strange and random happenstance

The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Quercus Publishing
Publication Date: October 24th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Anyone who has ever tread the boards knows that performers are a rum lot. The distillation of this can be seen in the places they lay their heads. 84 Marine Parade is a boarding house run for vaudeville types by Linda Knight with the help of her live-in maid Annie. There's a comradery there as most of those currently in residence are performing in Larry Buxton's nostalgic review down on the pier. Which is why the murder of Cherry Underwood shocks them all. WDC Meg Connolly is on the scene in Brighton talking to the boarders while Max Mephisto is learning about the murder from the prime suspect. Up in London. Ted English, The Great Deceiver, has fled Brighton to accost his old colleague and beg him for help. Cherry was Ted's assistant. Having heard that Max is close to the head of Brighton police he has come to ask that he put in a good word. Which Max is willing to do, mainly just to get ride of Ted, as Max has places to be and a new granddaughter to see. While back in Brighton Meg is getting to know the denizens on the house, a strongwoman, Ida Lupin, a double act, the comedians Geoffrey Bigg and Perry Small, and singer Mario Fontana, AKA John Lomax. All with names and professions evoking the glory days of variety which is seeing a bit of a resurgence as the country embraces nostalgia. Because this is such a tight, incestuous community, where everyone has worked with everyone at some time or other Max's help would be much appreciated. Even if he doesn't exactly clear Ted's name, instead linking Ted to a rather notorious crowd of performers. The most famous of which is Gordon Palgrave. Pal is a nasty piece of work, especially when it comes to women. Cherry was his assistant for a time but now he's in television with a hit show. Literally. It's called Hug or Hit. It doesn't take a genius to work out the premise. But he's the genius who came up with it. He ran with Ted English, Tommy Horton, Rex King, and Dazzling Dave Dunkley back in the day. They passed around their assistants just like they passed around their wives. Dazzling Dave has been tapped to replace Ted English in the nostalgia show. His assistant, Joanie Waters, used to work for Tommy Horton, but he's now in a home, and she's fond of Dave, he's an eternal optimist, thinking that the next thing will be their big break, despite both of them getting on in years. Joanie is the second victim. This second murder opens new doors and indicates they have a serial killer on their hands. A serial killer who is targeting this group and this show. While Emma and Sam have been hired by Cherry's family to find her killer, they're willing to pool their resources with Edgar, Meg, and Max to catch a killer. And Max has an idea. The show is transferring to the West End and has an opening. Max wants to tread the boards again. Is their any chance that WDC Meg Connolly would like to go undercover as his assistant to catch a killer? It might be their only option.

