The Secret of Magic

by Deborah Johnson

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Book cover for The Secret of Magic

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'[An] addictive tale of intrigue' - the Independent

'A powerful portrait of the Deep South in the year before the civil rights movement' - Sunday Times

If you liked The Help, you'll love this one!' - Entertainment Weekly


In 1946 Regina Robichard is a rarity. A young New York civil rights lawyer, working for Thurgood Marshall, Reggie stumbles across a letter asking her boss to investigate the case of a young black soldier whose body has been found floating in the river in Mississippi. It fires her zeal.

For Reggie, justice is not the only draw to this case. The letter is signed by the reclusive M. P. Calhoun, author of one of the most banned books in the country, a book Reggie loved as a child, about the friendship between three children, black and white, a magical forest - and a murder.

Reggie has just three weeks in the South to investigate. But once down in Mississippi, amid the intoxicating landscape of cotton fields and lush plantations, Reggie not only finds herself further away from New York than she had ever imagined, but walking directly into M. P. Calhoun's book, a place where more than one type of justice exists.

  • ISBN10 0241968933
  • ISBN13 9780241968932
  • Publish Date 12 February 2015 (first published 21 January 2014)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Out of Print 11 October 2023
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
  • Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
  • Pages 352
  • Language English