The Killing Time by Elly Griffiths - Review

Elly Griffiths is back! Wooo! This is the second book in her new series about a secret time travelling police team, starring Ali Dawson as the lead detective. I enjoyed the first book a lot so as soon as it was out, I got this. I really liked it. Even though I was suspicious of the premise before the first book, it soon won me over because Elly's writing is so warm and fun that you just get dragged along.

We meet the team when they are banned from doing time travel, because their science girl, Seraphina Jones, is stuck in the 1850s due to happenings in the first book. Ali is depressed and the other science person is working hard to get Jones back, but currently, nothing doing. Ali gets a visit from a distraught mother whose son has taken his own life. She tells Ali that he was under the influence of a spiritualist type of person called Barry Power. 

Starting to investigate Power, Ali and her colleague go to one of his shows. There, Power tells her that he is in touch with Jones. Ali is obviously peturbed by this. Later that night she realises her cat, Terry, has gone missing and she asks the science guy (whose name has left my head, sorry) to help her go back in time to make sure he doesn't go missing. However, something goes wrong, and Ali ends up back in the 1850s. 

I loved the story and was totally wrapped up in it again. There's less of Ali's son Finn which I thought was a shame because I liked him in the first book, but I just loved it. I'm giving it five out of five and I just can't wait for the next one! 

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths - Review

 

So you know I'm a huge fan of Elly Griffiths and have read everything she's written for adults, and a couple of her books for children, but when I first heard of this book I wasn't thrilled about it. It involves time travel and I was like ....sure. So I didn't buy it. But then when I was at Stockport Noir in January Elly was there and the way she talked about this book was enough to pique my interest. So I bought a copy of it for Elly to sign. Then when I mentioned it to my mum and to my friend Sarah, who both also really like Elly, they both said that it's really good and I should give it a go. Sarah said that you just accept the time travel premise and how it's done, and that the book carries you along with it. 

So I picked it up in March and I have to say my mum and Sarah were right - I really liked it and the story is good enough to forget my misgivings about time travel. I will definitely read the second and more in the series! 

The protagonist is Ali, she's in her forties and has a son called Finn who is about twenty five. She had him pretty young and was married to his father (Declan? Duncan? One of those) but they have divorced and don't particularly get on. Ali's job is for the police, ostensibly in 'cold cases', but in actuality, a scientist in the department has cracked time travel. Ali has been back in time just once, when she and a colleague went to the 1960s to witness a crime to bring back to the present day for relatives to get closure. There's just six people in the department and it's obviously on a need to know basis. 

Finn works for a Tory MP called Isaac Templeton. Ali is disappointed if he believes in Tory politics, which I thought was very funny, but she appreciates that he has a good job and is learning his way in politics, etc. Then Isaac gets in touch with Ali's department and she has to go see him. 

He explains that his great grandfather, Cain Templeton, was a bit of a wrong 'un, that he might have belonged to this group called The Collectors - and rumour has it that to join the group, you had to kill a woman. There are details in his diary of a murder in a house he kept, and Isaac wants to be sure that Cain didn't kill this woman so Ali has to go back in time to see. Cain certainly did collect some weird things, like people's brains and so on, so it seems like he really might have murdered this woman. I liked the similarities here to Jack the Ripper and to other groups like The Collectors. 

Ali is helped in her transformation into a Victorian lady by several people, including the scientist in the department, whose name I've forgotten but I liked her a lot too. The time travel goes well and Ali arrives in the 1860s and goes to Cain Templeton's house. It isn't where he lives - he's posh so he has a manor house in Sussex or something - but he keeps the house for artists he's patronising and other waifs and strays. Ali sees the murdered girl and isn't sure who has murdered her, so does some enquiries. She is supposed to return home at the same time the next day, when the 'portal' will be open again, but when she gets there, it doesn't work. 

She's stuck. She rents a room in Cain's house and starts trying to unravel what has happened there. She poses as a widowed lady and tries to get herself back home. Victorian London is not a fun place to be...

Meanwhile Finn is in legal trouble back in the present day but with his mum 'away' for work he's having trouble too. 

I liked Ali a lot and can't wait to read more about her. I liked Finn too. The set up was just good, and it was a good story for the first in a series. I'm giving it four out of five. 

