In this fifth Magic Men mystery (after The Vanishing Box, 2018), Griffiths pulls off an amazing sleight of hand by moving her characters 11 years forward in time and planting them smack in the middle of the early 1960s. Brighton, England, police detective Edgar Stephens, now promoted to superintendent, is happily married with children to a sometimes frustrated Emma (née Holmes), who is missing her life as a brilliant detective. When a string of girls goes missing, Emma uses her connection with Sam Collins, a reporter for the local paper, to set herself up as a potential victim, unbeknownst to Edgar, and she gets in way over her head, putting herself and her their? daughter, Marianne, in danger. Magician Max Mephisto, also married with young children and now a movie star in America, gets involved when his grown daughter Ruby, a British TV personality, also disappears. The thrill of the chase makes Max ponder whether the fantasy life he created in Hollywood can compare to his earlier existence, which followed a best-of-times-worst-of-times pattern. As always, Griffiths creates an authentic sense of time and place the Cold War still exerting its chill, and Britain besotted by the Beatles. Readers will eagerly await more to come.--Jane Murphy Copyright 2019 Booklist