The Great Deceiver

The Brighton Mysteries #7

by Elly Griffiths

Magician Max Mephisto, now divorced and living in London, is on his way to visit daughter Ruby and her new-born baby when he is hailed by a voice from the past, fellow performer Ted English, aka the Great Deceiver. Ted's 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 his friend, Superintendent Edgar Stephens, who is investigating the case. What Max doesn't know is that the girl's family have hired private detective duo Emma Holmes (aka Mrs Stephens) and Sam Collins to do some digging of their own.

The inhabitants of the boarding house, most of whom are performing in an Old Time Music Hall show on Brighton pier, are a motley crew. The house is also connected to a sinister radio personality called Pal. When a second magician's assistant is killed, Edgar suspects a serial killer. He persuades Max to come out of semi-retirement and take part in a summer show. But who can pose as his assistant? Edgar shocks the team by recommending someone close ...

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction, British Literature, Audiobook

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 24, 2023

About the author

Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway novels take for their inspiration Elly's husband, who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist, and her aunt who lives on the Norfolk coast and who filled her niece's head with the myths and legends of that area. Elly has two children and lives near Brighton. Though not her first novel, The Crossing Places is her first crime novel.

Reviews

[Bruce Hatton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who is murdering magicians’ assistants? That’s the big question that needs an answer in the latest installment of Elly Griffiths’ highly enjoyable Brighton series. First, Cherry Underwood, assistant to Ted English; then Joanie Waters, who assisted Dazzling Dave Dunkley. Unsurprisingly, both magicians are well known to Max Mephisto and English initially requests Max’s help.
As both murders occur in Brighton, Superintendent Edgar Stephens is leading investigator. To complicate matters, his wife Emma and her friend Sam Collins, who run a private detective agency, have been hired by Cherry’s parents to investigate their daughter’s death. The action takes place in the summer of 1966 against the backdrop of Swinging London and the Football World Cup which England are hosting.
What follows is another gripping whodunnit from Elly Griffiths. As one might expect from a story involving magicians, there is plenty of misdirection in the plotting and the true murderer isn’t revealed until the penultimate chapter. Also, I was particularly pleased to see this novel gave an enhanced role to the newest member of Edgar’s team, WDC Meg Connelly.

[Lavins · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up

It took me a long time to finish this one because the book is pretty repetitive, there are too many social/political approached that had nothing to do with the crime and it was getting pretty annoying. If I want to read about the feminist movement, the rights of gay people or about minorities, I would pick up a book about that. When I pick up a murder mystery, i aspect to read about that. Nothing else.

Also, as someone else mentioned it, Meg, the policeman that never been in a bar and goes to bed at 9pm. Right...

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The seventh Brighton mystery, I like the theatrical background to these books which have moved to the mid sixties now. Just found the ending a bit muddled and rushed though, hence 4 stars.

[Richard Worrall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Get the impression that the author is writing books to order ….

Know these books are basically ‘cosy crime’ but should have a hint of grounding in reality …. A Detective Superintendent sharing information with his private detective wife…… a stretch too far IMO

The latest book has yet another magician’s assistant(s) murdered in Brighton…. plot repetition….

The narration is twee beyond parody …. A female police detective aged 20 (just not possible) who has ‘never been inside a pub’, who thinks drinking coffee is an alien concept…. She’s portrayed as a 15 year old virgin who has just left a cloistered convent school run by nuns…

It’s set in 1966 ….. but full of anachronisms….. aren’t copy editors meant to check on basic facts ….. Appleby in 1966 was part of Westmoreland not Cumbria ….. There was no public fear of football fans before the World Cup…. Pubs shut at 10:30 pm so not feasible for the thespians to have a drink after the end of the performance ..

No doubt other reviews will be more positive …. Some of us however expect a

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️=Quite Good.
Paperback.
I didn’t like the first in this series but a friend passed this one on for me to try and I quite enjoyed it, although I do prefer the Ruth Galloway series.
There were a fair few characters to get your head around so that’s something to be aware of. I read this out of order but it didn’t affect my understanding at all. The setting of a theatre is one that I usually enjoy and this was no exception.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

review to follow

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

So many characters and all seem to be magicians called The Great something or other, or they are policemen, or detectives. I found this book unbelievable and tiresome. I love Brighton but I won’t be reading anymore of this series.

