Now You See Them: The Brighton Mysteries 5

Description

Gripping historical mystery from the bestselling author of The Stranger Diaries. 'Griffiths writes with a smart, sharp eye and great elegance' Peter James Three girls have left. None have come back. Brighton, 1963. Edgar Stephens has been promoted to Superintendent and is married to his former sergeant, Emma Holmes. Edgar's wartime partner in arms, magician Max Mephisto, is a movie star in Hollywood, while his daughter Ruby has her own TV show. The funeral of an old friend highlights just how much the gang's lives have changed in the last nine years. Edgar is struggling with fresh responsibilities and the new swinging Brighton of rioting mods and rockers; Emma is chafing against the restrictions of life as a housewife. Bob Willis, meanwhile, is tackling his biggest case since his promotion to DI: a schoolgirl missing from high-class boarding school Roedean. It looks like she's run away; but there are disturbing similarities to the disappearances of a young local nurse and a tearaway Modette, neither of whom have been seen or heard from since... A new world is dawning in Brighton, but the city's dark side is as dangerous as ever. 'A piquant mixture of humour, period detail . . . and truly beguiling characterisation' Financial Times

Elly Griffiths is the bestselling author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries and the Brighton Mysteries. She has won the CWA Dagger in the Library, has been shortlisted five times for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for The Lantern Men. Her new series featuring Detective Harbinder Kaur began with The Stranger Diaries, which was a Richard and Judy book club pick and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in the USA. It was followed by The Postscript Murders, shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and Bleeding Heart Yard. Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband.

A piquant mixture of humour, period detail . . . and truly beguiling characterisation - Financial Times Griffiths pulls a truly startling rabbit out of the hat, demonstrating that this is more than the cosy mystery it initially appears - Sunday Times on The Blood Card The lively beginning ... broadens out into an excellent whodunnit, matched by the terrific down-at-heel atmosphere of postwar Brighton - The Times on Smoke and Mirrors Mixes cosiness and sharpness in a way that recalls the best of Agatha Christie - Sunday Express on Smoke and Mirrors Enormously engaging ... Post-war Brighton and its Theatre Royal are beautifully captured in all their seedy glory ... subtle, charming and very good - Daily Mail on The Zig Zag Girl Wry, emotionally intelligent and quietly satisfying - Sunday Times Full of fun and expertly plotted, this is in many ways a cosy read but there is real depth to the way the characters cope not only with changing times but changes in themselves as they mature - Sunday Express Elly Griffiths, who is better known for her series about the forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway, relishes depicting a benighted age in which WPCs aren't allowed to drive or even carry radios... The tension - and frustration - builds to an exciting climax - The Times