Noah Valentine rides again, and this time his friends hear about a murder and force him to investigate it. You know, for something to do. Thornton's second Pinx Video Mystery works better than the first, partly because Noah is more open with the reader, and that he’s personally invested in the case.

Thornton has had to retool a couple of characters who were outsize in their rudeness to Noah in Night Drop, and this time the racist characters still speak their racism but others say “that’s too racist, even for me.” Baby steps.

The biggest concession to cosy mysteries, other than the recipes at the end, is that there’s a nascent romance with the “baby gay” policeman — an apparent hallmark of the genre, although still unfortunate given the time and place the books are set.

Hidden Treasures is light and fluffy, and the deaths are less brutal this time around. And why not? Why shouldn’t gays get a relatively low stakes crime to call their own?