Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths – Audiobook review

Smoke and Mirrors is the second instalment in Elly Griffiths’ Brighton Mysteries series. Having very much enjoyed the first book, The Zig Zag Girl, I decided to make book two my latest audiobook. An excellent move.

It has all the elements I love to listen to: an easy-on-the-ears narrator (in this case Daniel Philpott), a murder-mystery plot that ticks along at a rapid pace but isn’t confusing or too intricate. This is my preference for audiobooks as my listening can be disjointed – over days and weeks – so I need to be able to pick up the story thread instantly whenever I put my headphones in.

Edgar and Max are back

So, onto that story. Smoke and Mirrors is once again set in Brighton in the 1950s and features DI Edgar Stephens who, this time, does have a slightly darker storyline as it involves the murder of children.

He is obviously highly emotionally involved in the case and along with his fellow police pals Bob and Emma, he has to track down who killed school friends Annie and Mark.

There was a clever fairytale theme that ran through the story too. From Annie’s interest in the stories to the elements of the classics that reveal themselves to be key to solving the mystery – they really added to this murder mystery.

It’s panto season!

I do love the slightly mad British tradition of the pantomime – so it was a delight that it featured here. (And it was fitting as I actually began listening to this book over Christmas, so this reference added to my festive mood at the time.)

Max Mephisto (Edgar’s friend) is performing in Aladdin and while he doesn’t play a direct role in solving the case, his ties to it are close due to the storytelling/theatre links that Edgar uncovers while trying to catch the killer.

Learning more about the characters

It’s been a long time since I read a series, so I had forgotten that lovely feeling to getting the know the characters more as the books go on. Edgar’s relationship with (Max’s daughter) Ruby develops and we meet more of Max’s family. We don’t find out quite as much about the enigmatic Max, but I’m sure we will in book three – which is definitely on my TBR.

Smoke and Mirrors was another great magic-tinged instalment of this series!

Check out my interview with author Elly Griffiths right here.

• Get your copy of Smoke and Mirrors here;
• Audiobook narrated by Daniel Philpott
• Running time: 8 hrs 12 mins
• Published by Quercus 2015;
• 256 pages;
• My rating: