The Incredible Fontaine Mysteries: Books 1-3
(2026)(A book in the Incredible Fontaine Mystery series)
An omnibus of novels by A G Barnett
He is not a great magician. He is a remarkably good detective.
Barry Holt performs as The Incredible Fontaine, a name he chose himself because he thought it sounded sophisticated. He is in his fifties, balding, comfortably built, and from Wolverhampton. Technically he is one of the finest close-up magicians you will never hear of. What he lacks is presence, timing, and any ability whatsoever to make a room look at him. He made his peace with that years ago. He loves the work anyway.
His wife Helena is the reason they keep moving. She is a hotel fixer, hired by failing properties to find out what has gone wrong and put it right. She is elegant, unflappable, and extremely good at her job. It takes her about four minutes to understand any room she walks into.
Barry knows how every trick in the world is done. He knows exactly what misdirection looks like, because he performs it badly for a living. So when a guest turns up dead and the whole hotel agrees it is impossible, Barry is the one man in the building who has never believed in the impossible.
THE VANISHING ACT
The Beaumont, a clifftop hotel on the Devon coast, a week before a family wedding. A guest is found dead in his room, locked from the inside, and he was not who he said he was. Everyone calls it impossible. Barry has been getting out of a sealed cabinet twice a week for thirty years, and the cabinet is only sealed because he says it is.
FIND THE LADY
Fernwood Hall in the Forest of Dean. A Victorian pile that became a commune and never quite stopped. A metal detectorist is poisoned at a foraging dinner, and a Roman gold coin vanishes overnight. Since Barry made that exact coin disappear on stage the evening before, the police would very much like a word.
THE PREDICTION
Cairnmore House, a Perthshire golf resort with a locked predictions box in the great hall. On Wednesday morning the least popular member of the club is found in the water hazard on the fourteenth. When the box is opened at the end of the week, one of the envelopes describes exactly how he died.
Three full-length British cosy mysteries. Grand hotels, dubious magic, and a marriage that is the best trick in the book.
Start the series here.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Barry Holt performs as The Incredible Fontaine, a name he chose himself because he thought it sounded sophisticated. He is in his fifties, balding, comfortably built, and from Wolverhampton. Technically he is one of the finest close-up magicians you will never hear of. What he lacks is presence, timing, and any ability whatsoever to make a room look at him. He made his peace with that years ago. He loves the work anyway.
His wife Helena is the reason they keep moving. She is a hotel fixer, hired by failing properties to find out what has gone wrong and put it right. She is elegant, unflappable, and extremely good at her job. It takes her about four minutes to understand any room she walks into.
Barry knows how every trick in the world is done. He knows exactly what misdirection looks like, because he performs it badly for a living. So when a guest turns up dead and the whole hotel agrees it is impossible, Barry is the one man in the building who has never believed in the impossible.
THE VANISHING ACT
The Beaumont, a clifftop hotel on the Devon coast, a week before a family wedding. A guest is found dead in his room, locked from the inside, and he was not who he said he was. Everyone calls it impossible. Barry has been getting out of a sealed cabinet twice a week for thirty years, and the cabinet is only sealed because he says it is.
FIND THE LADY
Fernwood Hall in the Forest of Dean. A Victorian pile that became a commune and never quite stopped. A metal detectorist is poisoned at a foraging dinner, and a Roman gold coin vanishes overnight. Since Barry made that exact coin disappear on stage the evening before, the police would very much like a word.
THE PREDICTION
Cairnmore House, a Perthshire golf resort with a locked predictions box in the great hall. On Wednesday morning the least popular member of the club is found in the water hazard on the fourteenth. When the box is opened at the end of the week, one of the envelopes describes exactly how he died.
Three full-length British cosy mysteries. Grand hotels, dubious magic, and a marriage that is the best trick in the book.
Start the series here.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for A G Barnett's The Incredible Fontaine Mysteries: Books 1-3