This gleeful, clever sequel to 2006’s Disappearing Nightly
teams up actress and singing waitress Esther Diamond with the magic-savvy but utterly unworldly Max the Magician and his slobbering canine familiar, Nelli, to discover how and why New York’s mobsters are being magically duplicated. Complicating matters is Esther’s suspicious would-be boyfriend, handsome Irish-Cuban police detective Connor Lopez, who would prefer a straightforward investigation involving neither Esther nor magic. Resnick introduces a colorful cast of gangsters and their associates, including a thrice-bereaved mob widow and an attractive young priest, as she spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine. Sexy interludes raise the tension between Lopez and Esther as she juggles magical assailants, her perennially distracted agent, her meddling mother, and wiseguys both friendly and threatening in a well-crafted, rollicking mystery. (Jan.)
