The Zig Zag Girl is a variation of one of the most popular stage illusions: sawing a woman in half.

Ruth Knafo Setton’s novel, “ZigZag Girl” (300 pages; Black Spring Crime; paperback, $18.95; ebook and Kindle,$5.49; 2026), is a different take on magic.

Her main character is Lucy Moon, a female magician in a mystery set in Atlantic City and New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.

The book is described as “a noir-tinged feminist thriller, where ‘The Prestige’ meets ‘Knives Out’ in Atlantic City’s haunted magic underworld.”

“Women used to only be assistants. They were just there to contribute. Now there are more young female magicians who have their own conventions and conferences. I tried to promote them in this novel,” Setton says during an interview in a west Allentown coffee shop.

Setton has studied with some of the great magicians, including Teller of Penn and Teller, and she created some of her own illusions for her book. She has been sawed in half, in thirds and locked in a straitjacket.

“I fell in love with magic for many reasons. I saw the way magicians think. Not just outside the box. For them, there is no box,” says Setton.

One of her mentors was Larry Hass, a former professor of Philosophy and Theater Arts at Muhlenberg College, who is now a full-time magician. He brought in magician-scholars for lectures, courses and conferences at Muhlenberg, and worked to make it a center for the study of theatrical magic.

The novel came about from a different kind of magic, what might be called a mystic event instead of a stage illusion:

“I started another novel that had nothing to do with magic. But a character came who just kept appearing on the page. I called him the Magician. He was more interesting than the other characters.”

The Magician began to direct the ZigZag Girl story.

She was also inspired by Atlantic City.

“Going down to the Jersey Shore as a little girl was so exciting and glamorous. I loved Atlantic City. People say that it is dead now. The Boardwalk is seedy and it is not safe to walk around at night.”

Setton thinks the city has hope. A lover of noir fiction, she knows that plots often involve shady, less than respectable women:

“I see Atlantic City as a tough dame who is knocked down, but ready to put on scarlet lipstick and get back in the ring.”

“Atlantic City is full of the past. It has a great history that I can feel with my favorite kind of magic: magic in the real world from the stage to the Boardwalk.”

The novel visits the city during World War II. “There was a Camp Boardwalk, where buildings were converted into hospitals and living quarters. Almost no one knows about that.”

When she was three, Setton emigrated with her family from Morocco to the Untied States. Her first novel, “The Road to Fez,” is about a young woman making a pilgrimage to Morocco. Setton grew up in Allentown and Bethlehem, attending Freedom High School in Bethlehem and William Allen High School in Allentown.

She taught literature at Lafayette College and literature and creative writing at Lehigh University for 15 years. She also taught during three trips for “Semester at Sea,” a program that combines ocean voyages with college credits. Setton and her husband, Joe, who have three children, live in west Allentown.

“ZigZag Girl” was a finalist for the 2026 International Thriller Writers Award for the Standalone Book of the Year and an Indie Books Award Finalist for Best Mystery of the Year.

“ZigZag Girl” won the Grand Prize in ScreenCraft’s Cinematic Book Competition and First Prize in the Daphne du Maurier Foundation Contest for unpublished mystery-suspense novel.

On her website, Setton states, “I’ve written a TV pilot based on the novel, and I’m in the process of adapting it into a limited series.”

As with most authors, Setton had to endure rejections and struggles before her publishing success. She says, “You have to believe in yourself and have faith in yourself first.”

Website: https://ruthsetton.com/

“Literary Scene” is a column about authors, books and publishing. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com