“Roberta Tracy’s intricately detailed and engaging mystery charms away the fainted breath of a history of crimes… I surrendered deeply into this moving and ambitious portrait of a woman ahead of her time…”- Jerry Thompson, editor Oakland Noir & Berkeley Noir
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 at 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.
Roberta Tracy is a former staff greeting card writer and nonprofit worker specializing in services for seniors. She lives in Fairfield, California, and volunteers as an adult literacy tutor. She co-authored Come Dream With Me, a work of creative nonfiction that is part travelogue, part hippie nostalgia, detailing the adventures of Inese Civkulis.
