This was such a fun read! I haven’t read this series before, but I loved the characters and the descriptions were so vibrant I felt like I was there. Creepy, funny, and clever, I enjoyed it all. It gave off Sherlock/poirot/And Then There Were None vibes. Thank you for letting me read it!

Release Date: 14 August 2025

A locked-room whodunnit with a classic, atmospheric feel! The House at Devil’s Neck is the fourth book in the Spector Locked Room series, but as a first-time reader of Tom Mead’s work, I can confirm it absolutely stands alone.

Set in a spooky old mansion that once served as a First World War field hospital, the novel brings together an intriguing mix of characters: Imogen, a determined reporter; Francis, a paranormal enthusiast; Virginia, a grieving mother; Madame Adaline La Motte, a spiritualist; and my personal favourite, Joseph Spector—a professional trickster turned sleuth.

When the house is cut off by floods and a ghostly soldier is rumoured to be causing mischief, the eerie atmosphere intensifies. But when guests start turning up dead, Spector and Inspector Flint must untangle the mystery before another victim—perhaps even Spector himself—falls prey to Devil’s Neck.

With plenty of twists and turns, this is a cleverly plotted, engaging mystery that keeps you guessing. The perfect blend of cosy crime and gothic suspense, it’s a must-read for fans of locked-room puzzles and classic detective fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

#TheHouseAtDevilsNeck #TomMead #LockedRoomMystery #JosephSpector #CosyCrime #BookReview #MysteryLover #NetGalley #Bookstagram #WhoDunnit

I loved the different characters in this book! The storytelling is concise and riveting, and I thought this was perfect to read on a plane or train as it’s entertaining and easy to get through. I liked the twists at the end and all the world building.

This is a sort of late night review after having turn the last page. it's the best in this series, a series which improves with each new novel.
Fast paced, a page turner that kept reading till very late in the night.
There's gothic atmosphere, plenty of twists and turns, locked rooms, tricksters, plenty of surprises. It's fast paced and I couldn't stop reading if if I had to get up by 6.30 and it was nearly 2 am. Sleep deprived and happy
It also helped to solve my reading slump and I thoroughly enjoyed.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thanks to Aria & Aries and Net Galley. This is the fourth book in the series and i would say it is the best, it is absolutely fantastic, I couldn't put it down. I loved the back and fourth between Flint's story and Spector's and the time difference slowly catching up until the two merge. The twists just keep coming too. I really hope there will be a fifth, will be interesting with the seting now in WW2

The fourth title in the Joseph Spector series.

This book was excellent. The mystery begins with Spector joining a coach trip to the Haunted ‘Hotel’ called Devil’s Neck. Meanwhile, Inspector Flint and Sergeant Hook are investigating an apparent murder made to look like suicide in London. The two stories run alongside each other with details emerging that show they must be connected, though it’s only at the explosive climax that the true picture is revealed!

I love Mead’s writing. In the characters of Spector and Flint he has created a detective duo that are obviously intelligent but have to work out the solution to the mystery with the same information provided to the reader. The heavy weight left by World War 1 on the characters as the world stands on the cusp of a fresh conflict is also particularly poignant.

As always the mystery is clever and I loved the opportunity to try to solve the case before the main characters (spoiler - I only half managed it!). The setting was also heavily reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (definitely to the benefit of the story) though it remained a unique and original tale.

I thoroughly recommend this book. Although it is the fourth in the series it can easily be read as a standalone as the brief references to previous titles don’t require you to have detailed knowledge and don’t spoil those stories. For those who haven’t had the pleasure though the first title is Death and the Conjurer and I thoroughly recommend it as well!

*** Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher ***

We have a book with an intense “Golden Age of Mystery” flavor and I couldn't be more happier about it!

In this story we have our detective Joseph Spector, who I confess is the first time I've had contact with him, trying to unravel a series of deaths that take place in the Devil's Neck house.

I have to confess that when I started to get into the story I thought there would be a lot of occultism and spiritualism going on, but I was sorely mistaken. Tom managed to make that theme overshadow what was happening in the narrative.

