Published to coincide with the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition “Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic,” The Spectacle of Illusion is a delightful and informative roller coaster that explores our fascination with magic, the paranormal, and the psychology of cognitive illusions. Author Matt Tompkins—who is both a psychologist and a magician—makes a detailed analysis of magicians and the responses they elicit in unsuspecting spectators, with some intriguing thoughts about magic, its close alignment with the paranormal, and psychologists’ enduring fascination with psychical research.