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The renown this gives to the act makes Warlock of interest to higher-ups, however, who have a vital sleight-of-hand task for him – he will be in their employ for reasons of secret, Cold War purposes, but all for the public good. Jeremy Dyson is co-creator of the West End hit play and film Ghost Stories, and a founding member of the team behind award-winning BBC series The League of Gentlemen. A gorgeous period setting in the ‘50s with a very different kind of hero – plus magic and espionage and cliffhanger after cliffhanger. Simply billing The Warlock Effect as an espionage thriller would be doing it a disservice: there's far more to take from it than that, as the action takes us across Europe and back, introducing a series of fascinating and complex characters along the way. The arc felt too much like a long setup with a hurried finish, almost as if they’d been told they were running out of pages and had to get it over with, which is a shame.
Maybe I didn't quite believe that Louis could survive Funhouse with his brain turned to mush but still be able to transmit a perfectly clear Morse message while pretending to be worse off than he was and answering verbal questions. Twelve years later, in 1950s London, having risen through the ranks of concert parties, night clubs and variety theatres, Ludvik or Louis Warlock as he is now known, is the most famous magician in Britain. The story is interspersed with instructions on how to do various magic tricks (which you must not reveal).Excellent story about a post-war stage and radio magician who has quite the adventure, interspersed with a few examples of quite good tricks. Claiming some magical ability himself, 007 asks Solitaire to pick a card, any card, from her closely guarded tarot deck. Was there going to be a reason for all the chapters coming at us from different narrators, time zones and approaches – from someone recollecting these events, and flashing back to childhood days alike? I warmed to these men and women instantly; their relationships are believable and they ping ideas off one another.
Plus, the whole Morse thing has been done before many times, I was expecting something more original. I am generally cautious of novels by people off the telly, on the grounds of having read novels by people off the telly (especially the ones infesting children's publishing like Japanese knotweed, don't start me on that), but Nyman is clearly a genius and I love stage magic with an abiding passion, so I had to have it. I’d have liked maybe a shorter setup and a longer finish, or indeed a removal of the whole Czechoslovakia plot entirely - half the book seemed to get on just fine without it.
It starts with a letter to the reader, inviting them to sign a covenant that no magic secrets will be divulged. In this event, Jeremy and Andy will bring to life their newest book ‘The Warlock Effect’ that was recognised by The Times as a ‘Best Thrillers for April 2023’. An interesting and pleasurable thriller-type read, but not one with the flash and exuberance I might have expected. As a boy, Ludvik Weinschenk fled Nazi Germany to England with a pack of playing cards and three tricks to his name. In summary: Good character piece centred on a Jewish immigrant and all the attendant trauma that entails, but not very good as a Cold War-magician-spy piece.
Yes, some of the minor characters are clearly too clever and connected and powerful, and some of the illusion about this book is from the authors' names and not what they bring in the way of razzle-dazzle, but this is well worth checking out for historical crime fans.This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. But then Louis agrees to spy for the British government (it's the height of the Cold War), and things grow far darker and messier.
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