One of Entertainment Weekly's 10 Great Fall Thrillers
"Clever, immensely likeable...Captivating." âThe Wall Street Journal
In the first installment of a compelling new series by Elly Griffiths featuring Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens and the magnificent Max Mephisto, a band of magicians who served together in World War II track a killer whoâs performing their deadly tricks.
Brighton, 1950. The body of a girl is found cut into three pieces. Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is convinced the killer is mimicking a famous magic trickâthe Zig Zag Girl. The inventor of the trick, Max Mephisto, is an old war friend of Edgarâs. They served together in a shadowy unit called the Magic Men, a special ops troop that used stage tricks to confound the enemy. Max is on the traveling show circuit, touring seaside towns with ventriloquists, sword-swallowers and dancing girls. Heâs reluctant to leave this world to help Edgar investigate, but advises him to identify the victim quickly â it takes a special sidekick to do the Zig Zag Girl. Those words come back to haunt Max when the dead girl turns out to be Ethel, one of his best assistants to date. Heâs soon at Edgarâs side, hunting for Ethelâs killer. Another death, another magic trick: Edgar and Max are sure the answer to the murders lies in their army days. And when Edgar receives a letter warning of another âtrickâ on the way â the Wolf Trap â he knows theyâre all in the killerâs sights.