"Brighton has been invaded. The barbarians are at the gate. Pitiless men who want-- everything. Vengeful men who kill without conscience and threaten the lives of ex-Chief Constable Bob Watts, his comrade-in-arms Jimmy Tingley, DS Sarah Gilchrist and--above all--Brighton's crime king, John Hathaway"--From publisher description.

"Brighton, 1950. The body of a girl is found cut into three pieces. Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is convinced the killer is mimicking a famous magic trick--the Zig Zag Girl. The inventor of the trick, Max Mephisto, is an old war friend of Edgar's. They served together in a shadowy unit called the Magic Men, a special ops troop that used stage tricks to confound the enemy. Max is on the traveling show circuit, touring seaside towns with ventriloquists,...

"In this nail-biting transatlantic mystery, threat of mass violence looms over Elizabeth II's coronation--can Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens and the magician Max Mephisto crack the case and save the crown?"--

"When Major Richard Rabbitt, owner of a large estate in Sussex, is found floating in a lake belonging to Nimue Grace, a charismatic former Hollywood actress, DI Sarah Gilchrist and DS Bellamy Heap are called in to investigate - and quickly discover Rabbitt was a notoriously difficult man to deal with. Rabbitt was hated by his estranged wife, had several rivalries with residents of the area, and was involved in a number of deals with other shady businessmen...

"During a theatre performance Detective Inspector Sarah Gilchrist is reluctantly attending, blood begins soaking through a curtain startling one actor into falling to his death from the stage. The source of the blood: Elvira Wright, the lead actress, has been bludgeoned by a lead weight used for opening the curtain.Meanwhile former Hollywood actress Nimue Grace is attracting attention from a notorious gangster. When she stumbles across something horrific...