For a reader of classic crime thrillers, I can tell you that there are several tropes here, such as locked room murder, mistaken identities, optical illusions, and suicides disguised as murders and vice versa. In fact, it's these tropes that enrich the story. However, I have to highlight the fact that The Reader's Challenge was so good to have in the story, reminiscent of Ellery Queen in his works.

The only negative point is that at the moment when the truth was revealed, I felt so confused by the names and all the detective's detailed explanations that I had to read that part more than once (note: I'm Portuguese, so maybe that's why it didn't work so well for me).

Finally, the whole narrative is written with detail, a wealth of vocabulary (so I'm Portuguese, I had some difficulty understanding them, but the dictionary helped), and, above all, by an author whose admiration for the Golden Age of Mystery is perfectly evident.

More Tom Mead in this contemporary age, please!

Thank you to Netgalley, The Aria and Aries team, and the author for the opportunity to read : The House at Devil's Neck

☆Initially drawn in by the cover and title but stayed because the story was absolutely fantastic.☆

I'm a bit late to the Joseph Spector series, but this could be read easily as a stand-alone. Although there were a few references to other stories, they didn't make me feel excluded as a reader or hinder my enjoyment of the story. It encouraged a spark of curiosity about the other books.

The story moves between two locations and two groups. First, there is a suicide (or is it?) in a London townhouse with the investigation being led by Scotland Yard's George Flint. The incident has similarities to a mystery from 25 years ago.

Meanwhile, Joseph Spector and a couch party arrive at the isolated location of Devil's Neck .

Devil's Neck has a dark past and hides secrets of its own.
The visitors conduct a seance to reach the spirit of a soldier. But things start to get chilling as the guests begin to die one by one.
As flood water rises, the house is cut off, turning it into an island. There's no leaving. The party soon realise they are caught with the killer. One of their own or a phantom solider?

It was a superb cast of characters, and the writing made me feel like I was at Devil's Neck and very suspicious of them all!

I enjoyed reading for clues and piecing it all together. The mystery was so clever, and the reveals and conclusions had me cheering out loud. I loved the intricacies and how the story was put together.

The ending and how everything came together was just wonderfully satisfying.

The author's voice is that of a very good storyteller, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading.

🔎🔎🔎🔎/5

Another chilling and gripping locked room murder mystery with Flint (who deserves more praise than he gets) and Spector. By this, the fourth book, the writer really has a handle on his characters, his puzzles and his confidence is very much on show with a story that ties into the real world with the tragedy of the Titanic and the even bigger tragedy of the Great War weaving throughout the story, as plot points, reflections and how things have changes. All the while, history is repeating, not only in a supposed suicide the echoes a death 25 years in the past, but also the larger conflict that is brewing in Europe.

This one was very much like a ghost tale, a horror story conjured up in a house, on an island, not unlike another from 'And Then There Were None'. The bodies start to rack up quickly, as all paths converge on a mysterious house where nobody and nothing is as it seems. And there's a super creepy puppet that freaked me out, so bravo.

As with previous books, there are tricks within tricks, answers within answers and a world that shifts completely depending on how you look at it.

A brilliant read and I'm curious, with history marching on, where book 5 (hopefully there is one) will take us...

~Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review of the book~

I really enjoyed this book. Ghosts, seances, magic and intrigue, is anyone really who they seem to be. I know the story didn’t always flow and it’s possible to pick holes in some of the storyline but read it for what it is, an enjoyable story. I would definitely recommend.
My thanks to Net Galley and the author for an ARC

A very exciting and keep you guessing kind of book. With plenty of twists an turns. It had me guessing right to the very end. A very enjoyable atmospheric read.

I have not read any of the previous books featuring these characters. It was a very convoluted and intriguing plot, it must have taken a lot of work to plan it so precisely.
Very much a locked room mystery, set on a very stormy night....really anything was possible.
An absorbing read.

