The Zig Zag Girl

The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths, 328 pages

When a hacked-into-three-pieces corpse turns up in his office, inspector Edgar Stephens must track down a killer who seems to be hunting the Magic Men, a British WWII unit that used magicians to conjure an illusion of masses of troops near Inverness. Stephens was part of the Magic Men, along with his friend, the illustrious stage magician Max Mephisto, and as more bodies turn up, each killed in a grotesque approximation of one of Mephisto's illusions, the old friends are racing to catch the killer before they get caught themselves.

I like the general idea of this mystery, but the execution was somewhat lacking. Perhaps Griffiths dropped too many hints, but it seemed really obvious to me who the killer was fairly early on. The motive wasn't obvious, but even in the big reveal, it seemed a bit hackneyed. I give this one a hearty "meh."