As anyone who has been following my reviews knows that I was less than kind to this series when it skipped ahead a decade between the forth and fifth books. I still stand by this criticism, it was well deserved. Characters I had known and loved had changed so radically that I no longer recognized them. It was all anger and friction and just, not the series I loved. So why did I like this book? Well, I could be cynical, it is after all in my nature, and say that in the three years between reading The Midnight Hour and The Great Deceiver that I had missed the characters so much that I was willing to accept them no matter how inferior their current iterations were. But I actually don't think this is the case. I think that while The Midnight Hour had done a little to try to right this sinking ship that started taking on water with Now You See Them, The Great Deceiver found stability. The reason is actually quite simple. The characters have adjusted to their new roles and their complicated intertwined lives and instead of being at loggerheads they decided to pull together. The internecine politics have settled. Emma is no longer as jealous of Edgar and Meg. Edgar is encouraging of Emma and Sam's private detective agency. Max and Sam are somehow still a thing which is probably the main thing that still doesn't work, but I'm willing to overlook it in that I felt the magic again. A lot of this has to do with firmly entrenching this mystery within the vaudeville world again. I know as time goes on and the world moves on, vaudeville became less and less a thing and television was taking over, but that's what makes these mysteries work. They're old fashioned with a hint of modernity sneaking in. Which is why the lost decade was such a disservice to this series as a whole. But here Elly Griffiths latches on to, not just the bygone days, but to the very real reckoning of #MeToo. The creepy Pal and his cronies. These are men who are not good people and never were. Women were disposable to them and even interchangeable to a certain extent. Which is why I loved seeing them brought to their just desserts. Men in power need to be held accountable, and the sad thing is, especially during the sixties, women were never in power. Which is why Max's daughter and Meg are such important characters. I at first didn't like Meg in the least. She didn't work. And, well, Ruby, she was just in the way of Emma and Edgar finding their HEA. But now, I can see why Elly Griffiths is reforming the series with them. They are the future. Ruby and her Bewitched like television stardom while also being a single mother! Meg realizing she can be with whomever she wants, cops or sexy travelers. Though where I really felt Meg shine was as Max's assistant. They worked out a routine that played to the strengths of both and was about this female assistant, this shadow, being, for once, the equal of the magician. She's ready to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight. I just hope that this series continues. That I can get the word out there somehow that readers shouldn't give up. Because I had, and then I ordered this book from Waterstones because at least I'd have a signed first edition from an author whose work I had previously loved and was so pleasantly surprised I can't begin to actually properly express how I feel. My thoughts and words are a tad jumbled even after writing this. Just pick it up and see if you agree.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Boarding House, Brighton, Elly Griffiths, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Nostalgia, Now You See Them, Serial Killer, Television, The Great Deceiver, The Midnight Hour, Vaudeville

The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: September 30th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Bert Billington has been poisoned. This isn't exactly surprising as the theatrical impresario had made a lot of enemies in his long life. He was a womanizer and a cheat and so obviously suspicion falls on his wife, Verity Malone. Verity was once a very comely young thing. Everyone had picture cards of her, Max Mephisto even had a dalliance with her, but when she married Bert she became a stalwart housewife, raising their three children in the luxury to which Bert provided. But she was the only one there when he died. So she is the only suspect. And the police don't seem to be too keen to look elsewhere. She could have finally snapped after years of infidelity after all... Which is why Verity reaches out to Emma and Sam to exonerate her. Sure, it might be a bit sticky, Emma being married to the chief of police, but they expected that once she and Sam went into business for themselves that just such an occasion could arise. It just happened a little sooner than they expected. It's their first big case and they want to do right by Verity so they start digging into Bert's Music Hall past and are even given a list of all his women. To say this man had affairs is an understatement. If Verity had wanted revenge why did she wait so long? It just doesn't add up. His eldest son now runs the family business and they actually have women coming out of the woodwork with children they claim are Bert's. More rather than less are credible. Plus there was that nasty business years ago when his affections strayed from his mistress and she went on to kill herself and their child. It shook them all but Bert didn't change his ways. Emma and Sam even reach out to Max to see what he thought about Bert. As luck would have it Max might be more well placed than they could have imagined. Not only did he work with Bert back in the day, he was canoodling with Verity, and as of this moment he's starring in a Dracula film shooting up in Whitby with Bert's son Seth Billington. Maybe Seth, the light of his mother's life, wanted to avenge her? The fact is, with the way Bert lived there were a lot of people who could enact revenge. The question is who? The answer could very well even be Verity.