[John Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The eagerly awaited next instalment of The Mystery Men series.
As followers of the series know it is set in the early 60s when the variety theatres were still alive and well, particularly in seaside resorts like Brighton. Our author must be of a 'certain age' to remember this as a comment noting the change from plush carpet to bare boards that happened as you climbed from the stalls, passed the balconies to the Gods in a theatre certainly captured for me those early visits to the cheap seats so high up that you needed to suck a sweet to stop your ears popping.

I am sure that Max Mephisto took a more central part in the earlier books but as his career moved on from theatre to Hollywood, the police team that has also matured now takes centre stage. Max's involvement here comes about when he is asked by a fellow magician, still treading the board, to help as his assistant has been murdered.
My usual problem of trying to keep track of who was married to who in stories where partners are changed was made doubly difficult here when it became useful to also find who had been magician's assistant for who.

I felt that I knew the characters and, in Brighton, the location too and the story had a certain momentum and even hinted at answers to  magicians tricks. However at one point  the story was edging my 3.5 score downwards but like the rabbit pulled from the magicians hat, it all came good in the end.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, a visit to Brighton where magician's from Max's past are causing problems for Superintendent Edgar Stephens. A magician's assistant is brutally murdered & the detective agency run by his wife is hired to help find the killer. As Emma & Sam work with the police to solve the crime, WDC Meg Connolly gets to play a bigger part in the stories. I love these characters & a Griffiths novel is always top-notch. Loved it.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the characters, who are beginning to feel like old friends, but the actual mystery of this one was too repetitive with too many similar characters. Just about scraped a three because its Elly Griffiths!! ;-)

[Sue Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just loved this series, and treated myself to the last one (for now?) on a long weekend. The characters are great, the mystery clever and the historical side to it so real. Thoroughly recommend this series.

[Victoria Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, as ever!

What makes Elly's books so fantastic are the characters. The mystery is secondary to the people; I'm always so drawn into her stories that I live the book until I'm done; and then I go back and read them all again. Keep them coming!

[P.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved this series of Brighton-based characters by the remarkable Elly Griffiths. This is the seventh, and it races along with a great plot and sparkling narrative.

Five stars. Would I read it again? Definitely! In fact I'd like to read the entire series again...

[Peter Swanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meg’s mother said ‘Bloody’ was a wicked swear word because it was a shortening of ‘by Our Lady’.

Sub-sub-Agatha Christie. Full of bloody poor logic, bloody weird dynamics and bloody unrealistic relationships.

[unknown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t believe I have given an Ellie Griffiths book only 3 stars. This one is not my favourite series anyway. The plot is very silly indeed. I am afraid these Brighton books are repetitious and confusing. The ending was very odd.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seventh book in The Brighton Mysteries series sees the women now in complete control of the story, with even Emma & Sam being slightly pushed aside by WDC Meg Connolly. As well as being a key investigator in the deaths of magicians assistants, Meg finds herself in the limelight as she takes to the stage as an assistant to the Great Mephisto, with the idea of drawing out the killer.

The characters are as endearing as ever & the 1960's vibe is echoed well, particularly by Meg's work in the force which highlights the inequalities that women faced in the workplace, as well as the sexism of this decade.

However, overall the storyline was merely decent &, to be honest, I found the explanation about the reasons for the killings rather poor. Still it kept me entertained even though it's not the strongest in the series.

3.5 stars

[abi · Rating 1 out of 5]

[1.5] i have no issue at all with books having a larger cast of characters, if each character is unique and serves a purpose to the story, or has some sort of character arc, etc. but so many historical fiction / mystery books seem to insist on putting so many people in their stories, only for them to be carbon copies of each other, and add no extra value, which makes them so confusing to keep track of. it was also hard to say who the main focus of this book was one, as it kept shifting whenever it seemed convenient for it to be someone else's turn. i thought the mystery could have been introduced, told and wrapped up in a much better crafted way, too.

[Beachcomber · Rating 4 out of 5]

With series and authors you like, you do tend to have half a worry about will each new book live up to expectation. The Great Deceiver does deliver thankfully, and gives a nice focus on Meg. I do agree with a few others who felt the ending was a little rushed, which is what stops this being 5* for me.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

its been awhile since I last read about Max and Edgar, Emma and Sam, and Meg and all the showpeople. It was a cozy comfortable time.

