For some reason, I have not read any of the other Max Mephisto mysteries, but who could resist the lure of a mystery set in 1965 featuring a stage magician-turned-actor, a woman police officer (WPC in those days), and a female private investigator duo consisting of Sam, a journalist, and Emma, a former police officer who is now married to a police superintendent?
It did not take me long to begin to enjoy and admire the writing. I especially liked the occasional wry remark, such as “ ‘She feeds stray cats and wouldn’t even kill a spider.’ Lydia was kind to animals, too, but Max wasn’t sure that this always extended to humans.” Or the very evocative descriptions of the landscape, like a creepy nighttime portrayal of the graveyard where two murder victims are buried.
The characters’ stories are almost as prominent as the crime in The Midnight Hour. Most have interesting backgrounds on the stage. There are a LOT of characters, and most are either related to several others or have slept with one or more of them or, in one instance, barely avoided doing both!
The plot is intriguing, and I did not guess whodunnit. At first I felt the solution came out of the blue, but thanks to the search capability of my e-reader, I discovered that there were a number of clues along the way. So pay attention!
The physical setting is richly described and made me want to book a flight to England, and there is a short epilogue telling the reader about some of the buildings mentioned in the book that are real. The historical setting was more problematic because of anachronisms. The broad social themes of the status of women in the early days of the Women’s Rights movement was accurate, if a bit overemphasized, and the sensitivity towards class differences was nicely merged into the story. Spiritualism was, indeed, more popular then than it is today. However, Elly Griffiths was born only two years before the date of the book, so she cannot remember the era, and there were a lot of inaccuracies that would have been easy to avoid. For example, the Ford Cortina, mentioned several times, was not launched until 1970. The dangers of lead paint were not recognized until around 1979. One of the women learns she is pregnant and stops drinking, but two doctors whose wives were having babies during the late 60s assured me that they did not know about this being a problem during those years.
If you don’t require absolute accuracy of details in your fiction and enjoy well-written mysteries with complicated relationships among the characters and very subtle clues that MIGHT help you identify the killer, then there is a lot to like in The Midnight Hour. Elly Griffiths’ many fans will be pleased.

This series started out as the very enjoyable, Magic Men series. Now with this 6th installment there has been a shift in focus. Sam Collins and Emma Stephens, owners of a new private eye business have taken over the series from Emma’s husband, Edgar Stephens, the police superintendent and Max Mephisto, actor and magician. The new female detective agency provides an opportunity to explore the difficulty of women running a business as well as having a family and gives some insight about where women’s rights were at the time.
This book is a mixed success as a transition between the old series and this new more modern feeling one. All the old characters do take part and its great to catch up with what now seem like old friends but the catch up with Max and Edgar is vaguely unsatisfying. Max’s personal life is upended and no one seems to really care and Edgar’s role as police superintendent would make it highly unlikely that he would allow his wife to be included in the police in official investigation to the extent that she is portrayed. Sam doesn’t add much to the mix at all.
The story itself is a mixed success too. There are a lot of characters with little to distinguish them. By the end they are still being referred to by their occupation which is helpful because otherwise it is hard to keep them straight. You never really feel for the people involved or the people killed. The detectives themselves don’t seem really invested until one of their own is threatened and even then it is quickly resolved.
It will be interesting to read the next installment in this series. Elly Griffiths is a wonderful writer and there is no doubt that these characters will develop into ones that we want to come back to visit with again and again.

The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths is quite a satisfying read with British detectives solving the murder cases. Set in the sixties with characters that date back to the thirties, the plot involving movie actors and actresses on or about Halloween proves to be even more mysterious. It was a delightful novel.

The Brighton Mysteries

Elly Griffiths is also the author of the Dr. Ruth Galloway series, which is one of my favorites.

It’s 1965 in Brighton. Emma and Sam have set up their Detective Agency and have their first big case. Impresario Bert Billington is found dead. When the results return and they learn he was poisoned, his wife, Verity Malone, who was also a theater performer, hires Emma and Sam to find out who did this and keep her name out of it.

Lucky for Emma they have Max Mephisto on the inside to push for information. Interestingly he is in town filming Dracula along with Verity’s son, Seth.

There were so many people who looked guilty! You could tell they were all hiding something, but does that something have anything to do with the case?

I am most definitely happy I was not an adult woman in the ’60s. I remember my mother reading The Feminine Mystique and finding it and reading it myself. I didn’t understand most of it, but I knew I did not want to be one of those wives.