On the ninth and final season of Dynasty Sable crossed over from the lamentably cancelled The Colbys and got involved in a delicious relationship with Alexis's ex, Dex Dexter. Sable found out she was pregnant and had no plans to marry Dex, even if it would have destroyed her cousin Alexis once and for all. You might be asking why am I mentioning this in a book review, well, change furs for jewels and you have one of the plot points of The Midnight Hour. Yes, Ruby, Max's daughter, is pregnant by none other than a supposedly different Dex Dexter! While I disagree with people who say that Dynasty had lost it's magic in it's final season if you were to ask me if The Brighton Mysteries have lost their magic I would say undoubtedly yes. I mean even in the literal sense because they've renamed it The Brighton Mysteries from The Magic Men Mysteries! I'm sorry, but it's just not working. This second book after the time jump felt like Elly Griffiths was desperately trying to right a sinking ship. Frantically refocusing on the dying world of variety it had eschewed in Now You See Them it felt like it was grasping at straws to regain the fans it had lost with that previous installment. And as for the refocusing on feminine crime solvers, this series has always been fiercely feminine despite the series previously being named after the Magic Men and the continual conks on the noggin to the heroines, but here it's become darker, more toxically feminine. Men are evil and to be destroyed. There was just rancor and vitriol spewing off these pages. Yes, Bert deserved to die. Yes, he was an evil man. But does this mean all men are evil? No. Flawed, yes, evil no. A sad sack neighbor brings flowers and Verity can only see the machinations of the male of the species. I just can't with this negativity. And as for our new erstwhile heroine? I want to like Meg, I long to like Meg, I just am literally indifferent to Meg. She lacks the allure of Max, and yes, I'm saying "allure" like Miranda Hart because I will never picture anyone else as Meg. Meg feels like she is, along with Sam, trying to fill the Emma void with her becoming domesticated, but it just isn't working. And as for Sam and Max, please, dear God no. Just no.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Dex Dexter, Dracula, Dynasty, Elly Griffiths, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Miranda Hart, Murder Most Foul, Now You See Them, Sable Colby, The Brighton Mysteries, The Colbys, The Midnight Hour, Whitby

Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: October, 3rd 2019
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Ten years and three kids ago Edgar Stephens proposed to Emma Holmes. They were are the start of their lives together. Emma had loved Edgar so fiercely while Edgar was blinded by the dazzle that was his fiance Ruby, the daughter of his best friend, the famous magician Max Mephisto. Since their last case together in 1953 they all went in different directions; Edgar and Emma to wedded bliss, Ruby to television stardom, and Max to Hollywood where even he settled down and had a few more kids with a starlet. They are reunited in Brighton for the funeral of Diablo. Who would have thought the irascible old performer would last this long? But the funeral brings them all together to catch up. Only none of their lives are as perfect as they seem. Emma in particular is dissatisfied with her lot. Her husband is now chief of police whereas she's chief of nappies. They should never have had a third kid. Sure Edgar was happy to finally have a son, but Emma was finally thinking that she would be out from under the yoke of domesticity and could get back to work. She was once the amazing Emma Holmes, always cracking the case. Now Edgar is always talking about the young girl who has replaced her on the force, Meg. Damn Meg, damn nappies, damn them all. When a young girl goes missing from Emma's old school Roedean, she wants in on the case. She HAS to be in on the case. It's the only thing that will make her feel human again. With the help of her friend, local journalist Sam, the two of them start to uncover clues that this girl's disappearance is just one of many. Clues they decide to withhold from the police who are more concerned with a film star the missing girl was obsessed with. But Emma makes serious errors in judgement. Again and again. She has been out of the game too long and her desire to prove her worth clashes with her judgement and it places everyone in danger. But worst is that she has endangered her own daughter. Will they be able to save her daughter as the police have to deal with the violence of the Mods and the Rockers on the beaches or will it be too late?

