house, a locked room mystery. Plenty of things going on. A little complicated at the end, but well worth the read.

"An apparent suicide in a London townhouse uncannily mirrors a similar incident from twenty-five years ago, prompting Scotland Yard's George Flint to delve deep into the past in search of the solution to a long-forgotten mystery.

Meanwhile, Joseph Spector travels with a coach party through the rainy English countryside to visit an allegedly haunted house on a lonely island called Devil's Neck. The house, first built by a notorious alchemist and occultist, was later used as a field hospital in the First World War before falling into disrepair. The visitors hold a seance to conjure the spirit of a long-dead soldier. But when a storm floods the narrow causeway connecting Devil's Neck to the mainland, they find themselves stranded in the haunted house. Before long, the guests begin to die one by one, and it seems that the only possible culprit is the phantom soldier.

Flint's and Spector's investigations are in fact closely linked, but it is only when the duo are reunited at the storm-lashed Devil's Neck that the truth is finally revealed. Tom Mead once again creates a brilliant homage to John Dickson Carr and the Golden Age of mysteries with this intricately plotted puzzle."

A seance and a setup equal to The Woman in Black!?! YAS!

A basic historical fiction mystery with a Holmes-inspired feel. It was entertaining enough to finish, but the overly twisty ending felt overdone. A fun, light read, but lacking in depth.

This is the fourth entry in a charmingly old-fashioned series and, despite alluding to previous events, it works well as a stand-alone. I’d only read the first volume, so I wasn’t aware of anything that happened up to this point, but I still had no trouble following along. The author recaps the pertinent information and moves on, so it’s understandable but not repetitive. The novel is very atmospheric and some parts are beyond creepy (a mask, a doll… you really can’t get any spookier). The characters follow the classic pattern of the Golden era, with an over-the-top genius (in this case, Spector the illusionist) and his straight-laced helper (Scotland Yard's George Flint) and a cast of suspects that could not be any more.. well, suspicious. More than one locked-room murder and a challenge to the reader direct from Emery Queen complete this throwback to the classics. The plot was the weak link because it was way too convoluted, at least for me. I enjoyed the setting, the haunted mansion, the seance, the storm… but I had no idea what was going on, even after it was explained several times by the detective. The identity of the culprit was surprising and the twists worked well. Enjoyable.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Penzler Publishers | Mysterious Press.

Another cleverly crafted locked room mystery set on a seemingly haunted estate turned WWI convalescent hospital, with suicide disguised as murder, (or was it a murder disguised as a suicide?), a cast of colorful characters and a dispute over a vast inheritance. Joseph Spector and George Flint are on the case, albeit on parallel paths until they finally meet on the titular Devil's Neck, when secrets are revealed and a question of identity becomes a complex puzzle - albeit a bit perplexing to follow, but nevertheless still works..

I enjoyed the character development of George Flint in that he applies some of the out-of-the-box observations and deductions he would have picked up from being around Spector - he doesn't remain in the 'bumbling policeman' trope usually found in period mysteries. The clues are sprinkled liberally (helped by reference footnotes throughout), and there are callbacks from previous stories that are organically included. Spector is surprisingly subtle (or rather is not as overtly dramatic) when revealing the solution of how it was done.

Another brilliant entry!

Loved it! The end.
Only kidding. I am sure that I can expand upon the book description a bit even without magic. An unputdownable locked room mystery!
Isn’t it strange how you can enjoy a book yet when you try to articulate why, well you just keep crossing out sentences. Or is that just me?
George Flint returns, but this time he is faced with an impossible crime while Joseph Spector is on a bus to Devil’s Neck. A place that served as a field hospital during World War I. As Flint delves into the death of a man, all roads seem to point to Devil’s Neck.
Joseph and his fellow travelers are cut off from the mainland by a raging storm. The first body is found behind a lock door. The second, with someone else sleeping in the room, and a locked door. Flint and Spector are each dealing with their own set of challenges, the question is how are both cases related, and will there be anyone left to put the puzzle pieces together?
The only thing that did not totally work for me, was the amount of explaining Spector had to do at the end. This was an extremely complicated mystery, and I am not sure how it could have been done better. . I do wish there had been a way to have less explaining and more showing. 4.5 stars.

Joseph Spector is back, involved in a mystery that includes multiple locked room deaths, a murder and inheritance scandal from years before, a trio of soldiers injured in the Great War and a medium and her sketchy séances. This had all the makings of great mystery, and was arguably the most complex plot of the series to date. I did catch on to some of the tricks almost immediately and pretty much figured out who the killer likely was early on, though that in no way distracted from a pretty riveting story. The only real problem with it is the plot was so complex that it took an awful lot of exposition to fully explain everything. As complicated and original as the motives all were, I think a bit less layering, thus resulting in less required exposition, would have benefited the book more.