The Warlock Effect: A highly entertaining, twisty adventure filled with magic, illusions and Cold War espionage

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The story is interspersed with instructions on how to do various magic tricks (which you must not reveal). To have the power to remind me of the stories I heard growing up about the holocaust and then make me laugh at a brilliant range of believably eccentric friends is beyond talent, it’s magic. Twisting, evocative and hugely entertaining, The Warlock Effect delivers on every level' CHRIS WHITAKER'Spellbinding. A gorgeous period setting in the ‘50s with a very different kind of hero – plus magic and espionage and cliffhanger after cliffhanger.

The characters are all, well most, larger than life but they never stray into caricature which, given their backgrounds, would be possible. The writing style was a little confusing as you are taught a few magic tricks in their own separate chapters; the reason why becomes clear at the end. Mr Aldous, editor of Illustrated, who has a previous history with Louis, challenges him to prove his magic is real.

The period atmosphere and the Cold War detail feel like a Le Carré but it’s the characters you really care about. Given the period, of course the enemy is Russia, but here with a clever spin rather than the more usual nuclear or other military threat. Pouring their joint obsessions with comedy, magic and horror into this novel, authors Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman take the reader into a realm of secrets and betrayal. He is sent behind Soviet lines into Czechoslavakia to investigate the sinister ‘Funhouse’, where it seems magicians can even fool magicians.

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’. I didn’t receive a free proof copy of this book unlike most of the other reviewers appeared to have done. I particularly liked how Louis’ ‘Brains Trust’ worked together to solve mysteries, although Louis was the only character we got to know really well as we followed him on his journey.I’m not going to tell you anything about this book as it needs to be read to appreciate its uniqueness. My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for a copy of “ The Warlock Effect” for an honest review. 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.

I’d love for there to be sequels - the characters of Louis and Dinah are too rich to be relegated to just one novel. It spends a lot of time early on establishing the gang of characters and their world, but then quickly throws Warlock elsewhere, separated from his supporting cast; as if we'd read books chronicling their adventures already, and now it was time to try something different.

Same for the historical detail, theory of magic, and the depiction of the magician's mindset (including the incredible amount of behind the scenes work, obsessive planning, and mental control). And in the 1973 movie Live and Let Die, Roger Moore’s James Bond employs a little magic to bed his leading lady, Jane Seymour’s tarot-reading mystic Solitaire. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. 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. The debut novel, about a magician who flees Nazi Germany and is lured into espionage, was written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, creators of the Ghost Stories theatre production.