THE SHOEMAKER'S MAGICIAN - Cynthia Pelayo

 Paloma is a fan of old horror films. She's watched the Grand Vespertilio Show for as long as she can remember. Grand has been an absolute master of all things film and horror. So much so that when Paloma's husband - a homicide detective - mentions an obscure movie posted  stuck to a mutilated body in the Chicago Theater, she knows that Grand might be the only person who can help her (and the police) solve the mystery and reveal the murderer.

It seems even more important to get Grand's help when a second body is discovered in yet another old movie theater with another connection to an old, silent film. 

But as they work, Paloma's fan-girl attitude toward Grand takes a slight turn as she realizes that his knowledge goes well beyond horror and film - maybe too far? And the deeper they get into this mystery, Paloma may have to sacrifice everything she's ever loved about old films in order to save her on-the-spectrum son. 

The concept of this book looked like something that was right up my alley - old films, horror, a mystery ingrained in both - but this really didn't reach out and grab me the way that I would hope a book should.

It didn't help that this is the second book in a series and I was unaware of that going in. There are moments throughout the book that implied something that happened previously, but, not knowing this was a second book, I presumed that things would be made clear later on. This wasn't necessarily the case.

I found the story itself to be pretty weak - we don't seem nearly as interested in solving some murders as we do investigating old films, film making, and their relationship to the city. Which is fine if that's what the book is about, but is it? I'm not sure what this book is about. It is NOT about a shoemaker or a shoemaker's magician.

Because the title grabbed my interest first I do feel it fair to mention. You might generally think that a book titled The Shoemaker's Magician might be about a shoemaker and/or his magician (I certainly was). Or maybe it's the title of an old film, since this is about old films?  Nope.  In fact the word 'shoemaker' appears exactly seven times in the text. Six of those times in one page. The first appearance (the one time it appears by itself) is thus:

Of course, I know who Georges Méliès was. I studied film history. I was fascinated by the son of a shoemaker, turned stage magician, turned the father of genre film who created hundreds of movies in his lifetime, many of which have never been seen since they were first made.

Much later in the book this information is repeated and we learn that our narrator lives in Méliès' apartment which prompts the only other time shoemaker is mentioned, with the last time being:

 And so, to answer your question, the stage is magick. Film is magick. I know that. And I believe you know that as well, just like Méliès knew that, a man who was the son of a shoemaker who turned magician. The Shoemaker’s Magician.

Am I missing something?  The son of a shoemaker, who is a magician, is a shoemaker's magician?  Not only does that not quite track, but it's so unimportant to any other part of the story.

I am not familiar with Pelayo's work (she had a story in the Stephen King collection I reviewed last year, but I don't remember it) and despite a premise that really caught my attention, I'm not very interested in checking out any of her other works at this time.

Looking for a good book? Cynthia Pelayo's The Shoemaker's Magician doesn't live up to the premise (or the title). 

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

2-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

The Shoemaker's Magician

author: Cynthia Pelayo

series: Children of Chicago #2

publisher:  Union Square & Co.

ISBN:  9781454961536

paperback, 320 pages