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book and well worth a read

[Gabbiadini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Latest Brighton mysteries was a great read . Reminded me of the earlier books . Great character development throughout this series makes for a great experience .

[Paula Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best yet!

[Richard Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first of The Brighton Mysteries series I've read, and although I didn't find it as intellectually challenging or stimulating as the Ruth Galloway series, it was a good read. Nice cast of characters, too, who probably warrant further exploration.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonable but nothing special - during the series, the focus has shifted from Max and Edgar to Emma, Sam and Meg. They aren’t as interesting and I don’t think the more recent books have been as good as the first few. The plot of this one was silly and implausible. Time to end this series I think.

[Lizzie Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Max Mephisto doesn’t seem able to avoid murder; it seems to dog his footsteps. This time it’s Cherry, the assistant of fellow magician Ted English, whose stage name is The Great Deceiver. Cherry has been found dead in her theatrical digs – and wouldn’t you just know, it happened in Brighton, where his friend Edgar Stephens is head honcho of the local police.

So begins the latest in Elly Griffiths’s Brighton series. It’s now the 1960s, and Max is no longer a variety performer but a famous film star. Edgar has been married to Emma, his former sergeant, for quite a few years, and Emma herself, bored with being a housewife, has teamed up with journalist Sam Collins to form a private detective agency.

Once again Griffiths has created a lively crew of characters and woven a twisty plot around them. Ted English is appearing in a nostalgia show in Brighton, and the performers are mostly holed up in the same boarding house. There’s Ida the feisty strongwoman, Bigg and Small the sad comics, Mario the second-rate singer, assorted dancers and gymnasts, not forgetting Linda the landlady with an unexpected side. Ted is one of a group of ageing magicians, some now retired from the boards; they include sleazy Pal, who now fronts a popular TV show and seems to know everyone’s secrets.

Between them, Edgar and Emma find their way through a sticky web of clues and misdirection, with the help of stolid DI Bob Willis, plucky WDC Meg Connolly, and of course Max Mephisto, who takes to the boards one last time (with a surprising assistant), to try to smoke out the culprit.

It’s packed with all the elements Elly Griffiths’s many fans have come to love: a keen wit, acute observation, enough description to bring seedy boarding houses, squalid theatre backstage areas, damp offices and sophisticated apartments to life, lots of familiar characters to reacquaint ourselves with and new ones to love or hate. Ruby, Max’s daughter, discovers that motherhood isn’t all cooing and gummy smiles. There’s even romance in the air, to Emma and Edgar’s consternation. And the plot takes us up hill and down dale in search of the truth, with a littering of bodies along the way and a smattering of social comment for good measure.

In short, it’s everything we expect from an Elly Griffiths novel, with a bit extra as there always is. There’s plenty to enjoy, and it left me wanting more.
------
Reviewer: Lynne Patrick
For Lizzie Sirett (Mystery People Group)

[Eyejaybee · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this latest addition to Elly Griffiths’s Brighton novel series, we have reached 10966, and people are looking forward to the forthcoming World Cup with great excitement. Well, most people. Conjuror and sometime Hollywood star Max Mephisto does not like football much, and courtesy of his mother’s Italian lineage he rather favours Italy over England. As he leaves his luxurious London apartment one morning, he hears his name called out from the street, and finds himself looking at a figure from his past: Ted English, a less accomplished stage magician with whom he worked years ago.

Ted has bad news – Cherry, the ‘glamorous assistant’ from his act, had been found murdered in her accommodation in Brighton. Thinking that he will be prime suspect, Ted English has hunted Max down, knowing that in the past he had been friendly with the head of Brighton’s police force, Superintendent Edgar Stephens. Edgar’s team is indeed investigating the murder, but they are not alone. Edgar’s wife, Emma, who was formerly a police officer but is now a private investigator, has been commissioned to look for the killer by Cherry’s family.

As always, Elly Griffiths engages the reader’s attention right from the start. I always find with her books that I start reading them, and almost without knowing it, I am sixty or seventy pages in, and completely hooked. This was no exception.

She uses a strong cast of principal characters who are all immensely plausible. Edgar plays a relatively small role now – one consequence of his exalted position as Superintendent is that he no longer becomes involved in the minutiae of his team’s cases. Still, he is an empathetic manager, and keen to ensure the welfare of all of his staff. His wife has always been a strong foil to him, and continues to manage the competing demands of investigation and family management. Constable Meg Connolly is also a brilliantly drawn character, offering a source of down to earth common sense to contrast the occasionally more rarefied approach of some of the others. The presence on the fringes of Astarte, a Romany character, adds a similar sprinkle of the esoteric to that cast by Cathbad in the Ruth Galloway books.

