• The Magician Murders

  • The Art of Murder, Book III
  • By: Josh Lanyon
  • Narrated by: Kale Williams
  • Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (351 ratings)

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The Magician Murders  By  cover art

The Magician Murders

By: Josh Lanyon
Narrated by: Kale Williams
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Publisher's summary

Nothing up his sleeves. Nothing but murder...

Jason West, hot-shot special agent with the FBI’s Art Crime Team, is at the Wyoming home of Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy, who is recuperating from a recent hit-and-run accident, when he’s asked to consult on the theft of a priceless collection of vintage magic posters. But before Jason can say “presto change-o”, the owner of the 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.

©2018 Josh Lanyon (P)2018 Josh Lanyon

What listeners say about The Magician Murders

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable mystery/suspense and gay romance (Jason and Sam)

I enjoyed Josh Lanyon's Holmes and Moriarity novels. This is my first listening or reading of one of The Art of Murder series books. There are four mystery cases confronting Jason West (and to a lesser extent Sam Kennedy).

1. Who attacked Jason West in the parking lot of the Chinese restaurant?
2. Who killed the unlikable magician who was divorcing his wife?
3. Who stole the same magician's collection of valuable magic memorabilia? The magician himself or his wife or someone else?
4. Was the death of the other magician, Santos, a suicide or murder, i.e. Is there someone killing magicians in Cheyenne?

I enjoyed listening to this tremendously and will probably re-listen to it again in the future which is why I have given it 5 stars.

Update: I have just listened to this a second time. It was even better the second time than the first. I noticed several things I had missed the first time around. There are some humorous things I missed the first time. This book is intense so the humor is welcome. The three poodles (which must be the very smallest breed of poodles because Ruby can pick up and hold all three at once) behaved annoyingly but humorously. Take note of the description of Ruby's tablecloth. There are other humorous elements, if you listen carefully. Right now I am trying to keep in mind two non-humorous things I missed first time I listened.

1. During the fire, while Jason is frantically searching for Kennedy, he keeps repeating to himself, "Where are you?", which foreshadows the ominous ending.

2. I had overlooked that the envelope was not postmarked which meant it had been hand delivered in person by the stalker. This makes it even creepier. How did I miss that first time? I must be getting senile 😋. It also means I am awaiting the next book in the series with a certain amount of trepidation, since I can think of nothing but even more terrifying things that might happen to Jason (or Kennedy).

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • B
  • 06-28-18

things are heating up!

I really thought this was the last book in the series - I don't know why! but apparently it's not😂 . whew, what an ending.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mr Mystery

Josh Lanyon is the gay Agatha Christie with steamy couples and just as good mystery. Kale Williams has made Jason and Sam really come alive. I am so thankful that he has narrated all of the books so far, nothing is hard than when you get a different narrator. I am pumped for the next book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Superb Mystery!!

It took me a LONG time to finish this one & I’m not sure why.
It must be me, because I really like this series.

Here goes:
Jason survives attempted kidnapping
Goes on medical leave with Sam in Wyoming
Art theft
Jason can’t stay out of a case
Magicians!
Are they nutty or what?
Someone is murdered
Lots of suspects
Sam and Jason solve the case
And Lanyon sets us up for the next book!

My rec? A SOLID MM Romance mystery series, each with a new case, and an overarching stalking theme throughout. Yup.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I can't wait for the next one 😍

Have you been in a roller-coaster? This series is like that, this part started very romantic, and I was oh!! they are happily ever done..to turning into a kidnapping failure, blossom of more feelings and insecurities, a meeting with the Sam mom,new weirdos attacking our hot couple and as always they still fighting against any hesitation to develop a future together. Love,love,love this narrator, is a plus to the slow development of the story. Josh Lanyon, writes describing too much of everything to get you involved with the story.Highly recommended 👌

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I love this series

I quickly fell in love with this series. The Audio for all the books has been amazing! Start with The Mermaid Murders you will not be disappointed!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Murder, mayhem, magic - and dysfunctional romance

Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed this third book in the series.
The magician-related mystery does take a bit more of a backseat in this story - there's quite a lot going on in Jason's life, and Sam's life, beyond that particular mystery. Eventually, it does come to the forefront of the story, but it's definitely not all that our protagonists are concerned with. It is a bit interesting though, to get into the history of magic and the rather quirky characters and setting.
In this story, we get to meet Sam's mom and to learn more about his past and background. That gets to be rather entertaining at times, though occasionally a bit emo as well, since the back story involving Sam's late boyfriend from his youth adds to Jason's overthinking and musings.
Jason's tendency to make questionable decisions with regard to risking life and limb is slightly, (very slightly), less of an issue in this book, not that it really helps him - since trouble comes to him just as often as he runs to it. So far as the romance aspect goes, Jason and Sam's lack of experience with fully adult relationships, and Sam's general difficult personality, continues to create a lot of conflict. But without that, they'd only have murder and mayhem to deal with, and what fun would that be?
Kale Williams' narration is lovely. There's a fairly large cast of characters, and somehow, he manages to make it easy to know who is speaking all the time, and every character has their own personality enhanced by his narration.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Really good!

I read the book when it came out, and have been looking forward to the audio. This is the second time listening to it in preparation to the newly published sequel The Monument Men.

I like Jason and Sam's relationship developing in this. It's nice that they got time together, although it was fraught with their typical, you know murder mystery, art and stalker. That's what makes these books great.

I can't wait to start the next one after that ending! Man, great narration! I could feel my skin crawl.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Jason - Calm the F.@ck down!

Jason got on my every last nerve in this book - bless his heart. It's like he needed to find reasons to mistrust and pick fights with Sam...I honestly wouldn't blamed Sam if he decided to "cut his loss" with Jason. But thank the Gods of Writing ergo Josh Lanyon for having Jason cobble together some common sense before things went too bad and he and Sam find their way together again before the end. The story was good, not great....but the performance by Kale Williams is - of course - perfection.

4 stars - I won't listen again

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Murder, magic, and misunderstandings

Wyoming, m/m mystery, m/m romance, magic, art-crimes, art-detective, art-theft, theft, rescue-animals, historical-research, history-and-culture, FBI, local-law-enforcement, local-gossip, suspense, suspicion, friction, frustration, family, false-information, family-dynamics, multiple-murder, investigations, abduction, injury, relationship-issues, relatives, crime-thriller, secrets, lies, PTSD*****

Ephemera, magic, and the influence of Harry Houdini.
A great introduction to the history of magicians and the importance of ephemera to a waning art form.
Special Agents Jason West and Sam Kennedy have their home bases on opposite coasts with West on the art crimes task force in LA while Unit Chief Kennedy is a profiler in Washington DC but spends more time on the road than most agents. Despite their relationship being an ongoing theme, each book is capable of stand alone but the one I started with enticed me to go back and read more!
The mystery is very well done, the characters are so real that I wanted to slap one or more of them, the world building is exquisite, and it is altogether an excellent read! And a chance to learn more about magic history!
Voice actor Kale Williams has an intimate voice quality and really knows how to use it to the listener's advantage while defining each character's personality traits..

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