2016 mystery, third in its series. DI Edgar Stephens and his old
wartime colleage the magician Max Mephisto are called in to solve the
killing of their own old boss. There are cryptic clues, one of which
seems to point to the imminent coronation of Elizabeth II.
After perhaps a slight slump in book two, I found this one back
on form. There's some 1950s tourism (Edgar travels to the USA;
everyone in England is going daft about the coronation; Max is in the
first performance of Those Were The Days, a variety-on-TV experiment
that's an obvious The Good Old Days clone). The hypnotic power of
"being on television" is everywhere. One element (gur cbffvovyvgl bs
fhoyvzvany zrffntvat) is a few years earlier than it really should be,
but the plot doesn't hinge on it.
There are however some soap-operatic elements which rather lower my
hopes for the future of the series: character A is blindly in love
with B and planning to marry them, B's happy with the relationship as
it is but not planning to devote themselves to marriage, C's
hopelessly in love with A, D with C, and so on. This was one of the
elements that spoiled the Ruth Galloway series for me, and I hope
Griffiths doesn't expand too much on this side of things.
Max embarked on his spaghetti carbonara with slightly less than his
usual relish. Either Edgar was in danger or he was having the
adventure of a lifetime. Max hated to admit it but both
possibilities made him feel extremely depressed.
As for the actual mystery, it's a good one, with fair clues and a
variety of odd and suspicious characters.
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