The Man in Black and Other Stories by Elly Griffiths - Review

I am really sorry to have been absent from my blog for a bit. I was feeling a bit uncreative after I came back from a few days away, and then one of my beloved cats died very unexpectedly. She probably had a heart attack or something; it was very sudden. We're just very sad and shocked. I was about to start writing this post when she died, and I know it published as an empty post before. I'm sorry about that if you saw it. 

I also read this book weeks ago - I finished it on the 26th of July - and I feel like I've forgotten loads of what is in it. As with all Elly's books, I enjoyed it, though. It's a book of short stories; I've read a couple of Elly's short stories before but it was nice to read a whole book of them. I also read this just before I went to Norfolk on holiday and as a few of the stories are set in Norfolk it was nice to do this. 

Some of the usual suspects are here - Ruth and Nelson and Kate, Max Mephisto, and Harbinder Kaur. I liked all their stories, of course, and the one about Ruth's first Christmas tree. I've read that before but it was lovely to read it again as Kate is a baby in it and of course in the books she's quite grown up now. I loved seeing Max in the theatre and in the lodging houses again, and learning a bit more about his past. I liked the stories with new characters too. I think the best one was a twist in the tale about a woman who discovered something in her husband's garden... 

In all I'm giving this four out of five and I really liked it!

Norfolk by Elly Griffiths - Review

My friend Sarah bought me this book for Christmas and I picked it up in the towards the beginning of March and kept it on the sofa to read it when I was eating tea or just chilling out. It was quick to read and I really liked it, plus it looks absolutely stunning. 

You may know that the Ruth Galloway books are set in Norfolk, where Ruth teaches at a fictional university and where she lives right on the edge of the salt marshes. Many things in the books happen in the wilds of the Norfolk countryside as well as in its towns. Elly has family history there, which I've heard her speak about before, and which she outlines in this book. 

She intersperses her own history alongside extracts from the Ruth books, set at places specifically mentioned, and also talks about her inspiration for some of her settings, writing, and words. It's obvious that Norfolk is a big part of what makes these books great, and Elly uses the settings to great effect to ramp up the menace a lot of the time. 

The photos are absolutely stunning too. Justin Minns is a very talented photographer. I've been to Norfolk but only a couple of times, but it was nice to recognise some of the places in the photos. I love photos of the seaside so it was nice to see Cromer, in particular. The book is divided into seasons, too, and the photos really show Norfolk in all its glory throughout the year. 

I really enjoyed dipping into this, it's a cute little book for the Elly fan in your life!

The Last Word by Elly Griffiths - Review

 

So this book is the second one to star characters who first appeared in The Postscript Murders which I read back in 2020. In that book Harbinder Kaur was the investigating detective, but she met Edwin and Benedict and Natalka in the course of the investigation into the death of Peggy, who lived in Edwin's sheltered housing and who Natalka was a carer for, and those three are the main characters in this book. Harbinder does feature, but not very much, but still, it was nice to read her cameo!

So Edwin and Natalka are now running a private detective agency. Natalka is still doing care work and her mum Valentyna has moved over from Ukraine to live with her and Benedict. Edwin is eighty something but very sprightly and very sharp. He likes the agency but wishes they had something more interesting to investigate than cheating husbands and such as the like. Benedict still runs the coffee shack on Shoreham sea front but he still does help the agency out if needed. 

Natalka is contacted by a woman called Minnie who thinks that her mother has been killed by her current husband, Alan. Alan is a pharmacist but the death seemed natural enough, but Minnie and her sister Harmony think Alan has killed their mother in order to inherit her house. Melody was a writer. Edwin notices the obituary of a man he vaguely knew, too, who was also a writer. A couple more mysterious deaths come in, and it turns out that all the victims were writers and that some of them had been on a writer's course nearby. Edwin and Benedict go undercover at the retreat and meet some people who may have been involved in the deaths. 

Then one of the other participants on the course is found dead. Basically everyone there, including the tutors, are suspects. Two detectives - one of whom has Harbinder has a bit of a hero of hers - arrive and the detective agency basically get under their feet, but Harbinder encourages them to give Edwin and co some leeway. 

I really liked Edwin in this book, he's sweet and sharp and I liked the way he was thinking throughout. I liked Benedict but was a bit over the whole 'used to be a monk' thing. Natalka was an odder one but I would give her another go. She's struggling as her brother is at war in Ukraine and she's worried for her safety. I did think the ending of the book was a bit too nice, a bit too happy ever after. That does make me think that we won't see these characters again, but honestly I don't know, maybe we will. But in all I liked this book and am giving it four out of five. 

