*The chilling debut mystery in the Brighton Mysteries series from Edgar
Allen Poe Award-winner Elly Griffiths--author of the Ruth Galloway
Mysteries--about a band of magicians who served together in World War II
tracking a killer who's performing their deadly tricks.
"Captivating."--Wall Street Journal
"An absorbing read, the debut of another great series."--San Jose
Mercury News
"A labyrinthine plot, a splendid reveal, and superb evocation of the
wafer-thin veneer of glamour at the bottom end of showbusiness . . .
Thoroughly enjoyable." --Guardian
Brighton, 1950. A girl is found cut into three sections, and Detective
Inspector Edgar Stephens is convinced the killer is mimicking a famous
magic trick--the Zig Zag Girl. The inventor of the trick, Max Mephisto,
served with Edgar in a special ops group called the Magic Men that used
stage illusions to confound the enemy. Max still performs, touring with
ventriloquists, sword-swallowers, and dancing girls.
When Edgar asks for his help with the case, Max tells him to identify
the victim, for it takes a special sidekick to do the Zig Zag Girl.
Those words haunt Max when he learns the victim was a favorite former
assistant of his own. And when Edgar receives a letter warning of
another "trick" on the way, he realizes that it is the Magic Men
themselves who are in the killer's sights.
"Enormously engaging . . . Griffiths's plot is satisfyingly
serpentine."--Daily Mail
"Readers will finish looking forward to the next trick up
[Griffiths's] sleeve."--Mystery Scene
