Hachette India

The Zig Zag Girl

Elly Griffiths

Brighton, 1950.

When the body of a girl is found, cut into three, Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is reminded of a magic trick, the Zig Zag Girl.

The inventor of the trick, Max Mephisto, is an old friend of Edgar's. They served together in the war as part of a shadowy unit called the Magic Men.

Max is still on the circuit, touring seaside towns in the company of ventriloquists, sword-swallowers and dancing girls. Changing times mean that variety is not what it once was, yet Max is reluctant to leave this world to help Edgar investigate. But when the dead girl turns out to be known to him, Max changes his mind.

Another death, another magic trick: Edgar and Max become convinced that the answer to the murders lies in their army days. When Edgar receives a letter warning of another 'trick', the Wolf Trap, he knows that they are all in the killer's sights...

Elly Griffiths

Elly Griffiths is a multi-award-winning author and a No. 1 bestseller. She has written twenty-seven crime novels for adults; four for children, and a volume of short stories. Her books for adults include the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries, the Brighton Mysteries and the Detective Harbinder Kaur series, as well as The Frozen People, the first book in the Ali Dawson Mysteries.

Elly's many accolades include the CWA Dagger in the Library, the Edgar Award, the Fingerprint Award for Crime Novel of the Year and the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award, as well as being shortlisted multiple times for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband and their cat, Pip.

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The Zig Zag Girl

Elly Griffiths

Elly Griffiths

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