The trope of magician as detective has had a bit of a comeback in recent years. The parallel rise makes intuitive sense: Who better to solve an impossible crime than someone who performs escapes and makes things disappear? Rawson’s first Merlini book even makes this connection explicit, quoting the “locked room lecture” Carr’s reoccurring detective Gideon Fell makes in The Hollow Man. The popularity of the magician-detective during the Golden Age mirrors the period’s obsession with the locked room or impossible crime mystery, where the murderer has vanished from a room with no available exists or a culprit seemingly disappears in front of a crowd. Others, such as John Dickson Carr, feature conjurers as victims, suspects or witnesses to crimes. Walter Gibson wrote a series of short stories about Norgil the Magician. G.T Fleming-Roberts, a prolific pulp writer, wrote stories about Diamondstone: Magician-Sleuth. ![]() Clayton Rawson, an amateur magician himself, created the characters of the Great Merlini and Don Diavolo, both illusionists who use their knowledge of trickery and stage craft to solve crimes. ![]() Stage magicians - as sleuths, victims or side characters - were common features of Golden Age detective stories. This spring, the second installment in two new series starring illusionists, The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian and Tom Mead’s The Murder Wheel, will continue to build on this tradition, showing that sometimes it takes a liar to spot the truth. ![]() Please lie to me,’” Ian Frisch, author of Magic is Dead: My Journey into the World’s Most Secretive Society of Magicians, told me.Īnd, yet, we often see stage magicians serving as detectives - people entrusted with uncovering the truth - in mysteries dating back to the Golden Age. “Being a magician is the only job where someone will come up to you and say, ‘Please trick me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |