DCI Nelson receives anonymous letters letting him know that he has to look for a stone circle and all will be revealed. Those letters remind him of a previous dramatic case which ended with the death of a young child and two men (one of them a murderer). Meanwhile next to an archaeological dig on a beach in Norfolk a new site is started. The bones of a young girl (Bronze Age) is discovered but after futher excavation another,more recent skeleton is found. It is quickly identified as the remains of Margaret Lacey,a 12 year old girl gone missing some 20 years ago. Ruth Galloway is asked to give some forensic backup and is so one more time involved in a crime investigation run by Harry Nelson,lover,not lover,maybe lover... In the meantime, one of the original suspects is found dead,shot through the head in a more modern variation of a stone circle. There are of course many meandering storylines,a missing baby,a new baby for Nelson,druids and their outlook on life and a blast from the past .... To be fair,after the 10th instalment in this series, I was a bit fed up with this Nelson and Galloway thing,it basically took up most of the story! It is still a big deal and frankly I wish they just made up their minds,personally I think it doesn't add anything of major interest ...but the storyline is good,the tension is absolutely there ,the outcome suprising and it really was a very decent mystery story!

It successfully draws upon the restless nature of a generation of men trying to adjust to civilian life after serving in World War II and on the then-dying sub-culture of Variety show performers who peddled their songs and magic tricks in shabby theatres and at the end of piers for a week at a time in towns across the UK.

The people targeted by the killer all seem to have links to a wartime unit of the British Secret Service, nicknamed "The Magic Men", which was tasked with using illusion to convince the Germans that Norway rather than Normandy might be the focus of the Allied invasion of Europe.

Stephens, the policeman investigating the killings was a young but senior member of The Magic Men, although he was not a magician. The Great Mephisto, Stephens' best friend in The Magic Men, is still a Top-of-The-Bill performer who combines charisma and craft to deliver illusions to two audiences daily.

Both men are well drawn and their relationship is easy to believe in. Learning more about them gives pleasing insights into Post-war England's class structure, social expectations and the changing face of entertainment.

The Magic Men are larger than life characters that add interest to the puzzle of who is trying to kill them and why. Stephens' and Mephisto's memories of their war service are skillfully handled and add an emotional depth to the hunt for the killer. The killer's flamboyant methods of killing also keep things fresh.

I enjoyed the slightly introverted, mildly regretful tone of the book.tone of the book. I liked that, although this was all firmly rooted in the middle of the last century, the characters felt modern and vital. There was no faux "olden days" flavour to the people or the text. The spirit of Brighton as a slightly tatty town that gave a home to the eccentric and the seedy, making it a place of freedom in an often drab England was well captured.

This is very different from the other Elly Griffiths books I've read. It seemed to me that the writing was more confident and accomplished than her Dr Ruth Galloway series.  

Although I enjoyed "The Zig Zag Girl", it didn't leave me eager to read the next two books in the series. I'll probably get around to them but I'm left with the impression that I need to be in the right mood for this series.

"The Zig Zag Girl" worked well as an audiobook. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample

This is a refreshing period piece, set in post-war Brighton and dealing with murders that seem to be associated with a wartime unit of the British Secret Service called "The Magic Men".

I'm enjoying the tone of the book and the relationship between the two main characters.

This is very different from the other Elly Griffiths books I've read and more confident and accomplished.

I've enjoyed Elly Griffiths'"Ruth Galloway" novels so I was pleased to see a new standalone mystery from her that was gaining lots of four and five-star reviews.

My wife and I settled down to listen to the audiobook version over a few evening and mostly enjoyed ourselves.

We were amused by the sometimes cringe-making accuracy of the humour and the way the characters described each other. We speculated on where the plot might go and the identity of the baddy.

We discussed how structuring this tale of murder into first-person accounts / "stranger diaries" given by three very different women had the novel consequence of hearing three convincing female characters talking about themselves and their impression of each other without the comments being centred around men.

We enjoyed the way the contrasts and commonalities between the woman made the story richer: an English teacher with a fondness for Wilkie Collins and an obsession with modern gothic; her teenage daughter who dabbles in white magic and writing murder mysteries and a young Indian Detective Sargeant who is investigating the murders that the novel revolves around and who gives an outsider's view on mother and daughter but who went to the same school that the mother teaches at and the daughter attends. Using a different narrator for each woman also gave a boost to the audiobook.

We were impressed by how convincingly "The Stranger",  a short story at the heart of the novel, matched the style of M R James.

In other words, for the first nine hours or so of the novel, we were having a good time.

Tonight, we reached the dramatic conclusion with lives at risk, a rescue being attempted and the identity of the murderer finally being revealed but instead of going "That was good*, we looked at each other with raised eyebrows and said, "Is that it? Did I miss something". 

The ending felt cobbled together. The identity of the baddy carried all the conviction of a "the butler did it" solution.

I was so surprised that I began to reconsider the whole book, wondering whether Elly Griffiths was offering a kind of "Northanger Abbey" version of the gothic novel and I'd missed out on the joke. 

I like Elly Griffiths' books. I liked ninety per cent of this one but the ending left me feeling like I'd waited for hours for a Soufflé that failed to rise.

Listen to the SoundCloud extract below to get a feel for the M R James style story that opens the novel.

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A teacher of creative writing at a British middle school begins experiencing disturbing events that mirror those from a short story in Elly Griffiths’ The Stranger Diaries.  Clare is a respected and well-established instructor and researcher at Talgarth, hired during a restructuring effort after the school had experienced a downturn.  She lives with her teenage daughter, Georgie, and her beloved dog Herbert.  The novel opens as Clare is teaching her adult ed course, using as an example a ghost story that was written by the man whose house they are using for their class.  She is interrupted by her department head with the news that Clare’s close friend and colleague has been found murdered on the grounds.  Griffiths interposes sections from the short story within her narrative, along with alternating points-of-view between three women: Clare, Georgie, and Harbinder, the lead detective assigned to investigate the homicide. When more murders occur, it becomes increasingly apparent that Clare is at the center of the mystery.  Someone close to her must be responsible, leaving her messages and quotes in her personal diary- or could it be Clare herself committing the crimes?  The book contains many unexpected twists and turns, some of which are a bit contrived.  There are also some plot elements that are also somewhat far-fetched and very convenient in retrospect. Some of Griffiths’ references and allusions may not be familiar to audiences outside of Great Britain, but nothing pivotal is lost in terms of the story.  The Stranger Diaries provides a decent mystery, and the character of Harbinder is especially well-drawn and provides a unique perspective.  If this standalone novel were to be developed into a series, her character would be one that would be interesting to follow.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an Early Review copy of this book.