Zig Zag Girl

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