Zig Zag Woman - by Roberta Tracy & Historium Press (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The last thing LAPD Detectives McManus and Tyson expect to find behind Pantages Theatre is a body rolled up in a blanket.

The last thing Margaret Morehouse, one of the city's first policewoman with arrest powers, expects to do is join the investigation. When a deadly explosion at the L. A. Times derails their efforts, Margaret finds herself at a crossroads and strikes out on her own, a path leading to delusion and self-discovery on a vaudeville stage. Her husband's nephew Leland further complicates the situation by sharing a ransom note and confiding his failure to report his wife's disappearance the Dominguez Air Meet.

A brief stint as a magician's assistant takes Margaret to Chicago, where she almost signs on as a zig zag girl, the term used for ladies performing in the "cutting-a-woman-in-two" illusion. Instead, Margaret returns to the tumultuous world of early twentieth century Los Angeles. Reunited with McManus and Tyson, she confronts prejudices and societal norms in efforts to identify a body, clear Leland's name, and topple the stranglehold one powerful, amoral person has over many lives. Their efforts lead to dead ends and misconceptions before truth comes to light. Love is rekindled and danger uncovered in unlikely places. Margaret goes from Zig Zag Girl to Zig Zag Woman, no longer cut in two but headed on a clearer path.

Review Quotes

"This was an adventurous and daring read. New voices in period crime fiction demand complete surrender. Roberta Tracy's intricately detailed and engaging mystery charms away the fainted breath of a history of crimes and would-be lovers, gasping for meaning, and early 20th century morals and madness, disguised and seduced by a dream. I surrendered deeply into this moving and ambitious portrait of a woman ahead of her time, and of her desire, stuck in time." - Jerry Thompson, Editor, Oakland Noir & Berkeley Noir