I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Quercus Books for providing me with this ebook!

The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths - Review

You know I love Elly Griffiths, so I was excited to hear there was another book in her Brighton Mysteries series. As a reminder, these centre on two members of the Magic Men, who were a secret group of magicians and others working on fooling the enemy in World War Two. Max Mephisto is still a magician, but also a film star, and also a lord. He has a daughter, Ruby, who at the beginning of this book has a baby. Edgar is now a policeman and in fact is superintendent by the time of this book, which is set in the summer of 1966. He is married to Emma and they have three children. Emma used to be a policewoman but gave it up after getting married (it was the mid 50s, after all). She is now running a private investigation agency with her friend Sam. Sam is now seeing Max, but no one knows about that. 

There are other police officers around - Bob, who actually doesn't really get a look in in this book, which is a shame, DI Barker, a proper badhead, and DI Clark, who is young and a bit of a dish I think. Then there's Meg Connolly. She's a WPC and in a previous book she had showed how good of a detective she was. She's only young so I did think that some of the stuff she did and that happened to her in this book strectched the bounds of credibility a bit, but no matter. She's from an Irish family and I did also feel like they were a bit stereotypical in this book too which annoyed me. 

So, there's a variety show in town and the magician's assistant is murdered in her lodging house. There are plenty of others from the show staying in the house, but all have alibis. The magician, Ted, is a prime suspect, but he swears he didn't do it. He turns up at Max's house in London pleading for his help. Then Emma and Sam get involved because the assistant's parents ask them to look into her death. Everyone goes to interview several old magicians, including a guy called Palgrave who is now on the telly. He sort of inhabits a Jimmy Savile role in that it's 'known' that he likes young girls and stuff like that. I didn't feel like this part of the story was done in a particularly good way, actually. It felt a bit like everyone was on the 'right' side in it in that they were condemning this person's actions... but did they do anything?

There's a similar thing that happens between DI Barker and Meg. Meg doesn't report it to her superiors which is entirely what would really have happened, especially in the sixties - even now women don't feel safe to report sexual harassment in the workplace! But everyone who learns about it is outraged and I just didn't buy how true that was. 

I did generally like the mystery surrounding the deaths in this book, but the whole thing felt a bit too pat in the end, and a bit too rushed off. For that reason I'm giving it three out of five. 

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths - Review

It's the last Ruth Galloway book! Noooo! I knew this was coming some time last year, so I ordered the hardback book as I knew I would want to read it as soon as it came out, instead of waiting for the paperback. It arrived on the 31st of January and I picked it up the day after because I was just so desperate to see what happened to Ruth, Nelson, their relationship, and of course all their colleagues and friends. I inhaled this book in two days. Part of me didn't want it to end but, you know, all good things must come to an end. Plus I know that Elly has other series on the go that she probably wants to concentrate on, and that I already like. I have been reading about Ruth and Nelson for so long that it was like saying goodbye to friends, but it was in such a good way.

Plus of course there was the question over Ruth and Nelson's relationship. In the last book, The Locked Room, the world is in lockdown for Covid and Nelson's wife Michelle has taken their young son George and gone off to Blackpool to stay with her mum. Ruth and Nelson have had an on and off thing for years, including the conception of their daughter, Kate, who in this book is in her first year of high school. Nelson broke lockdown in the previous book to stay over with Ruth and Kate, and at first in this book this looks set to carry on. But will they get their happy ever after? I'm not spoling anything, of course. 

So, the mystery. Some builders are refurbishing a building in Kings Lynn that has been several things over the years, including a cafe called the Green Child almost twenty years ago. One of the builders uncovers a whole skeleton behind a false wall. Ruth is called in to date the bones, but she realises they are modern and that they've been kept in fabric somewhere. Nelson and co discover the bones are those of a missing woman called Emily, who went missing at Easter 2002. She was a student at Cambridge, but from Norfolk, and she had been on an archaelogical dig just before her disappearance. She was with her charismatic tutor, Leo Ballard, and a few other students, and Michael Malone, known as Cathbad, who is a close friend of both Ruth and Nelson. He is suffering from Long Covid in this book, and tells the same story about Emily that everyone else did. However, he lates goes missing - does he know more about the crime than he's letting on? And can Ruth and Nelson find him before it's too late?

