The Miser’s Dream (An Eli Marks Mystery) (Volume 3)
By: John Gaspard
Rating: 5 of 5
In this book, Eli Marks is a magician who assists his uncle with the running of his magic store. He also lives in the apartment above the store which happens to be situated in a way that Eli can see into the projectionist’s booth at the movie theater next door and does so regularly to try to see what movie is being played. One evening, Eli is surprised to see what looks like a body and the story takes off from there.
There is murder, assault, and did I mention murder? Eli, in the tradition of accidental sleuths, keeps tripping over bodies. He also has to interact with his ex-wife, Deirdre Sutton-Hutton (Assistant DA), and her new husband, Fred Hutton(Homicide detective), on a fairly regular basis because of this unnerving tendency of finding the recently murdered.
Along with the murder mystery, we are treated to stories about magicians, magic tricks, and a bit of personal and professional jealousy when a visiting master magician, Quinton Moon, shows up and literally shows Eli up. Eli’s girl friend Megan is suitably impressed by the new outstanding magician and Eli’s jealousy ratchets up even higher.
“The Miser’s Dream” is the first book I have read by John Gaspard though the book is the third in the series. I often read books out of order in series to see if the book can stand-alone and this one certainly can do so. There are references to things that appear to have happened in prior books and relationships that have been already built but nothing in the story is a spoiler for a prior book and I was able to dive into the story without problem.
The story was really fun to read and while I did not figure out the whodunnit, the clues where certainly there. I so enjoyed the story, I have gone backwards and purchased the first two in the series. I will be looking for more in the series and other books by this author in the future.
I received a digital ARC copy of this book from the publisher, Henery Press, via Netgalley.
In this book, Eli Marks is a magician who assists his uncle with the running of his magic store. He also lives in the apartment above the store which happens to be situated in a way that Eli can see into the projectionist’s booth at the movie theater next door and does so regularly to try to see what movie is being played. One evening, Eli is surprised to see what looks like a body and the story takes off from there.