Death from a Top Hat

The first of four novels Rawson wrote between 1938 and 1942 featuring the amateur detective The Great Merlini, a stage magician who runs a magic shop in New York. He returned to the character for a dozen short stories over the next thirty years, most of them published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, many of them originally published without the solution as a contest for the readers.

The Merlini mysteries are usually built around some aspect of magic, and most of them are locked-room mysteries. In this one, the police turn to Merlini for advice when a magician is found strangled inside his locked apartment, hoping that he might explain how the killer could have left the room. Because magicians tend to hang out with other magicians -- show more can't talk shop and trade secrets with civilians, after all -- the field of suspects is made up of other magicians (with the odd mentalist and ventriloquist thrown in for good measure), and Merlini knows them all reasonably well.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The suspects are a colorful group; the relationship among Merlini, the policeman leading the investigation, and the reporter who stumbles across the body (and narrates the story) is entertaining; and the solution is clever. I have reservations about one specific aspect of the solution, which relies on an aspect of stagecraft that I think is largely hokum, and (even viewed in the most generous light) is far too unreliable for a would-be murderer to rely on, but that's a small objection.

And it is worth noting that this novel is significantly less plagued by awkward social attitudes and bigotry than many from this era. There aren't more than a half dozen moments in the book that are uncomfortable by modern standards, and even those are relatively mild. They are phrases that we wouldn't feel comfortable using today, but they aren't used with hostile or derogatory intent.

Almost all of Rawson's writing is in print today, including a separate series of stories about Don Diavolo, another magician, originally published under the name "Stuart Towne." I look forward to reading more of his work. show less

A locked-room mystery always carries some element of the magical or even the supernatural, at least at first, as the police and the detectives on scene try to explain the seemingly unexplainable. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that former stage magician The Great Merlini would be able to help Inspector Gavigan of the NYPD solve the murders of two noted occultists, with his friend Ross Harte playing the Watson/Boswell to his Holmes/Johnson. The cast of characters is similarly magical, with mediums, escape artists, magicians, and telepaths among the list of suspects.

This story was OK. Merlini was an amusing fellow, smart but not too obnoxious about it. And his magic shop includes a pet rabbit, perhaps not very creatively named Peter, show more but who was still extremely adorable. (This was probably my favourite part of the book, to be honest—Merlini, Harte, and Gavigan discussing the crime at Merlini’s shop while Merlini fed Peter carrots and cuddled him.)

I liked that John Dickson Carr and Dr. Fell were established as real people in-universe, with particular reference to Dr. Fell’s “locked room lecture” in The Three Coffins. The explanation of the solution made sense to me, eventually. I do sometimes find locked-room mysteries annoying because they are not easy to figure out on one’s own and when there are a lot of characters, as in this story, it’s hard to keep track of everyone and come up with a plausible theory. By the end of the book I was kind of worn down and just wanted it to be all tied up and solved, hence my 2.5-star rating. Almost liked it, but not quite.

Other readers with more patience for a locked-room mystery may get more out of this. show less

The closest anyone other than Carr has come to writing a [a:John Dickson Carr|5622|John Dickson Carr|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1238207184p2/5622.jpg] novel. Like a desperate magician, Rawson pulls out all the stops to entertain the reader: The Great Merlini solves not one but two locked-room murders, explains a seemingly inexplicable disappearance from a taxicab, and casually discloses the secrets to numerous magic tricks while passing on arcane, possibly accurate details about medieval mysticism. Too bad Rawson was a terrible writer with no gift for creating memorable characters. The solutions to the two murders, while generally satisfying, are in some respects unconvincing. Still, recommended for Carr fans.

One of his best -- although Rawson is not entirely scrupulous about fair play when it comes to the crime's motive. And it's perhaps inevitable that a magician prefers the gadgets to misdirection.

An unpleasant scholar of black magic is found dead in a locked room, but since most of the suspects (and the detective, the Great Merlini) are (stage) magicians, any number of rational explanations are possible. I loved the concept of this series, but somehow did not feel it lived up to it in execution.

Death from a Top Hat ****

This is the first book in a trilogy that show case the talents of the ‘Great Merlini’. It features a ‘locked room mystery whereby the murder is seemingly committed by an unknown assailant with no means of entrance or exit. The plot follows a typical Agatha Christie type trail, where there are a number of suspects and each have their own motive(s) for the crime.

Merlini, accompanied by the detective assigned to the case and helped by a local writer must unravel the various alibis to find who really was responsible. However, as each suspect is an expert in the various magic arts (ventriloquism/escapism/psychics etc) it will take a lot more than average police work to bring the culprit to justice.

Written in show more 1938 the book had aged considerably, but still manages to keep the readers interest, in particular if you have ever wondered how the old tricks were accomplished you may find a few answers here. At times I felt as if the storyline was a little bogged down by facts and figures and a few characters quite wooden, but all in all a nice little piece of ‘escapism’, easily worth 4 stars as a stand alone novel, but I don’t think I will read the rest of the trilogy though. show less

This is exactly what ebooks are good for - reissuing older books I would not ordinarily have found. This series is locked room / impossible crime from the 30s & 40s. The main character is a semi-retired stage magician & many of the stories are salted with slight of hand and other diversions. Like much of the era, very little overt sex or violence & a lot of snappy repartee. If you like the chance to guess the murderer, these will suit you very well.