I especially enjoyed when Emma would just pop her little boy on her hip and go interview suspects. Although eventually Edgar stepped up and pulled some weight.

I also enjoyed seeing Meg become bolder.

This is Cozy with a Bite! And I loved it!

NetGalley/ November 2nd, 2021 Mariner (formerly HMH)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. I feel like I've been waiting such a long time for this title! I know Griffiths has the other series, so I haven't been bereft, but I was worried the long wait might make me forget some things. Luckily, Griffiths does a nice job of subtly catching readers up on the connections of the characters and how they all inter-relate to each other. It's so fun to see Emma and Sam strike out on their own! The whole story was good, parts of it felt a bit lackluster or rushed, but overall: it was an extremely enjoyable read, and the plot twists were enough to keep me completely engaged. Given the ending of the book, I am EXTREMELY interested to see where Griffiths takes this story next!

The Midnight Hour was a slow read at the beginning but picked up with a surprised ending, Emma Holmes and her partner, Sam Collins are PI's and partners in their own company, Holmes and Collins Detective Agency. Emma is married to the police superintendent, Edgar Stephens of the Brighton Police Force.. Sam is single and loves to ride motorcycles. They are hired by Verity Malone, a retired actress, whose husband, Bert, Billington, a theatre impresario and womanizer, has been found in the living room murdered by poison. The rest of the supporting characters add to the story. Verity is suspected to had been the one to administer the poison hires Emma and Sam to find out who killed her husband. This is were the story takes hold and takes the reader on a journey with twists and turns, infidelity and a suicide finding out who the murderer is. Max Mephisto a main character is an actor/magician in the theatre along with his retired wife, Lydia have returned from America. He is a good friend of Edgar's. He is working on a movie production of "The Prince of Darkness" along with Verity's son, Seth who is an actor in the same film. Meg Connolly, a WDC Officer in the police force I would also consider her one of the main characters. Alma Saunders was Verity's dresser and now is her cleaner/friend. She is also murdered by strangulation.

I enjoyed this book but will leave the story to the reader as I don't want to spoil it for them.

Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Corp. for the ARC.

The latest mystery in the Stephens & Mephisto series by Elly Griffiths takes place 10 years after the previous book (you don’t have to read the series in order, but they kind of build on each other any many of the characters have plots and relationships explored in the other books). Emma and Sam have started their own detective agency which is plagued by the fact that they are a female run business in the early 1960’s. They take on a case of a murdered man when his wife and prime suspect hires them. This book is filled with twists and turns that will have the reader guessing until the very end!

This is listed as both Stephens & Mephisto #6 aswelll as the Brighton Mysteries.

I have read several of Ms. Griffith’s Ruth Galloway novels but this is my first in this series.
I was fearful that I would need to ‘catch-up’!
However, this was a good one for a ‘First’ as Emma Holmes was the lead in this story. I found that I just love her and am sure (as well as hope) that she will be in the next story!!! Perhaps the series is switching to Brighton Mysteries and we definitely will resd more from Emma!!

Time period 1965: the beginning of the women’s movement.

This series has featured Superintendent Edgar Stephens and Movie star Max Mephisto. Now Edgar is married to Emma Holmes and although they have 3 young children, she has set up a Private Investigation Agency.
Story starts when ninety year old Bert Billington is found death. Since he was 90, everyone thought he died of natural causes. However, an autopsy reveals that he had been poisoned. Verity, his seventy-five year old, former show-girl wife is accused of killing him ~ the thinking is that perhaps due to her age it was a mistake and she didn’t realize what she was doing.

Aww but our Verity knows to get a team of female investigators to assist. Yes Emma takes the lead.
Story deals with women’s ambitions and the obstacles they face.
For example in this story the Police woman is not permit to drive the police car.

Side Bar: This reminded me of a talk given some years ago by the ~ First Female Chief of Police in our area. She said when she started her uniform was a skirt and she had to wear high heels. She asked ~ Can you imagine running after bad guys in a skirt and high heels? We laughed but I also remember when I was a freshman in college ~ females were not allowed to wear shorts on campus; after PE we wore a long coat to cover up that we had on gym shorts.
Back to story ~ this got very interesting. There was a lot going on. I was grateful for the Kindle ‘highlight and notes’ feature as it very helpful in keeping track of not just the characters but and who was whose off spring.
Love Ms. Griffiths “Acknowledgments” (true I always enjoy reading the Author’s Notes and/or Acknowledgments!)
Ms. Griffiths tells us her inspiration for the Brighton Series ~ yep we get the inside scoop!!

