Nothing up his sleeves. Nothing but murder… art collection turns up murdered in a National Forest.
When the dead man is revealed to be the Kubla Khanjurer, a much-hated part-time magician accused of revealing the highly guarded secrets of professional illusionists, it seems clear this is a simple revenge killing—until Jason realizes an earlier suspicious death at the trendy magic club Top Hat White Rabbit might be part of the same larger and more sinister pattern.
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It’s been a hot second since I mentioned how much I love Josh Lanyon’s writing, so here I am, ready to wax poetic about Book 3 in the Art of Murder series: The Magician Murders! FBI agents, Jason West of Art Crime and Sam Kennedy of Behavioral Analysis, are back for more head-butting, Come To Jesus Moments, mystery, and of course, murder.
After the rocky events of The Monet Murders, our beloved duo are finally a couple and are navigating a long-distance relationship that, if either man were less of a workaholic, probably would have crashed and burned. But Jason is ambitious and dead-set on climbing the ranks, and Sam is on a one-man mission to rid the country of brutal killers, so they somehow, someway, make it work. Jason is visiting Quantico for run-of-the-mill, mandatory training, so he’s spending those few days at Sam’s place, squeezing in some quality time together. But a simple drive to go pick up some Chinese takeout ends in Jason being attacked in the parking lot, shot up with drugs, and his attempted kidnapping failing only because he managed to fight, to run, and someone driving down a back road around the restaurant clipped him and spooked the attacker.
And by attacker, we mean none other than favorite weirdo from the long ago Mermaid Murders, Dr. Jeremy Kyser. I mean, right?
Sam and Jason make an impromptu trip to Wyoming to stay at Sam’s mother’s home, where Jason can recuperate in peace and safety, and Sam can figure out exactly what is happening, which action to take first, and where to draw his line of defense in the sand. His obsession, unsurprisingly, leads to a very emotional, heart-wrenching moment between the heroes where they both have to confront fears and weaknesses and be willing to grow, or ultimately, move on, from that conversation. And this scene—no spoilers—is why I respect and adore Lanyon so much as a storyteller. The reader doesn’t need to be an FBI agent, to be a victim of assault or stalking, or even be in the at-times, curious relationship Jason and Sam have, to understand the humanity of the moment. The emotions experienced are universal: grief, fear, vulnerability, love, hope. She has a way of sneaking these moments up on the reader. You get all amped up, ready for a fight, and instead it’s a quiet and subdued interaction, and every single emotion plays across the page in slow motion. The vividness of these kinds of scenes always leave me devastated in all the best ways.
One aspect of the last three books I’ve loved tremendously and endears readers to Jason (who, and I say this with nothing but adoration, can sometimes be… silly) are the incidents where he finds himself isolated from help and has to “go at it” alone. Book 1 had the flooded basement, Book 2 the mausoleum on the island, and Book 3 the fun house—which I think was my favorite just because of how wild and bizarre it was!
This was another fantastic title in one of my all-time favorite series, and did I mention that ending? Holy crap, talk about terrifying. You absolutely need to check out this series if you haven’t yet!
This is a review for my fourth or fifth listen/read.
This is the book I didn’t realize I was waiting for. The reader finally gets the inside scoop on some of Sam’s idiosyncratic behaviors. Sam has some pretty good reasons for them. The situation that Jason finds himself dealing with in this story, might be aggravating Sam’s less than amenable personality traits.
Once again, I want to smack Sam, but I understand now. I can see why he tends to be a bit ‘distant’. This is one of the best approaches to a character’s backstory that I have ever read. I am a comic book fan. I have read more than my fair share of ‘backstories’. In this book, the reader gets a new mystery that is tangentially entangled with an old one. This was elegantly done. I enjoyed picking up the carefully laid clues.
I enjoy finding little bits and pieces from other books and series that Josh Lanyon has written such as magicians, Dickens, other series with FBI agents. This is why I reread all of Josh Lanyon’s books at least once.
Once again the narration was excellent. Kale Williams is the perfect narrator for this series.
This is the third bit in the Art of Murder series and FBI agents Sam and Jason must be one of my favourite amongst Josh’s excellent couples!