CABARET MACABRE by Tom Mead (Head of Zeus, £20) continues the 1930s-set adventures of stage illusionist turned amateur sleuth, Joseph Spector, and Inspector Flint of the Yard. This time they are each approached separately by two sides of a deadly vendetta. The wife of a notorious hanging judge wants Spector to investigate threats on his life, while the sister of a man detained in a lunatic asylum for a previous assault on M'lud tries to convince the inspector that the judge is planning a murder.

Working together, the two friends must solve a series of impossible crimes and locked-room mysteries to get at the truth — which inevitably is to be found in a country house, cut off from the world by a snowstorm.

As long as Mead can keep coming up with ideas for these fun, atmospheric stories, I'll keep reading them.