Brighton Mysteries

When the body of a girl is found, cut into three, Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is reminded of a magic trick: the Zig Zag Girl. The inventor of the trick is an old friend of Edgar's. They served together in the war as part of a shadowy unit called the Magic Men. When Edgar receives a letter warning of another 'trick', the Wolf Trap, he knows that they are all in danger...  Book 1 of series.

Brighton, 1951. Pantomime season is in full swing. When two children mysteriously disappear, DI Edgar Stephens has plenty of leads to investigate. Does the clue lie in the missing girl’s unfinished and disturbing last script? Or with the eccentric theatricals who have assembled for the pantomime?  Book 2 of series.

On the eve of Elizabeth II's coronation, DI Stephens and Max Mephisto uncover an anarchist plot and a ticking bomb at the same time as solving the murder of a man close to them.  Book 3 of series.

Christmas 1953. The magician Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby are headlining Brighton Hippodrome. This might appear to have nothing in common with DI Edgar Stephens' investigation into the death of a quiet flower seller, but if there's one thing the old comrades have learned it's that, in Brighton, the line between art and life - and death - is all too easily blurred...  Book 4 of series.

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...  Book 5 of series.

Brighton, 1965. When theatrical impresario Bert Billington is found dead in his retirement home, no one suspects foul play. But when the postmortem reveals that he was poisoned, suspicion falls on his wife, eccentric ex-Music Hall star Verity Malone. 

Frustrated by the police response to Bert's death and determined to prove her innocence, Verity calls in private detective duo Emma Holmes and Sam Collins.

Emma and Sam must vie with the police to untangle the case and bring the killer to justice. They're sure the answers must lie in Bert's dark past and in the glamorous, occasionally deadly, days of Music Hall. But the closer they get to the truth, the more danger they find themselves in...

Brighton, 1966. Max, now divorced and living in London, is on the way to visit Ruby and her new-born daughter when he is hailed by an old magician friend Ted English, aka The Great Deceiver.

Ted is terrified because his assistant, Cherry, has been found dead in her Brighton boarding house and he's convinced that he'll be accused of her murder. Max agrees to talk to Edgar, who is investigating the case. But what Max doesn't know is that the girl's family have hired private detective duo Emma Holmes and Sam Collins to do some digging of their own.

When a second magician's assistant is killed, Edgar suspects a serial killer. He has the wild idea of persuading Max to come out of semi-retirement and take part in a summer show. But who can pose as his assistant? Step forward WDC Meg Connelly…