Meanwhile, Ruth's job at the university is under threat - the university is threatening to close down the archaeology department entirely. She's getting her things into order, including her relationship with her new found half sister, and has to decide what she wants to do with the rest of her life, and who with...

I enjoyed the mystery and the fact it was a cold case, and that it brought Cathbad under suspicion, and that it brought a lot of things from the first book back. It feels like a good ending to the series. I'm giving this five out of five. 

You can see all my other reviews of Elly's books here. 

A Girl Called Justice: The Spy at the Window by Elly Griffiths - Review

I was granted access to this book on Netgalley, so thank you very much to Hachette Children's for letting me read this. I was given a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. A Spy Called Justice: The Spy at the Window was published on the 26th of May 2022, I'm only sorry it took me so long to get to reading it!

You know that I love Elly Griffiths already - both her series for adults, which are among my favourite books ever, and her middle grade series. Justice has really settled into herself now, with a strong sense of self - I love her! She's back at school in Highbury when war breaks out (it's 1939) and each girl is issued with a gas mask. Shelters are built, and the girls must be involved in the cleaning and upkeep of the school (which outrages Rose - she is sure to tell her father!). Furthermore, a boys school is evacuated to Highbury, meaning the girls must share their building! The boys and girls are kept well apart, but Justice makes friends with Henry Anderson. They are put together by Miss De Vere, and told to put together some kind of co-ed sporting event. 

Justice shows Henry round the school and when they're on the top floor they hear a radio playing to itself or something, and what's more, they see a face at the window, two floors up! How could that be? And who is it? And is there a spy in the school?!

I liked this book a lot, I liked the mystery and thought it was done well. I wish there had been a bit more of Stella, but that's my only criticism. I'm giving this four out of five. 

Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths - Review

Bleeding Heart Yard is the third book in the Harbinder Kaur series, so I immediately knew I wanted to read it! The previous ones, The Stranger Diaries, reviewed here, and The Postscript Murders, reviewed here, were really good. I got this book on Netgalley so thank you very much to Quercus Books for granting that to me. I received an electronic copy of this book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The book was published on the 29th of September so is available now!

So Harbinder has moved to London and got a promotion, she is now a Detective Inspector and is in charge of her own team. She is sharing a house with two other women. She is called to what looks like a cocaine death at a school reunion. The victim is a Tory MP, Garfield Rice. He was at his school reunion with a bunch of friends, including one of Harbinder's DS', Cassie. Cassie is obviously placed on leave when it becomes clear that Garfield, aka Gary, was murdered with a shot of insulin. Harbinder has to look at Cassie's group of friends to get to the bottom of what happened to Gary.

There's Anna, who is newly returned from Italy and who is caring for her dying mother. There's Chris, now a famous rock star, a Labour MP, Harry, the now headmistress of the school they all attended, Sonoma, and Cassie and her husband. There's Joanna, too, an actress. Some of the parts of the book are told from Cassie's point of view, and then Anna's, and the two of them go over what happened over twenty years ago when they left school, and when Cassie was sexually assaulted by a boyfriend, and how the group of them concocted a way to scare the boyfriend. But what really happened to him, and why is Gary dead, and why is a second body left in Bleeding Heart Yard? 

I found this a pleasing addition to Harbinder's story, I liked the mystery and the group of schoolfriends and all that had been festering for twenty years. It is nice to see Harbinder's career move on and her personal life too, although I won't give any spoilers about that! I hope that we get more of Harbinder's life in London - maybe she can eventually make DCI? I'm giving this four out of five. 

Marple by Various Authors - Review

I had heard of this book on Twitter because Elly Griffiths is one of the authors inside, but when I looked it up on Netgalley I was too late to request it. So I 'wished' for it, which I've only done a couple of times before, but a couple of weeks later I got a notification to say my wish had been granted! That's never happened to me before! I was absolutely thrilled.

I was away in France for the first twelve days of September, and I decided to only take my tablet as it's much lighter than lugging a load of books with me, and it means I have access to ALL my Kindle books. I then decided that for the whole of September I would only read books on my tablet, as a bit of a challenge to myself. I started this right on the first day of the month, on the day before we flew to Carcassonne for our holiday. I read it on the two hour flight on the Friday and finished it later that evening. It is a fantastic anthology of stories and I reall enjoyed it. Thank you Harper Collins for granting my wish!