Excellent golden-age-esque locked room mystery, the fourth in this series. Atmospheric and littered with references to classic horror and weird fiction, this is a haunted house tale on an island accessible only by a causeway, all linked to a suicide (murder) in London. With parallel events - Spector in devil’s neck and inspector flint back in London - the clues are carefully set out (made clear in footnotes through the dazzlingly complex resolution) and - by this reader at least - almost entirely missed. Excellently complex mystery - even if I admit to being a bit lost during the final explanations at first read!

I was privileged to read this excellent book on NetGalley. There’s something rather special about the way this author writes that draws you instantly into the intricacies and intrigue of the locked-room mystery. I am enthralled with the book which rattles along at pace and throws up so many questions! It takes the brilliance of the main character Joseph Spector to fully make sense of the action.
I love the way the detective who is investigating believes he’s solved everything based on what he’s previously learnt from Spector, only to be proved wrong and gently corrected in the end by his friend. I don’t presume to have an inkling all the way through! Such fun to read! I cannot wait for more from Tom Mead! A well-deserved and easy 5 stars!

This was my first time with the series, but I was immediately pulled in. the characters are brilliant, and the setting is so vividly drawn it felt like stepping right into the story. Clever, eerie, and sharp with just the right dose of humour. A perfect pick for fans of classic whodunnits with a modern twist.

This was my first book by Tom and Ive thoroughly enjoyed it. I love a locked room mystery, and add in a big house, a stormy causeway and a bit of murder, and it couldn’t be more up my street.

This is a book to sit down and absorb. You do need to spend time on it, picking it up and putting it down every 10 minutes is just going to cause confusion.

Sit down. Grab a cup of something. Enjoy!

My thanks to Netgalley and Aria & Aries for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the fourth book featuring Tom Mead’s Joseph Spector and I think it is the best one yet. It is a brilliant locked room mystery that kept me guessing throughout. Spooky old house, ghostly happenings and a collection of intriguing characters makes for a very interesting book.
I love all the Spector novels and the characters of Spector and Inspector Flint are growing in strength from book to book. Tom writes these locked room stories so well and though the other three in the series are all great you don’t need to have read them in order to enjoy this one, it works very well as a standalone book.
I do hope there will be more to come in this series and I can highly recommend The House at Devil’s Neck to all mystery lovers.

This is a fantastic locked-room murder mystery with a ghost story woven into the mix.

Inspector Flint has been presented with a very unusual case. A man has died in a locked room scenario. Was it suicide, or murder?

His friend Joseph Spector is an illusionist turned sleuth, and is on his way to Devil's Neck, a spooky old house that has become a favourite location for ghost hunters. On the bus ride there, he meets the people he will be staying with - an eclectic group of people who are all heading to Devil's Neck for their own reasons.

When they reach the house, the murders start to happen. The murders are very elaborate, and Joseph Spector takes the lead in finding out the guilty party.

This is a wonderful murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. There are many twists and turns, and the conclusion will have your chin on the floor.

Book 1: Death and the Conjuror
Book 2: The Murder Wheel
Book 3: Cabaret Macabre

I love this series so much and I want it to go on and on. It's a classic whodunnit and really arks back to the good ol' days of Agatha Christie. They have that same classic feeling and I could see them having long lasting appeal.

The cover was wonderful and really caught my eye.

There are always a lot of characters in these books and this one is no different, which can be confusing, especially for someone as bad with names as I am, but it never felt overwhelming.

It really does suck you straight in, but then gets a little quieter. Tom has weaved both paces in very well to make it easy to read.

When you get a series like this that focus on the same characters with similar stories, they can get a bit samey and predictable and boring. But somehow Tom has made them familiar enough so you get what you expect, but different enough that it still keeps your hooked. This is book four and I personally think it's the best one. I really didn't have it figured out - although I had my suspicions. It's so clever, and to keep doing it time and again, with the same characters, but still keep it fresh it very impressive.

It's almost like we have two stories. We have the scenes with Spector and the scenes with Flint, and then we see how they interweave.

