Smoke and Mirrors: A Stephens and Mephisto Mystery
In this novel Detective Inspector Stephens and magician, Max Mephisto, who previously appeared in Elly Griffith’s novel The Zigzag Girl, become involved with the disappearance and subsequent murder of two children. As with the previous book, the locale is primarily Brighton, England in 1951, when post-war rationing was still part of everyday life. The backdrop of the story is an end-of-the-season pantomime production of Aladdin in which Max is playing the villain, Abanazar. The children’s bodies are discovered in a staged setting in the snow surrounded by sweets and, as Stephens and his team begin to investigate the crime, they consider the significance of fairy tales in this case. The dead girl has been writing plays and is planning to produce one – The Stolen Children – with the help of her teacher, who is also murdered during the course of the story. The fairy tales’ allegorical resemblance to real life themes becomes apparent as the story progresses and always, in the background, the nature of theatre and the actor’s life. The novel is an entertaining read and could be followed up with some of the author’s other novels.
