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Smoke and Mirrors
‘Recalls the very best of Agatha Christie’ Sunday Express
Brighton, 1951. Pantomime season takes a dark turn when two missing children are found dead under the snow, surrounded by sweets – a macabre, real-life Hansel and Gretel.
DI Edgar Stephens has plenty of leads to investigate. The missing girl, Annie, used to write plays and perform them with her friends. Does the clue lie in Annie’s unfinished – and rather disturbing – last script? Or might it lie with the eccentric actor types who have assembled for the pantomime?
Once again Edgar enlists magician and ex-wartime comrade Max Mephisto’s help in penetrating the shadowy theatrical world that seems to hold the key. But is this all just classic misdirection?
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Brighton, 1951. Pantomime season takes a dark turn when two missing children are found dead under the snow, surrounded by sweets – a macabre, real-life Hansel and Gretel.
DI Edgar Stephens has plenty of leads to investigate. The missing girl, Annie, used to write plays and perform them with her friends. Does the clue lie in Annie’s unfinished – and rather disturbing – last script? Or might it lie with the eccentric actor types who have assembled for the pantomime?
Once again Edgar enlists magician and ex-wartime comrade Max Mephisto’s help in penetrating the shadowy theatrical world that seems to hold the key. But is this all just classic misdirection?
Reviews
Enormously engaging ... Post-war Brighton and its Theatre Royal are beautifully captured in all their seedy glory ... subtle, charming and very good
Original, lively and gripping
Griffiths evokes with skill the seedy allure of the provincial theatre and the drabness of a Britain that is still rationed
An excellent whodunnit, matched by the terrific down-at-heel atmosphere of postwar Brighton
Mixes cosiness and sharpness in a way that recalls the best of Agatha Christie and has a feel for showfolk worthy of Ngaio Marsh
