Publication of a new book is always a joy—even when it’s number 22.
The Magician’s Trunk, just out with a spectacular cover, is counted by my publisher as the 13th McCabe & Cody book, but it’s really the 15th—two of the books are collections of shorter stories. The series began with No Police Like Homes in 2011. I’ve also written seven other mystery novels: two School for Sleuths adventures, two Sherlock Holmes pastiches, and two Enoch Hale historical adventures written with Kieran McMullen.
The new book, not surprisingly, is about a magician’s trunk. It once belonged to the conjuror known as Great Blackstone, and more recently to the late Septimus Pogue, Sebastian McCabe’s friend and mentor. Now it has been willed to Mac—if he can find it. The trunk winds up being at the center of two murders, and the second only happens after the first one is solved. Are two murders related?
To get to the bottom of the matter(s), the mystery-writing professor and his best friend and brother-in-law, Jeff Cody, have to sort through a collection of character that includes an animal channeler, a city council candidate who wants to ban electric scooters at night, a witch, and a former funeral home partner. And all that is before the TV show Midwest Murders comes to town—and with it a woman out of Jeff’s past!
I’m happy to say that the 2025 McCabe & Cody, Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead, is already written. And as for the 2026 entry, Too Many Suspects . . . excuse me, I have to get back to plotting it.
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