Set in 1964, Mary Higgins Clark Award–winner Griffiths’s fine fifth Magic Men mystery (after 2017’s The Vanishing Box) finds Supt. Harry Nelson is still struggling with his marriage, his desire to be Kate's daddy, and the incompatibility of these two things.

Ruth is most definitely in love with Harry Nelson (frankly, I don’t blame her, there’s something darkly handsome and compelling about him), but their relationship is antagonistic, with moments of shared tenderness over their daughter. But now death has found her, with the news that her long-time friend Dan Golding has been killed in a house fire. I will read the next in the series in case this was a blip because I liked the first few stories, but my worry is that the pressure to keep writing about Ruth Galloway leads to the books becoming poorly constructed and formulaic. for a stand-alone about a police detective, a developmentally delayed boy, and a package everyone in North Dakota wants to grab.uk/landing-page/quercus/quercus-company-information/">The data controller is Quercus Editions Ltd. The relationships and ongoing plot lines continue to develop giving the reader the opportunity to get more understanding of the individuals.

I like the introduction to Nelson' family (his mum is a hoot and bonds quickly with Cathbarth) as well as his old "stomping" ground and colleagues.

My entries are not book reviews but just my personal thoughts and opinions about what I'm reading at the moment.