I don't want to be all cliched and say this series has lost it's magic, because at this point I haven't read The Midnight Hour so it might redeem itself, but I have never read a series that went from sublime to shit so quickly. The time jump could be blamed, but I don't really think that's the source of the problems. It's just that everything about the book is wrong. Instead of letting the mystery be the driving force it's on the back burner until the last minute with a solution that I saw from the start and the cringeworthy cliche of child in danger and oodles of violence towards women. And as for the characters? Can we talk about a more morose and miserable lot? What happened to these people I knew and loved? Yes, ten years can change a lot, but it's more like Elly Griffiths lost her connection to the characters... Rivalry among the women? Emma who is now a stay at home mom is jealous of the new female cop Meg just because that used to be her? Emma could have welcomed Meg with open arms as the next generation, the woman to carry on her legacy, but no, that wouldn't be in fitting with this series new grim aesthetic. And as for Meg not liking Emma without even meeting her? Please. And that's not even my biggest issue! Was the point of this whole book to explode the myth of happily ever after with Emma and Edgar's marriage being so steeped in dissatisfaction? I mean, couldn't that at least have been a source of joy? A source of at least some version of contentment for at least one of them? I just wanted to yell at everyone and say that this wasn't them, following which I would channel Cher and tell them to snap out of it. What's most annoying though is if you look hard enough the elements were here, we could have had Max doing some Maxim de Winter shit at his big county house now that he's lord of the manor, we could have had Ruby doing a British Bewitched, instead, everyone is bemoaning and bitching about EVERYTHING. Which makes me bemoan and bitch about what happened to my favorite new series. Seriously, what happened? Where is the magic!?!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bewitched, Brighton, Cher, Disappearance, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Emma Holmes, Hollywood, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Maxim de Winter, Moonstruck, Murder Most Foul, Now You See Them, The Midnight Hour

The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 2nd, 2017
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby may be top billing at the Brighton Hippodrome for the holiday season but if Max ever wanted a clear sign that variety is on it's way out he need look no further than the rest of the bill. To be on the bill with a tawdry tableau act of "living statues" perfectly posed so as to skirt the nudity laws is lowering to say the least. But the salacious act might have one benefit, in the very attractive Florence Jones. There's no doubt about it, she's turned Max's head with her Cleopatra tableau and her forthright attitude. She's the type of woman who is the total package, a woman who has Max thinking about the future and marriage. He has been comfortably ensconced with Mrs. M since he left the cold attic room of his landlady's house for her bed but Florence is the type of woman whom you have passionate sex with at a hotel under assumed names in the middle of the day while contemplating the future. They might both be entangled with others, Florence being a kept woman to her show's producer, Vic Cutler, and Max with Mrs. M, but their attraction goes beyond what they are both getting out of their current relationships. In other relationship news Edgar is starting to drift from Ruby. They have been engaged for so long now that it seems unlikely they will ever be married. Something Emma wouldn't mind in the least. But affairs of the heart will have to take a backseat to murder. A young florist named Lily has been slain. Two of the girls from the tableau show were sharing digs with her. What the police don't want people to know is that Lily was posed. Like a classical tableau. In fact, she was posed like a famous painting. But she wasn't in show business despite her digs. In fact it was Lily's mother who was in show business and recommended the digs to her daughter. Could Lily's murder have something to do with the show at the Hippodrome? When Vic Cutler turns up dead it seems a foregone conclusion. Which means, who could be next? Are Ruby and Max in danger? Or someone closer to Edgar's heart?

The Vanishing Box is the turning point for this series. What was predominately a male dominated series is shifting to a female dominated series and in order for that transition to be complete the Emma and Ruby problem has to be laid to rest. Which means it's time for a showdown. Ever since she first appeared on the page I've been rooting for Emma, we've all been rooting for Emma. She's the perfect match for Edgar. Ruby is glamorous, standoffish, and keeps Edgar at a remove, never confirming a date for their wedding or even admitting they are engaged because she knows her life goals are so different from his. So obviously they were never going to work and Emma and Edgar are endgame. What I took issue with was here Elly Griffiths backpedals on Edgar and Ruby's true feelings for each other. We're supposed to believe that deep down Edgar has always loved Emma and that Ruby actually deeply cares about Edgar and is sad their relationship has come to an end? I don't know what books the author thought she was writing, but this wasn't what was going on. Yes, humanizing Ruby is necessary. She can't live up on that pedestal forever, but she could have locked down Edgar at any time and she chose not to. That was her choice. Don't rewrite it mawkishly to be some sort of unrequited or doomed love affair because I am not buying it. Especially with the bigger themes at play here. The Emma and Ruby dynamic feeds into how women are viewed by society. With the tableau we are shown a world in which women are nothing more than objects. They are there to be looked at and lusted after. But they don't have any agency. Whereas Emma is a woman with nothing but agency. She has a job and goals and is breaking away for societal expectations. With the humanization of Ruby we see her moving from an ideal, in particular Edgar's ideal, to an actual living and breathing person who is more similar to Emma than Emma would probably like to admit. The Vanishing Box fits perfectly into it's era and women's liberation. Women are no longer just the focus of men's gazes. They are cops and magicians and florists and writers and on and on. Yet the killer views them as the feminine ideal. The male feminine ideal. Which is why I love when the women take over the tableau show. They were exploited by men, but now, in control, they say what is and isn't permissible. Women finally have the power. But does that mean we have to say goodbye to Edgar and Max? Only time will tell.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Emma Holmes, Endgame, Feminism, Living Statues, Magic Men, Magician, Max Mephisto, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Mystery, Tableau, The Vanishing Box, Variety, Women's Liberation