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Murder Most Foul (February-May 2025)

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.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read all the books in this series and enjoyed them. I love anything that has magic as a theme. Reading through other reviews I note that there's some criticism of Meg's unworldly attitude. I waaca teenager in the 1960s. It was called the Swinging 60s but that didn't mean every young person was rocking the night away. Meg the police officer whose character has been questioned in a few reviews is from a strict Catholic background. She lives at home and is trying to make a career for herself in the police force. I think it's believable that she'd be careful and wary. Wanting to present herself as a 'respectable girl'. This book moved the characters' lives on a bit and the theatrical scenes were fun. I'm being a bit nit- picky I know but there were a few details that seemed out of synch. At one point a character talks about M & S meaning the shop Marks and Spencer. In 1966 I don't think anyone would have used that abbreviation. It was called Marks and Spencers, Marks or Marks and Sparks. The use of M & S is a 21st century thing. I was also puzzled by the description of a Beatles blouson jacket. The style associated with their stage persona in the early 1960s was always a suit with a jacket that was without revers or a collar. That was always referred to as a Beatles' jacket. The author might have a different idea using the term blouson but I don't think The Beatles ever wore blouson jackets on stage.
Don't think the term cappuccino was common currency then either certainly not in high street coffee bars. Wimpy bars used to serve what was called frothy coffee in glass cups but it wasn't cappuccino by anyone's standards. Having had a few moans I did throughly enjoy the read and look forward to the next adventure of Max and Co.

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s now 1966; Max Mephisto is divorced, his daughter Ruby has a newborn, and murder is once again afoot: a magician’s assistant is murdered in her rooming house and the primary suspect is the magician with whom she worked, Ted English. Max knows that magician, known as the Great Deceiver, and is reluctantly drawn into investigating on his behalf. Meanwhile, Superintendent Edgar Stephens has WDC Meg Connolly working on the case, while his wife Emma and Sam, her partner in a detective agency, are asked by the parents of the murdered woman to investigate as well. With all that talent looking into the crime, one would think it should be quickly solved, but it takes another death before the various parties even begin to look in the right direction….This latest entry in the Brighton mysteries (also known as the Magic Men series) avoids the anachronisms found in its immediate predecessor (“The Midnight Hour”) and there are a lot of nice tidbits about the fading world of traveling variety shows, which by the mid-1960s had been largely supplanted by television. Indeed, some of the characters in this book are former variety performers now working in television; that era is quite nicely captured here. I also continue to enjoy the relationships between the main characters here, which are all advanced a little in this story, but I found there were a few too many magicians and former magicians forming the pool of suspects: they just weren’t differentiated enough for me to keep who was who straight, which resulted in the ending being a bit of a let-down. Still, entertaining enough for a mild recommendation.

[Beth Peninger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The variety show community in the late 1960s was on its last leg as television slowly replaced stage entertainment. Early on a Tuesday morning, The Great Deceiver, aka Ted English, shows up at Max's front door in distress. His assistant, Cherry, was found dead that morning, and Ted swears he didn't do it. Can Max convince his friend, Edgar, a police superintendent, that Ted had nothing to do with Cherry's vicious death? Meanwhile, in Brighton, the investigative team has discovered that Cherry's death was indeed at the hands of a brutal killer. As the police investigate, Emma and Sam are hired by Cherry's parents to look into the case. When another magician's assistant is found dead, everyone investigating starts getting nervous, believing they might be trying to find a serial killer. But who wants to kill assistants and why? All roads keep leading back to a seedy radio personality turned TV host named Pal. Is Pal the hands that keep taking the lives of assistants, or is this a case of misdirection? Who will figure it out first? The police investigative team or Emma and Sam?

And with this title, the Brighton Mysteries series concludes. Given the direction Griffiths took the characters, specifically Emma, it was, in my opinion, time for the series to end. Also, it felt like there were only so many variety show-themed deaths that both the Brighton police and the Emma and Sam duo could encounter and investigate. This is not a helpful review, or even a review in the true sense of the word. But I don't have a lot to say about this final book; it was fine, but nothing that will stick with me.