Goodreads asked Neil Low:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Neil Low The idea for THEATER OF THE CRIME came to me while walking through the Pike Place Market (Seattle) with my publisher, Kristen Morris, when we walked past the Magic Shop. We both turned at the same time, our eyes drawn to a poster of "Alexander: The Man Who Knows" dressed like Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent. We looked at each other and said, "That's the next story line!"

Carson did a spoof of Alexander, wearing the large turban and supposedly predicting in advance what someone in the audience had asked him on a note inside a sealed envelope. I remembered watching a black and white movie, probably from the 30s or 40s that featured a demonic wizard who could read people's minds. It scared me more than I care to admit. The real life Alexander traveled the West Coast and became quite wealthy with his stage show, but he was a con man who learned his trade as a grifter working the saloons in Alaska during the GoldRush. So for me he represented a research challenge, because I wanted to figure out how his magic act actually worked. It took over a year to learn his trick and other magic acts, appropriate to the era. This wasn't as easy as it seemed, because magicians take a secrecy oath and are not supposed to reveal theirs or other magicians' tricks. It looked for awhile like I was going to have to become a magician to learn how the trick work--but if I did take that step, then I would also have to obey the magician's oath and not tell my readers what I'd been taught! What was the point in that? The research paid off and THEATER OF THE CRIME was the number one bestseller in trade paperbacks at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, following the launch, and it's continuing to do well there.

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