I found this one very involved, a lot of characters, a lot of moving parts, but the business didn't bother me, in fact it probably meant it held my attention all the more.

I read a lot of thrillers, mysteries, and crime novels, and I always think "this will be the one I work out" and I never do! And I'm always so impressed by Tom's ability to write these "impossible" books because I wouldn't have the first clue how to start, let alone finish.

It's not really a book to read when doing other things. It requires, and deserves, your full attention.

I do like a good, old fashioned mystery and, when it comes to the Joseph Spector series, Tom Mead has created the most excellent, old fashioned mysteries. There are few things more satisfying that rooting out a killer after a series of a seemingly impossible murders, although with this latest case, The House at Devil's Neck, if you figure out the whodunnit and the why before Joseph Spector's grand reveal, you're a very good Detective. This latest locked room mystery is full of suspense, wrapped in brilliant storytelling, with fabulous characters, and a mystifying sleight of hand that even our series hero must admire. Not just one murder, but three. And not just a locked room, but a, house on a locked down island to boot. Well, at least cut off by tidal waters, but you get my meaning.

This book is set on the cusp of World War II, but lends itself more to a particular set of circumstances that occured during World War One, when the eponymous house took on the role of a hospital for wounded soldiers. It is one such soldier that has given cause for several of the main suspects - and potential victims - in this book to travel to Devil's Neck. Or at least, his spirit. Newly opened to paying guests, the first group visitors, of which Joseph Spector is one, includes a ghost hunter, a medium, a grieving mother and an unexpected last minute guest. Add in the two resident Housekeepers and the cast of victims/suspects is finite. And yet Tom Mead still manages, once again, to create a whole heap of suspense and misdirection and, just as you think you know which way is up, something happens to prove you completely and utterly wrong. It's a delightful mystery and, murders aside, a whole lot of fun.

Spector doesn't take all of the limelight in this mystery, with Inspector Flint investigating his own locked room murder. This is pivotal in our understanding of what is happening at Devil's Neck, the two investigations seamlessly intertwined, and the story feeding back and forth between London and Essex in a way that adds intrigue to the cases, and perhaps a touch frustratingly, creates more tension as we have to wait to see what happens next.

With creepy automaton dolls, potential ghostly goings on and a mystery murderer in the midst of the small gathering at Devil's Neck, there is plenty to delight, sometimes chill, and utterly confound mystery aficionados. I tore through the book. It helps that I love the character of Joseph Spector. He is kind of a Houdini crossed with Hercule Poirot, with plenty of style, perhaps even panache, when it comes to his big reveal. And as for scene setting, Tom Mead is so adept at transporting us through time that I could feel every chill, and picture every affectation that feels so authentic to its place in time and location. I love that this was a remote destination, cut off by a tidal causeway and storm, but no so remote as to feel conveniently contrived. Everything about this book made me smile - even the creepy doll believe it or not. Not exactly scary in Chucky proportions, but still enough to unsettle.

If you've enjoyed the previous books in the series, you will love this one, a brilliant addition. Even if this is your first foray into the world of Joseph Spector, there is plenty to delight with this story on the cosier side of crime fiction. Reading previous books is not essential, but why limit yourself to just one when there are four brilliant stories just waiting to be devoured? Highly recommended, especially for mystery traditionalists. Christie-esque but with a vein of lighthearted good humour.

Tom Mead’s The House at Devil’s Neck is a locked room mystery that revels in its complexity and delights in its period-accurate sense of doom. Set on the eve of World War II, as Germany invades Poland, the novel uses the looming specter of conflict not merely as background detail, but emotional ballast to create a sense of poignancy, drawing its disparate cast toward a house steeped in secrets, grief, and theatrical misdirection.

The premise could easily veer into pastiche, which has been overplayed in other works by other authors. But what unfolds is far more intelligent and controlled than it first appears. In The House at Devil’s Neck, Mead merges the trappings of classic whodunnit written in homage to the Golden Age with gothic tension and psychological depth, delivering a narrative that is as intricate as it is unsettling.

