The Midnight Hour is book 6 in a series by Elly Griffiths, but the first that I have read. I read it since I adore her Ruth Galloway series but have finished it. Even though I started in the middle of this series, I don’t think it matters that much, it worked fine as a stand alone. The Midnight Hour is set in 1960s Brighton, UK, where a theatrical producer has died and his retired-actress wife is implicated in his death. The story primarily follows Meg, a policewoman, and Emma, a former policewoman turned private detective, as they work together to investigate.
The book was fun for the atmosphere and the characters. Elly Griffiths is very good at incorporating real places such as the Rottingdean Tudor Close in her books. Her eye for detail is fantastic, like when she notes policewoman Meg thinking about how her family had only recently got a refrigerator or that they still don’t have a telephone. These details show up the class distinctions that are apparently still so present in the UK. The mystery itself seemed almost superfluous – the murdered man was not someone that would be mourned even by his nearest and dearest, and he remained a shadowy figure for the reader. More a reason for the other characters to interact.
Overall, if you found this on a shelf in a B&B while on vacation, it would be a pleasant way to spend some time, but I wouldn’t rush out to get it the way I would recommend her other series.