I have to admit that I'm not familiar with Miss Marple at all. I'm much more familiar with Poirot and his stories. I don't know all Marple's background and canon works, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about these stories. But the calibre of the authors involved just had me gasping - there are some I love and some I was looking forward to reading. They are twelve of the best women writing crime today, and I think Naomi Alderman did a brilliant job in putting the anthology together. The authors included are: Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse, and Ruth Ware. I have to admit that I barely paid attention to who wrote which story, because they're all so brilliant that I genuinely didn't care. I was caught up in all the stories, finding them utterly believable and an excellent addition to the Marple canon. I am writing this review a couple of weeks after reading the book, so I will talk about the stories that stood out to me. I will say that there's such a variety of stories - a couple set in big houses, one at Christmas, ones with Miss Marple's friends, one with her granddaughter (written by Karen M McManus, which should surprise no one!) and one set in New York. Those are the ones I liked best, I think, but honestly there's not a bad story between them. 

I thoroughly recommend this book especially if you are already a fan of Marple, unlike me! Reading this would make me want to read some of the books starring her though, or maybe watch the TV series! I am giving this fiveo ut of five as I just liked it so much. 

This book was published on the 15th of September. I was provided with an electronic copy of the book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths - Review

You know me, I love Elly Griffiths' books and always love when there's a new Ruth Galloway book coming out. I had to wait for this to come out in paperback though, which it did, in August. I picked it up soon after that! I'm aware that it's the penultimate Ruth book, the last one will be out next year! I also knew that this one was set in lockdown in 2020, which puts a whole new slant on things. 

At the beginning of the book it's early 2020 and no one is yet panicking about Covid-19. Ruth is clearing out some of her mum's stuff from her parents' house - her mum died five years previously and her dad, Arthur, is remarried to someone he met at church. Ruth finds old photos and so on, including a photo from 1963 of the cottage that Ruth now lives in. It's a photo with its neighbours, when the cottages painted pink, and the note on the back says Dawn 1963. But why would Jean have a photo of Ruth's cottage, somewhere that she always professed to hate? 

Meanwhile Nelson is investigating an unexpected death. It looks like a suicide, but the victim's bedroom door was locked from the outside. It doesn't feel right to Nelson, so he gets his team to start looking at other deaths where the victim was middle aged or older, and which have been recorded as suicides. They turn up a few, but can't find the link between them all... 

Ruth is called to a body in Tombland, near Norwich cathedral. She thinks it is mediaeval, and properly buried, but her students are obsessed with the idea that it might be a plague body, slung into a plague pit. Two of her students, Eileen and Joe, seem unhealthily obsessed with the body. Ruth also has a new next door neighbour, Zoe, who is a nurse. Lockdown hits, and Ruth is glad to not be alone on the saltmarshes with only Kate for company. Cathbad rises to the challenge of homeschooling the children, and starts doing Zoom yoga with Ruth and Kate and then Zoe too. 

Michelle is away in Blackpool with little George, and has been for weeks, meaning Nelson is by himself at home, so then he ends up staying at Ruth's, because of course. Then someone catches Covid and is extremely ill... I honestly thought this person would die. As a writer, if I was coming to the end of such a long series, I might start killing people off too.... 

I loved this book - it's odd to look back at what is such recent history but what feels like so long ago now. I am so looking forward to the last one, and am giving this five out of five.

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths - Review

You know I love Elly Griffiths, I've read almost everything she's published under that name, and I've got three new books by her to get to too, which I'll do soon I promise! But I was intrigued when someone in my book club chose The Woman in Blue for us to read. I decided to reread it and I'm excited to see what everyone else thought about this book. I've said I will take my other books of Elly's if anyone would like to borrow them. I wonder if reading just one out of context will make sense to people? I also wonder if the person who chose the book has read the others in the series - unfortunately I can't ask her because she's dropped out of book club, but we decided to meet informally in August anyway to discuss this book.

So, last time I read this book I didn't give it a glowing review actually, but over the years since then I've remembered it as one I liked a lot, so I went into it with that mentality, and have only read my previous review after finishing the book, and I disagree with myself five years ago! I remembered the mystery of this book much more than some of the others, and I'm pleased to have had the chance to reread. 