The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Mariner Books
Publication Date: November 3rd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Could the death of Edgar and Max's old commander be linked to a plot to undermine the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II? Edgar is investigating the death of a local fortuneteller who worked on the Brighton Peer. His boss wants him to rule it a suicide and move on but her Romany family is convinced it was murder. Meanwhile Max is being a good father by agreeing to appear on television. He knows variety is dying, despite his current two week run in London. But is a throwback television variety special for the coronation really the best way to pay tribute to the world that has been his life since he was young? He knows he's the star attraction and by being on the bill his daughter Ruby will get her big break, and she was born for television, but it just seems so tawdry. Which is why another murder investigation with Edgar is a welcome relief. General Petre from the military comes to alert them to Colonel Cartwright's death and takes them to the crime scene to see if the two of them can pick up on anything the other investigators could have missed. There are several items of interest, an old show flyer that had Tony "The Mind" Mulholland on the bill, a newspaper clipping about a mesmerist in New York who caused a woman to faint, and a playing card, the ace of hearts, most commonly known as the blood card. Their former commander was investigating an anarchist plot against the coronation at the time of his death so really it's Edgar and Max's patriotic duty to investigate what happened. Because of Max's obligations to his audience and his daughter it's up to Edgar to fly off to New York. Strange things are happening in Albany. The mesmerist died just before Edgar arrived and his own life is also threatened. But nothing is as dangerous as the threat to the Queen. It looks like there is a real danger and only Edgar, Max, and their fellow friends and investigators will be able to tie it all together and save lives.

While the clash of the old and the new with regards to the world of variety has been a constant theme in the previous volumes this one really brings it to a head. Anyone who has watched The Crown or Doctor Who knows that the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is what really brought television into everyone's homes in England. Prince Philip's gamble not only paid off but fundamentally changed British culture, shifting how the British public took in entertainment. The world of variety was already dying and television was the nail in the coffin. Tony "The Mind" Mulholland expounded on television being the future of variety back in the first book, but here we get to see how Max and Ruby will fit into the new world order. This was very reminiscent of "The Reluctant Juggler" episode of The Edwardians. That episode was looking backward and forward simultaneously, being both depressing and nostalgic. But here, during the television special, as on that episode, for one moment the old and the new live in harmony. The question remains though if Max will be put out to pasture so the new generation embodied by Ruby will flourish or will Max find a way to succeed. Besides this overarching theme about variety there were lots of other interesting conversations to be had about diverse subjects from subliminal advertising to the treatment of those interned during the war. Some of these got to play out fully, but I felt that not only was the idea of subliminal advertising mishandled and misunderstood by otherwise bright characters but it could have been so much more than a red herring. But no book is perfect and this one isn't an exception, especially in regard to Edgar's trip to Albany. I'm sure us Americans get this wrong when we write about Britain, and the opposite is very true here. I couldn't help but wonder if Elly Griffiths had actually ever been to the United States. Everything was just off. It was like The Twilight Zone. It was supposed to be America but it just wasn't. Also, Brits really have no idea about distances in the United States. We are FAR larger than you can imagine. Albany wouldn't have signs to Canada. It's almost two-hundred miles from Albany to Canada! It would be like Madison having signs to Minneapolis! Which we don't.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Coronation, Doctor Who, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Murder Most Foul, New York, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth, Television, The Blood Card, The Crown, The Edwardians, Variety