At the centre of it all is retired magician turned amateur sleuth, Joseph Spector, whose intellect and background in illusion make him a spiritual descendant of Sherlock Holmes, Jonathan Creek, and Hercule Poirot. Much like the early Miss Marple novels, Spector does not dominate the narrative. He is more of a calm observer, content to let events unravel while others rush about with the intricacies of their daily lives. The true protagonists, in many ways, are the characters who accompany him, especially Scotland Yard’s methodical Inspector George Flint.

The mystery genre is a crowded space, but what sets Mead apart is his commitment to the standalone form. Though The House at Devil’s Neck is the fourth full-length novel in the Joseph Spector series, which also includes a handful of excellent short stories, it demands no prior knowledge of the earlier works. Each work, whether a novel or a short story featuring Spector, stands firmly on its own, offering a complete, satisfying, and enjoyable experience. But for those who return, there’s a cumulative richness. Mead is quietly layering detail and depth that gradually builds a fuller picture of Spector himself and the world he inhabits. Rather than following a traditional character arc, Mead develops his sleuth through implication and insight, letting facets of his personality emerge subtly across cases. It’s a structure that caters to both first-time readers and devoted followers. When Mead does refer to other works (and he does in The House at Devil’s Neck), it is done with style – it is not overbearing or sensationalised.

Mead’s has a flair for Golden Age conventions. The house itself, perched on an isolated stretch of the English coast and accessible only by a causeway, is pure Christie. I had distinct vibes of And Then There Were None and Evil Under the Sun. Before long, a séance is held. Hours later, someone is found dead in a locked bedroom. Then another. With the tide rising and the road impassable, the guests are trapped in a classic closed-circle mystery, only this time, enhanced by strange mechanisms, silent watchers, and a setting full of eerie contradictions.

Spector is sure the truth is grounded in reality, not superstition. As whispers of an old scandal resurface, tensions rise. When tragedy strikes under the most watchful of circumstances, Inspector Flint steps in to unravel a puzzle that defies logic and seems designed to mislead at every turn. What follows is a tightly woven, dizzyingly clever narrative full of red herrings, hidden motives, and clues disguised as throwaway details. The pacing is tight, the characters fully realised, and the emotional stakes surprisingly resonant, meaning the narrative is masterfully given.

Mead, like his fictional detective, is both showman and scholar. He knows exactly when to dazzle, when to distract, and when to draw the curtain back. With The House at Devil’s Neck, he cements his place as one of the finest modern practitioners of the locked room mystery, crafting a story that feels at once timeless and unnervingly relevant.

This is Mead’s best work to date.

The House at Devil's Neck is my first Tom Mead novel, and I didn't realise it was the fourth in the series.

I enjoyed the novel. It certainly excelled at setting the scene, and it did take my eagle-eyes to realise the split narrative was taking place at slightly different times, although almost at the same time. It did feel quite gothic at times. However, I found the ending to be slightly too convuluted, and this did somewhat spoil the resolution for me.

However, it is a fast-paced, well-written and intruguing mystery, and I steamed through it in only two days. I will be checking out more of the books in the series.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy.

I’m not familiar with this series, but what an engaging romp! Locked room premise, but with a clever ghostly twist that takes this into the realms of the gothic supernatural whilst being firmly grounded. It’s cosy in that people are bumped off, but there’s no gory crime scenes, it’s clever, because there are twists, turns and red herrings galore and it’s tense, I was surprised to find I was actually holding my breath a couple if times, caught in the moment if what’s going to happen next! Engaging characters, a truly great, spooky setting, this is a take for a dark night around Halloween. Loved it and I’m going to look for other titles in the series. What a little gem.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

Retired stage magician turned amateur sleuth, Joseph Spector, is like a 1930s Jonathan Creek in this brilliant golden-age style crime novel.

With multiple locked-room mysteries, seances, sleight of hand (by both the characters and their author!) and cleverly hidden clues make this a brilliant puzzle for a reader to try and solve.