Want to thank NetGalley and Mariner Books for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for December 7, 2021

3.5 stars, rounded up
I’ve enjoyed this historical mystery series, especially the last book which really detailed the misogyny of the day and the beginnings of the women’s rights movement. That theme is again picked up here. Emma has her new detective agency, but is often forced to bring her two year old son on interviews when child care falls through. And Meg, the WDC, is still not allowed to drive a panda car or read a post mortem. ‘“Of course, women aren’t allowed to drive police cars’, said Emma, ‘what with us being such sensitive flowers and all that.”
When Bert Billington, a successful theatre impresario is found to have been poisoned, his wife, a suspect, hires Emma and Sam, to prove her innocence. She also insists that WDC Meg Connolly be part of the investigation because she only wants to deal with a female detective. Maybe because she’s recently read The Feminine Mystique?
Max and Edgar take supporting roles in this book. I did enjoy how Emma comes into her own, forcing Max to occasionally take on the child care so she can get on with her job.
I enjoyed this story, with quite a few red herrings to keep me guessing as to who ultimately had committed the murders. I find the characters interesting and hope that Griffiths continues to highlight the women as much as the men in the series.
This is considered a cozy mystery, but it’s got a little more grit than I usually credit cozy mysteries with having.
My thanks to Netgalley and Mariner Books for an advance copy of this book.

This was the first Max Mephisto book I've read. And while I really like Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway" series, and recognize the cozy mystery genre is quite different - it just didn't quite work for me.

Ok I have to say that the start did not grab me, but it grew on me quickly. Ella Griffiths is a very talented writer and in her capable hands the story is so well told. I think what I loved the most was the story told after the capture of the murderer.

Emma and Sam are partners in a detective firm. Emma is the wife of the police chief which is odd and she drags the kids on her sleuthing trips. All of this could have been, well, awkward and easily mishandled but it is well done. Meg is the WPC given the job of interviewing suspects. She and Emma team up for some of this and it is a good match. But the show is stolen by Verity and her story, central to the plot. I also really liked Max and now I want to go back and read the previous five books in the series to catch myself up.

Well done, Ms. Griffiths! Very enjoyable! Thank you again to NetGalley, Quercus, and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

"The world seems full of good men, even if there are monsters in it." (Bram Stoker, Dracula)

The Midnight Hour appropriately cracks the door and beckons in Dracula, Prince of Darkness. Only this time the spotlight is on theater. And plenty of it in this one. Seth Billington, heartthrob of the stage, is fitfully decked out in cape and fangs as he plays the darkened figure for a new movie. Fellow actor and former magician, Max Mephisto, has a key role in this production as well. But instead of fang marks on the neck, there will be rat poison in the veins.

Seth's father, Bert, will be found dead in his library chair after lunch by his motorcycling other son, Aaron. Verity Malone, Bert's wife and former 1920's singer/dancer, is frozen in place. First appearances point to a stroke for the ninety year old. Stands to reason. Later tests reveal that aforementioned wine of the rat. But who would want the ol' theater impressario dead at this late date? Our Bert had quite a few other children out of wedlock and a long list of paramours even into his later years. A lot of activity, dear Bert, and now a lot of new suspects rolling out.

It's 1965 and Verity, true to women's rights, hires the team of Emma Holmes and Samantha Collins as private investigators. Emma is married to Superintendent Edgar Stephens. She's the mother of three children and often must take her wired youngest, Jonathan, along with her on the job. What a riot filled experience that can be! Emma is a former police officer and she can almost dance circles around her well-medaled husband. Emma and "Sam" put bloodhounds to shame. And this case is gonna be a challenge with so many suspects, young and old, male and female.

Elly Griffiths is a renowned writer. I've been a big fan of her Dr. Ruth Galloway series. Don't be taken aback by the #6 in this series. The Midnight Hour reads as a fine standalone and will wet your whistle into the writings of Griffiths. There's chunks of humor here as well as twisty pathways. Be sure to check this one out.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the talented Elly Griffiths for the opportunity.

When Bert Billington dies at home with only his wife Verity for company their youngest son, Aaron draws the obvious conclusion. Verity employs Emma Holmes & Sam Collins female private investigators to prove that she is not a murderer.
Emma is the wife of superintendent Edgar Holmes of Brighton police. She is also an ex-police officer and one of the first female detectives in the UK.
WDC Meg Connolly is also working on the case and is rather is awe of Emma and the famous people that the case brings her into contact with.
This is another excellent read from Elly Griffiths who manages to perfectly evoke the mid-1960s.

