Mahy is a master stylist who finds magic and mystery in everyday objects.

The minor events of family life add a texture to her work and a foundation for the bizarre events that are inevitable. Mahy chooses, for example, a scene of Harry's mother Naomi and Anthony Hesketh doing dishes in the kitchen as the backdrop for the revelation of the secret of Teddy's murder.

Harry journeys to the beach in the dark with a flashlight that makes a black stick look like a lizard or a clump of seaweed look like a severed head.

These distortions of everyday objects introduce Hadfield's attempted rape.

The Christmas tree lights flashing on and off in the corner of the living room provide a surreal background to Harry and Felix's first kiss.

Mahy designs The Tricksters as an elaborate puzzle in which the reader must sort through conflicting truths...