The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 6th, 2014
Format: Kindle, 338 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

A woman's body has been found in the Brighton train depot. Cut and placed in three boxes, one of which was sent directly to the police station. The task of catching the killer falls to Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens. His first thought is that the presentation of the body is rather theatrical. In fact it reminds him of a magic trick created by the great Max Mephisto called "The Zig Zag Girl" that he saw with his brother before the war. Edgar's hunch is confirmed when the identity of the victim turns out to be Max's old assistant, Ethel. Edgar got to know Max during the war. They served together in a unit called the Magic Men. The unit was basically a ghost unit running magicians up in Scotland to confound the Nazis, with Edgar being a civilian recruited to the MI5 unit due to his crossword savvy. None of them look back too fondly on the time, aside from losing the love of his life, Edgar had an easy war, unlike his brother who didn't survive it, something he is sure his mother is still holding against him. Edgar therefore felt it imperative that his life mean something, and instead of going back to college he joined the police. Max on the other hand liked having an audience, which is why as soon as the war was over he went back to the stage, as did their comrades Stan "The Great Diablo" Parks and Tony Mulholland. No one has heard from Diablo in years, but it can't be a coincidence that Max arrives in Brighton and is on the same bill as Tony Mulholland right when Edgar is looking into the murder being linked to the Magic Men. There is no doubt they are being targeted when Tony, who had his sights on taking his "magic" and "mesmerism" to the next level with American television, ends up dead right when he had something important to tell Edgar. This is personal. What's more, the killer isn't just targeting them now, they are being baited. "The Wolf Trap" will be their next trick, but who will be the victim?

There are few people whose book recommendations I always heed. One of those people is Lauren Willig. When she said that Elly Griffiths's series known as "The Brighton Mysteries" or "The Magic Men Mysteries," depending on where you are in the series, as Endeavour set in Brighton, I knew I had to instantly read them. Because in all seriousness, who doesn't need an Inspector Morse fix every once in awhile? And I instantly got the Morse vibe with Edgar Stephens and his crosswords, but with the Max Mephisto side of this I was getting a distinct Lost Empires vibe. Lost Empires is a horridly depressing adaptation of the book by the same name by L.B. Priestley about a young man played by Colin Firth and his experiences in music halls on the eve of the first World War. Other than being a completest, there was no reason I watched this miniseries to it's grueling end until now. Because that little extra insight of what it's like to travel from town to town and theater to theater made me understand Max's life and made Lost Empires worth it. And I seriously thought watching Lost Empires would never pay off in any tangible way other than giving me nightmares about Laurence Olivier dressed up as a munchkin offing himself. As for the book itself? There's no getting around the fact that it was obviously written as the first in a series. So while this book could work on it's own, it really works better knowing that this is setting everything up for the continued success of the series. This means that the plot was rather predictable. When a group of formally close colleagues that have a secret and a past start getting targeted, well, it's kind of obvious who's behind it all. So for me the plot just plodded along until the final reveal I had seen coming from the beginning. That isn't to say this book didn't work, it did, but as a character study. This was all about meeting the characters and understanding them for the adventures that are to come. And, oh, they are wonderful adventures. But the first outing... it suffers because of what it is and what it's meant to be. There is no mystery to solve there.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Colin Firth, Crosswords, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Endeavour, Ghost Armies, Inspector Morse, Laurence Olivier, Lost Empires, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Murder, Murder Most Foul, The Zig Zag Girl, WWI

