I think I like this series better than the Ruth Galloway ones overall. I like the way a historical series can zoom forward through time. Now we’re up to the mid 1960s and everyone is getting a bit older (obviously) but Meg, a new young detective with Brighton police is a great addition to the feminist ranks of these books. Emma gets more of a chance to shine again here too. The theatrical/magical backgrounds to the plots could get all a bit repetitive but on the whole I think it’s helped by the leaps through time. You can imagine that there have been any number of other cases in between the books that had no theatrical connections but we just drop in to get told about these interesting ones. And the leaps in time also make Max’s appearance on the scene each time a bit more believable.

I realise I’ve said absolutely nothing about the plot there. Like many long running series it’s the main characters lives that stick in my head and not the ins and outs of the cases they are solving. And this is the sixth installment of this series and I hope it’ll stick around for at least a few more. I seem to think I found some of the plot in this one involved bringing in characters who had barely been mentioned, or just inferred, to take on major roles. Which isn’t something I mind really, always having the culprit on the first page isn’t a good thing either. And besides there were definitely interesting and fleshed out characters in the friends and family of the victim here.

Definitely one of my favourite series of the past few years.