At the beginning of the book Ruth is contacted by a woman she knew way back when, when she was an archaeology student. Hilary is now a Church of England priest, and she's been receiving some nasty letters about the place of women as priests. She's about to come to Norfolk to attend a course in Walsingham, a place of pilgrimage, and she wants to meet up with Ruth. Ruth is intrigued, but a little wary.

Meanwhile Cathbad is catsitting for a friend near St Simeon's Church when he sees a vision of a woman looking a lot like the Virgin Mary - wearing white and blue. He doesn't think anything of it until the body of a young woman is found the next morning. She was a patient at a local rehab clinic and is a model. She made a couple of friends there, one of whom quickly comes under suspicion. 

There's lots of suspects in this book, a lot of dodgy people, a whole bunch of red herrings. Nelson finds out about Michelle's affair with Tim, and I can't quite remember how that resolves itself, but he's also quite nasty to Ruth which I do not like! I loved the reread and am giving it five out of five. 

A Girl Called Justice: The Ghost in the Garden by Elly Griffiths - Review

You all know by now that I love Elly Griffiths and all of her books, and I've been keeping an eye on her A Girl Called Justice series for a while. This is the third in the series, and I think it's improving all the time - Justice has a strong voice and character now, and seems to have settled into her school environment. In this book she's back at Highbury House, and there are plenty of new people there. There's a new girl in the form called Letitia, a new Matron, a new caretaker, and a new art teacher. 

Letitia latches on to Justice and puts a bit of a wedge between her and her best friend, Stella. The new art teacher makes the girls go outside to draw at one point. Letitia doesn't care for the rules of the school and seems to be getting away with not following them; the teachers don't tell her off. Even Justice realises some rules must be followed but can't seem to get through to Letitia. Then the girls have a midnight feast, and Letitia goes missing! 

Justice and Dorothy and Stella immediately try to find Letitia, uncovering some other secrets in the process! I thought this was a cute little mystery and I've now got the fourth to read too!

The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths - Review

I've been waiting for this book forever! It feels like so long since I got to read one of Elly's adult books, whether the Ruth novels or these, the Stephens and Mephisto series. I had this and the new Ruth book on pre-order, because I was waiting for the paperbacks. This one arrived in mid April and I picked it up not too long afterwards. I do feel like it's not really a Stephens and Mephisto book anymore because we don't get a lot from Edgar's point of view. Instead a lot of it is from Emma Stephens' point of view. She used to be a DI but once she married Edgar she had to give up her job. She is now a private detective alongside Sam Collins, who is also a journalist. There is a young female detective, WPC Meg Connolly. Emma and Meg mostly narrate the book, and I love both of them and am really happy that in this book they become much more friendly!

At the beginning of the book a man called Bert Billington is found dead. He is an ex showman, married to ex chorus girl Verity Malone, and the couple have three children - David, Seth, and Aaron. Bert was fifteen years older than Verity, and had a string of affairs in his life, and is found to have been poisoned with rat poison. Aaron telephones the police to say that he thinks his mother has killed his dad. Bob Willis and Meg start to investigate. Meanwhile Verity employs Emma and Sam to look into the death too. There is a list of suspects a mile long as it seems no one really liked Bert.

Middle son Seth is an actor, and he's currently in Whitby filming a sequel to Dracula with Max. Max knew Verity and had a short-lived relationship with her. His wife Lydia is in Whitby with him, but once filming is finished she doesn't want to stay with him and heads home to Massingham Hall. 

There's a lot of mystery and intrigue throughout the book, but I find it so cosy, like putting on some comfy slippers and settling down with friends. I liked the further look into Meg's family, and I liked Emma's struggle with being a mother and wanting to work. I am giving this four out of five and I'll look forward to the next one as usual!

A Girl Called Justice: The Smuggler's Secret by Elly Griffiths - Review

 

I read the first one in this series nearly three years ago, and felt it had some teething pains. But something reminded me of the second and third in the series recently, so I requested them both at the library. The third one came in first, annoyingly, but then this one came in the week after so I picked it up. I do think this book was much better, I liked Justice a lot more and understood her motivations more. 

Justice is back at school just after Christmas. She feels a bit better towards her school though. She meets a new games teacher, Miss Heron, and the new Matron, Miss Robinson. There seems to be a mystery about Miss Robinson straight away, and there also seems to be a new mystery about the school basements, which are even more strictly off limits than they already had been. 

