Ten years have passed since the grizzly murders took place during the Christmas Variety at the Brighton Hippodrome. Edgar is now a Superintendent and formidable DS Emma Holmes is his housewife and mother to three children, a job she can’t say she enjoys all that much. Max is now a famed Hollywood movie star and Ruby is taking British television by storm!
When a sad departure throws the gang back together, the reunion sparks some unexpected feelings for the friends. Like old times the group are linked to an ongoing investigation, one that soon takes a sinister turn when a body is found on a nearby beach, but it is when the suspect strikes a little closer to home that tensions begin to show.
Well, we’ve arrived in 1964 and the Mods and Rockers are in full swing, but Griffiths latest instalment for this series left me yearning for the 50s.
Although all of this author’s usual brilliance was here; the wonderful writing and suspenseful storyline, the new dynamic amongst the group left me feeling a loss for the characters. I had, of course, expected the relationships to be different after an interlude of ten years. Especially as keeping in touch was not as easy in this time as it is nowadays. However, I felt they had become disjointed and far removed from one another.
Whilst I really enjoyed the story and Griffiths had be guessing until the last minute as always, I found I couldn’t quite overcome the feeling of sadness at the lack of rapport I’ve become used to from this gang.
Perhaps, now that they have been brought back together, going forward the group will gel a little better and more like the old days. I still highly recommend this book as it is a brilliant series, and I will still keenly keep an eye on NetGalley for the release of book number 6!!
** Thanks to Quercus Books, via NetGalley, for this ARC **