In combining detection with a happilyending love story, Magic Hour resembles After All These Years (1993; see separate entry). One of the interesting sidelights on the parallel plots is the centrality of the love theme in Magic Hour, compared to the minor part it plays in the later novel. Bonnie comes to represent the choice between sunshine and gloom for the rest of Steve's life. Tom Driscoll in After All These Years is a nice-but-optional bonus; a reward won by Rosie for her daring deeds much as medieval knights won a fair maiden's hand. Whether the difference is just a playful Isaacs twist, or whether it is a hidden message about the needs of the two sexes, is up to the reader to say.