Miss Heron makes the girls do cross country running, and it turns out Justice is good at it and she gets put on the team. They all each have to do a Good Citizenship project also, where they each go into the village on Wednesday afternoons to help out one of the residents. Justice gets paired with Mr Arthur, who lives in Smugglers' Lodge right on the beach. He was blinded in the war and has a fierce Alsatian called Sabre. He asks Justice to read The Times to him, and she has a good time with him. 

Of course there's a mystery and I loved it, I thought it was very well executed. I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths - Review

Happy New Year! I'm writing this review in the middle of December, but I'll do a round up of my 2020 books in the next few posts. I'm so glad to see the back of 2020, as I'm sure many people are. 

Anyway, you know I'm a huge fan of Elly Griffiths, having read all her books and having even met her a couple of years ago! I love it when a new Ruth Galloway book is on its way. I requested this one on Netgalley, so thank you very much to Quercus Books for granting me access. 

So, it's 2019 and Ruth is back in Norfolk with Kate and Flint in the tiny cottage on the coast. She is now head of archaeology at the university, and has hired a man called David Brown to take her place as a lecturer. I feel like Ruth is in a really good place in this book. She's still in love with Nelson - she even thinks of him as the love of her life quite far on in the book - but she's accepted he's still with Michelle and seems pretty happy with herself mostly. Kate is in her last year of junior school; I liked the bits with Kate a lot. 

So, first of all a body washes up on the shore near Sheringham. At first the police think he may be a refugee that has died, but it turns out he's a local. Then a local police officer dies, seemingly at random. And then two people are found dead in their remote farmhouse. They are Dr Douglas Noakes and his wife, Linda. At first, it looks like a murder suicide - it looks like Douglas killed Linda and then himself. But the gun is in his right hand, and Dr Noakes was left handed. 

The Noakes' children, Chloe and Paul, are somewhat undisturbed by their parents' deaths. They speak of abuse in their children and how they both hated the farm. There are rumours of a devil black dog who roams the area, the Black Shuck. There is also possibly a body in the garden of the farmhouse, so Ruth and her colleague Ted are called in to investigate. 

She also ends up excavating the Bronze Age body of a man, possibly a priest. Someone else ends up dead - I really felt the body count in this book was high! - and the police are convinced that all the modern deaths are related. 

There's enough of Ruth living her life, which I love to read. Her relationship with her new colleague David is a little fractious, and I did not trust him one bit. There's not a lot of Nelson's personal life, but enough. I loved the ending in this way. I enjoyed the bits with Cathbad too, he is so weird but lovely. If anything I just wanted more from the book, I wanted to see why things had happened and what had happened in the past. It could have been twice as long and then maybe I'd have declared it perfect!

As it is, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the local folklore aspects, as usual, and I liked the genuinely scary parts towards the end. I do still wonder how/if/when Elly will finish this series, but I'm excited to see where she goes next... 

The Postcript Murders by Elly Griffiths - Review

I'm thrilled to be reviewing Elly Griffiths' new book, The Postcript Murders. I was granted an electronic copy for review, so thank you very much to Quercus Books for letting me read the book. I was not otherwise compensated for this review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

This book is the second in the Harbinder Kaur series. I reviewed the first, The Stranger Diaries, here on this blog. In it, I said that I thought Elly would write another book starring Harbinder, so I'm pleased to have been proven right. I like Harbinder a lot - she's mid 30s, a detective but not yet a DI, is gay, and lives with her parents. As a dutiful Sikh daughter, she's often left to cook and clean for the family. In this book her mother Bibi has an accident and needs a carer to come in each day - which comes in later. 

So, at the beginning of the book an elderly woman called Peggy Smith is found dead in her sheltered accomadation in Shoreham-by-Sea. She is found by one of her carers, Natalka, a young woman from Ukraine with a bit of a shady past. A heart attack is suspected, and her body is quickly cremated and all seems fine. However, her friend in the accomadation, Edwin, suspects something else has happened, as does Natalka. They learn that Peggy often helped out crime writers in thinking up ways to murder someone, and they learn there might be a clue in an old novel. They enlist the help of their friend Benedict, who owns a coffee shack on the seafront that they both frequent.

