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Smoke and Mirrors

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

In the sequel to Zig Zag Girl, DI Edgar Stephens and the magician Max Mephisto hunt for a killer after two children are murdered in a tragic tableau of a very grim fairy tale.

It's Christmastime in Brighton, and the city is abuzz about a local production of Aladdin, starring the marvelous Max Mephisto. But the holiday cheer is lost on DI Edgar Stephens. He's investigating the murder of two children, Annie and Mark, who were strangled to death in the woods, abandoned alongside a trail of candy—a horrifying scene eerily reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel. Edgar has plenty of leads to investigate. Annie, a surprisingly dark child, used to write gruesome plays based on the Grimms' fairy tales. Does the key to the case lie in her unfinished final script? Or does the macabre staging of Annie and Mark's deaths point to the theater and the capricious cast of characters performing in Aladdin? Once again Edgar enlists Max's help in penetrating the shadowy world of the theater. But is this all just classic misdirection?

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 30, 2016
      Set in Brighton, England, in 1951, Griffith’s captivating sequel to 2015’s Zig Zag Girl finds Det. Insp. Edgar Stephens embroiled in a grim holiday hunt for the murderer of two children. Like an unnerving scene from a fairy tale, a trail of candy in the snow leads to the bodies of Annie Francis, a 13-year-old with a talent for writing, and Mark Webster, her constant companion of similar age. As Stephens searches for a killer, tension grows in the town. Is the murderer the candy-store owner and the last to see them alive, or the quirky bachelor who helped the victims stage plays? Matters become more complicated when magician Max Mephisto, Stephen’s friend, appears with a disturbingly similar tale of an earlier murder. Is an actor in the Christmas pantomime connected to the long-ago murder of a young performer? Are the present-day murders a reenactment? Stephens and his team must sort through misdirection and vanishing acts before another child dies in this suspenseful outing. Agent: Rebecca Carter, Janklow & Nesbit.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator James Langton finds unique voices and accents for the many characters in this story of two children murdered in Brighton, England, in 1951. The children are uniquely portrayed: Annie is clever and writes dark stories inspired by fairy tales with her best friend, Mark. Langton successfully differentiates the voices of the principal characters, Max Mephisto, a great magician, and Edgar Stephens, the detective in charge of the case, Without resorting to caricature, Langon does a wonderful job with minor characters as well, creating easily identifiable voices and edgy tones that capture the fear of the townsfolk as events escalate. Overall, Langton reads this suspenseful story with a touch of humor and plenty of sincerity. S.C.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Daniel Philpott's vibrant character portrayals create palpable tension in this murder mystery set in Brighton, England. Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens's Christmas is off to a sinister start: Two children have gone missing. Philpott conveys the town's growing anxiety as time passes and they are not found. His diverse voices bring out the personalities of the town's characters, deftly capturing their observations and thoughts. Their evolving suspicion of one another will keep listeners guessing. Furthermore, Philpott's spirited renderings of the theater programs and the eerie rhyme penned by one of the child victims juxtapose the liveliness of the story with its menacing undertones. Philpott's alluring performance ratchets up the tension in this compelling procedural. M.F. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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