This is the 6th book in the Stephens and Mephisto series by author Elly Griffiths. I really enjoy the Ruth Galloway series by this author but have never really felt the same about this series until now. Not really sure why but this book felt so much better than the previous books I had read. The only thing I could possibly put it down to was that a lot of the book featured the two women investigators rather than Max Mephisto who is very prominent in previous books.

Private Investigator Emma Holmes and her partner Sam Collins have been assigned a case by retired music-hall star Verity Malone, who hires them to find out who poisoned her husband, a theatre impresario. Verity was herself accused of the crime by the Brighton police, putting Emma in direct competition with her husband, police superintendent Edgar Stephens.

Both Emma and Verity share a mutual connection to Max Mephisto, who has returned to England from America with his children and famous wife, Hollywood star Lydia Lamont. Now with the couple back on English soil, Lydia, has time on her hands and offers Emma and Sam her services.

The race is on to catch the killer and the evidence suggest they’re looking for a criminal targeting the old music-hall crew. The question is does Lydia know secrets that could help crack the case and will it lead back to Max Mephisto.

Enjoyable read with lots of interesting characters. A good plot written in the cosy crime style that works for Elly Griffiths.

I would like to thank both Net Galley and Mariner books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A former policewoman, Emma, starts her own private investigation agency. She and her partner, Sam (for Samantha), who also reports for the local newspaper, have taken on a new case. But so have the police. As the police and Emma's agency investigate the death of a show-business celebrity, they must pool their information to determine who actually killed the show business producer. Complicating the matter is that Emma is married to the local police superintendent who is overseeing the case. This light romp through the Brighton area is set in the early 1960s and the challenges of women on the police force and working women are pointed out. The characters are not clearly drawn as separate individuals and it was confusing when switching between the different characters. The storyline is interesting but it came to an unexpected ending with the resolution seeming to come out of nowhere. Not recommended.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advance reader copy of The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths in exchange for an honest review. A new PI, Emma Holmes, and her partner, Sam Collins, are starting their business, when a new murder case comes their way. A famous man is poisoned and his wife is accused of his murder. Emma and Sam start to question the family, neighbors and employees. The police also are asking questions of many people. I love Elly Griffiths books. I have read her other series with Ruth Galloway several times and wasn't sure if I would like this series. It grabbed me and held my attention.

I had to DNF this book due to a lack of distinguishable characters. I really wanted to like it, but I had no idea who was talking or being described half the time.

This was a lovely lovely read with a wonderful retro feel and no gore. An aging actress, Verity Malone, is suspected of poisoning her philandering husband and old showbiz impresario Bert Billington. She hires a team of female investigators, enter Emma Stephens, a wife and mother of three but also a former police detective, and her friend Samantha Collins, a former newspaper reporter. The finger of suspicion is pointed at her by her youngest son, Aaron, who believes she was getting tired of caring his dad, plus she was getting new ideas reading The Feminine Mystique.
It felt like the spirit of the time was captured very well. It treads a very fine line between nostalgia to a golden age and a social catalogue of all its faults. Feminism is explored throughout the story though most of the female cast are not the average suburban housewives. There are the attitudes toward the female cops who are treated differently than their male counterparts and were not allowed to drive police cars. The women in the showbiz who are subject to unwanted sexual attention. Or even minor tasks like catering to other characters and supplying them with tea and biscuits which was also relegated to the investigating women in the story. Also while Emma investigates Edgar her husband and police officer is left to care for their children for one day and realizes how difficult it is.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy via Netgalley & Quercus Books in exchange for my honest review

A throughly enjoyable series where each book is better than the last. PI’s Emma Holmes and Sam Collins are asked to solve another high profile case. Great plot and characters.

This is the novel that finally sold me on Elly Griffiths' Magic Men/Brighton series. I had been wanting to love that series as much as her others -- and now I do.

In the mid-1960s, a series of murders occurs, surrounding former film & stage stars Verity & Bert. Verity contacts an all-women's private detective agency, led by Emma and Sam, for support. Meanwhile, young policewoman Meg closes in from the police side. Instead of competing to solve the murder, which is how the story seems to be unfolding, they join forces in this atmospheric and fun mystery.