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

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When he comes face to face with a nemesis whose cunning rivals his own, Louis will need to use every trick in the book - or risk the most terrible consequences, both for the country and for himself. He co-created much of Derren Brown's award-winning TV specials including Russian Roulette and The Lottery Prediction and co-wrote and directed his stage shows, including Olivier award winning Something Wicked This Way Comes. Claiming some magical ability himself, 007 asks Solitaire to pick a card, any card, from her closely guarded tarot deck.

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.Thriller set in the world of 1950s magic, co-written by Derren Brown's show-creating partner and one of the League of Gentlemen (who has apparently written a novel before). Louis is taken against his will, removed from his friends and fiancée, and thrust into a Kafkaesque world of mind games. This book is exactly like some of the magic it describes, the odd sleight of hand or false deception wrapped around a terrific mystery.

You could even argue that codes are just another set of magical runes, a way to pass on secret knowledge.When he comes face to face with a nemesis whose cunning rivals his own, Louis will need to use every trick in the book – or risk the most terrible consequences, both for the country and for himself. When the US started to get these frazzled soldiers back from the Korean war, they had no idea what was going on and they were racing to catch up, and then you get all the MK Ultra [the CIA using brainwashing techniques and drugs such as LSD as interrogation methods from the 1950s to the 1970s] stuff that grew out of that, which is terrifying. Still, Louis and his Brains Trust are engaging enough company that I kept reading through the simple desire to see what became of them, and I suspect that there's more of a market for historical spy thrillers than novels of prestidigitation, even ones with a Tommy Cooper cameo.