Have a last minute Christmas Gift to buy? Check out Elly Griffith's The Zig Zag girl – Murder, Mystery, Mayhem … and a healthy dose of magic.

Book Review: The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths – Murder, Mystery, Mayhem … and a healthy dose of magic.

Already a fan of Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series I was keen to discover a whole new set of characters and I admit to being completely captivated by the Max Mephisto/Edgar Stephens duo which I hope will develop into a series of mystical magical crime books.

Mephisto’s flamboyant, slightly jaded self-scrutinising character contrasts beautifully with Edgar Stephens’ slightly naive, easily influenced romantic character struggling against the ‘snobbery’ of his lower middle class background.

The Zig Zag Girl is set in post WW11 Brighton amid a backdrop of variety performances , mysticism, magic.  When a women’s body is discovered cut into three parts, each housed in an individual wooden box and with the final part being addressed (using his army title) and delivered to Detective Edgar Stephens , Stephens is reminded of a magic trick

invented by his friend and ex - army colleague the magician Max Mephisto.  Then the dead woman is identified as a one-time stage helper of Mephisto’s and Stephens begins to think the crime is connected to their army days when they were part of a covert operation based in Scotland called The Magic Men.

What sold this book for me was the way Griffiths imbued the story with all the patriotic nostalgia of Dame Vera Lynn singing for the troops, as well as a gritty very human portrayal of post war class- based society.  It is an effortless read… enjoyable, thought provoking, comic at times, well researched and beautifully executed.  If you’ve read and enjoyed Elly’s previous books you won’t be disappointed by The Zig Zag Girl.  Well done Elly!