Audiobook Review: Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths

Smoke and Mirrors
Author: Elly Griffiths
Narrator: James Langton
Series: The Brighton Mysteries (Book 2)
Publication: Blackstone Audio (October 18, 2016)
Length: 7 hours and 37 minutes

Description: 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?

My Thoughts: The second of the Brighton mysteries takes place at Christmas time. Max Mephisto is busy starring as the villain in the Christmas pantomime and Edgar Stephens is searching for two lost children. 

When the children are found strangled to death, Edgar and his team are on the case. The case brings to mind Grimm's fairy tales since the children are found surrounded by candy. Annie and Mark disappeared after school one day when they were supposed to be rehearsing one of the plays Annie wrote with the younger children who are their actors. 

As Stephens investigates, they find a childless, widowed man who has built a theater for them in his garage and a man who runs the corner store as possible suspects. Diablo also brings to mind another death of a young actress at the same time of the year but forty years earlier making Edgar wonder if there is any connection between the two crimes. 

Annie's new play also connects to Grimm's fairy tales because it is the story of two lost children where the villain is part of the children's own families. After Annie and Mark's death, Annie's younger sister Betty is determined to put on the play but she is kidnapped herself on opening night. 

I really enjoyed this mystery narrated by James Langton. He does a good job dealing with the various voices and really showing how frustrated the police are as they try to track down the murderer and save Betty before she becomes the next victim.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.