Rating: 3/5
Review:
Not really for me
I didn't get on as well with Smoke And Mirrors as most other
people seem to have done. The story is
set in Brighton in 1951 where Detective Inspector Edgar
Stephens and his two sergeants are investigating the disappearance of two children. Stephens's old friend, the stage magician Max
Mephisto is appearing in pantomime there, and this forms the backdrop to a
somewhat convoluted, almost Agatha Christie-esque investigation.
Elly Griffiths
writes quite decent prose, but the whole thing felt a bit stolid and plodding,
somehow. The period background didn't
really convince me (although she did get the cold bedrooms right!) Modern usages like "feisty" or
"autopsy" (it was very definitely "post mortem" in England
in 1951) crept in to mar the dialogue occasionally, and some of the attitudes
were frankly absurd for the time. I
could just about accept the female sergeant with views on women's equality
which were at least 25 years ahead, but the idea that a Police Inspector would
be annoyed with one of his officers for his hostility to homosexuals is just
silly. It would have been his duty then
(God help us!) to arrest and prosecute men for homosexual activity, just as
much as it would have been for burglary or any other crime. Like Griffiths,
I'm appalled by many of the attitudes of the time, but that doesn't mean you
can change the history of them.
All this wouldn't matter so much if the story was good, but
I didn't think it was, really. A rather stodgy feel to the characterisation,
the pace and the plot, plus a dénouement which I found very unconvincing made
it all a bit of a struggle. I ended up quite interested in what was going
to happen, but not really wanting to have to read to the end to find out.
So - not for me, I'm afraid.
It's not terrible by any means and others have plainly enjoyed it very
much, so don't let me put you off, but with neither the background nor the
story really engaging me, I can't really recommend it.
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