The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 2nd, 2017
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby may be top billing at the Brighton Hippodrome for the holiday season but if Max ever wanted a clear sign that variety is on it's way out he need look no further than the rest of the bill. To be on the bill with a tawdry tableau act of "living statues" perfectly posed so as to skirt the nudity laws is lowering to say the least. But the salacious act might have one benefit, in the very attractive Florence Jones. There's no doubt about it, she's turned Max's head with her Cleopatra tableau and her forthright attitude. She's the type of woman who is the total package, a woman who has Max thinking about the future and marriage. He has been comfortably ensconced with Mrs. M since he left the cold attic room of his landlady's house for her bed but Florence is the type of woman whom you have passionate sex with at a hotel under assumed names in the middle of the day while contemplating the future. They might both be entangled with others, Florence being a kept woman to her show's producer, Vic Cutler, and Max with Mrs. M, but their attraction goes beyond what they are both getting out of their current relationships. In other relationship news Edgar is starting to drift from Ruby. They have been engaged for so long now that it seems unlikely they will ever be married. Something Emma wouldn't mind in the least. But affairs of the heart will have to take a backseat to murder. A young florist named Lily has been slain. Two of the girls from the tableau show were sharing digs with her. What the police don't want people to know is that Lily was posed. Like a classical tableau. In fact, she was posed like a famous painting. But she wasn't in show business despite her digs. In fact it was Lily's mother who was in show business and recommended the digs to her daughter. Could Lily's murder have something to do with the show at the Hippodrome? When Vic Cutler turns up dead it seems a foregone conclusion. Which means, who could be next? Are Ruby and Max in danger? Or someone closer to Edgar's heart?

The Vanishing Box is the turning point for this series. What was predominately a male dominated series is shifting to a female dominated series and in order for that transition to be complete the Emma and Ruby problem has to be laid to rest. Which means it's time for a showdown. Ever since she first appeared on the page I've been rooting for Emma, we've all been rooting for Emma. She's the perfect match for Edgar. Ruby is glamorous, standoffish, and keeps Edgar at a remove, never confirming a date for their wedding or even admitting they are engaged because she knows her life goals are so different from his. So obviously they were never going to work and Emma and Edgar are endgame. What I took issue with was here Elly Griffiths backpedals on Edgar and Ruby's true feelings for each other. We're supposed to believe that deep down Edgar has always loved Emma and that Ruby actually deeply cares about Edgar and is sad their relationship has come to an end? I don't know what books the author thought she was writing, but this wasn't what was going on. Yes, humanizing Ruby is necessary. She can't live up on that pedestal forever, but she could have locked down Edgar at any time and she chose not to. That was her choice. Don't rewrite it mawkishly to be some sort of unrequited or doomed love affair because I am not buying it. Especially with the bigger themes at play here. The Emma and Ruby dynamic feeds into how women are viewed by society. With the tableau we are shown a world in which women are nothing more than objects. They are there to be looked at and lusted after. But they don't have any agency. Whereas Emma is a woman with nothing but agency. She has a job and goals and is breaking away for societal expectations. With the humanization of Ruby we see her moving from an ideal, in particular Edgar's ideal, to an actual living and breathing person who is more similar to Emma than Emma would probably like to admit. The Vanishing Box fits perfectly into it's era and women's liberation. Women are no longer just the focus of men's gazes. They are cops and magicians and florists and writers and on and on. Yet the killer views them as the feminine ideal. The male feminine ideal. Which is why I love when the women take over the tableau show. They were exploited by men, but now, in control, they say what is and isn't permissible. Women finally have the power. But does that mean we have to say goodbye to Edgar and Max? Only time will tell.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Emma Holmes, Endgame, Feminism, Living Statues, Magic Men, Magician, Max Mephisto, Murder, Mystery, Tableau, The Vanishing Box, Variety, Women's Liberation