Authors including Dex Challoner and J D Monroe have given thanks to Peggy in their novels. Natalka goes to Harbinder with her suspicions over Peggy's death, and Harbinder questions Dex about the old lady. The next morning, Dex is found dead in his house on Millionaire's Row, shot in the head. The police think the two deaths are related.

Natalka, Edwin, and Benedict then all head off to Aberdeen, because J D Monroe and another off Peggy's authors, Lance Foster, are appearing at a literary festival there. Natalka has been followed by two mysterious men, who may be linked to her past. 

I loved the main characters. Natalka remained the most mysterious to me, but I really liked her spirit and the kind of person she was. Edwin used to work for the BBC and is gay, and there's some great storytelling around that. Benedict is an ex-monk and I loved him as a character - he was so interesting. I could have read a whole book about him.

As the book is about books and authors, it gets a bit meta in places. There's a lot of digs at authors and festivals and book bloggers and so on, all of which made it really funny to me. It's quite self-aware in that way which I liked. I raced through it, even though I broke off to read Death Sets Sail. I really hope Harbinder turns up again - and I hope that the friends she made in this book do too. I'm giving this four out of five.

The Postcript Murders will be published on 1st October 2020. 

The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths - Review

I requested this book on Netgalley because you know me, I'm a huge fan of Elly Griffiths' books and always like to read them straight away. So many thanks to Quercus books for granting me permission for this book. It is the newest in the Dt Ruth Galloway series and I love returning to Ruth, it always feels like a sit down with a friend.

The book starts a couple of years after the ending of the last book, The Stone Circle, when Ruth has moved to Cambridge to be a lecturer there. She is living with Kate, of course, and Frank, Ruth's boyfriend. Kind of. Ruth is quite reticent to call him that, and even though Frank is a really decent person, he doesn't really set Ruth's heart on fire or anything.

Nelson is still in Norfolk, but his daughters Laura and Rebecca now know that Kate is his daughter and Laura especially is keen to make her part of the family. Baby George is now two years old. Judy and Tanya are still on his team, but Cloughie has moved to Cambridge too to head up his own team, and Nelson really misses him.

Anyway, the previous summer, two bodies were discovered in the back garden of a woman called Chantal. Her boyfriend Ivor was arrested, thanks to forensic evidence on the bodies, and has been found guilty and is now awaiting sentencing. Nelson is convinced he also killed two other women, Nicola and Jenny. The forensic witness in the case was Ruth's ex-boss, Phil, but Ivor says he will talk to Nelson about where the other bodies are if Ruth goes to the prison with him and is the one to carry out the excavation.

Meanwhile the police go back over all the witnesses from before. Ivor lived on something like a commune for a while with a number of other people, one of whom turns out to be a new friend of Ruth's called Crissy. New things come to light and with the discovery of the second set of bones, there's a question mark over Ivor's guilt.

There's also the myth of the Lantern Men on the fens, about a light in the darkness that you follow and end up meeting a sticky end...

I liked the book, I liked Ruth removed from the Norfolk setting even though she ended up going back for the case. I understood why she couldn't quite settle with Frank, and I loved that Kate was a bit older and that her sisters knew about her. Nelson didn't do anything to annoy me, and even though I wouldn't say I liked Clough as a character particularly, I did feel like he was missing from the team and wanted him to come back! I would have liked more Cathbad, but I always say that because I love him so much. The bits he was in were great, though.

I'm sure we will see Ruth again, because the end of the book was very ambiguous. I do wonder what Elly has planned for the end of this series... I can't wait to see!

I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Now You See Them by Elly Griffths - Review

When I read The Vanishing Box, the previous book in the Magic Man series, I felt like it had a real ending feel to the series. I thought I had said that in my blog, but I didn't. But I definitely felt like, as the fourth book, it had a wrapping up vibe, and I said to my partner that if that was the case, I would be happy with how it finished.

But then I was equally happy when Elly announced a new Mephisto and Stephens novel! We would be back with Edgar and Max! I requested it on Netgalley, so many thanks to Quercus Books for the opportunity to read this book. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book, but was not otherwise compensated for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

So I started the book and found that although we're back in Brighton, it's eleven years later! It's 1964! Edgar and Emma are married and have three children - Marianne, Sophie, and baby Jonathan. Edgar is now Superintendent and Emma is a housewife. And she's pretty bored and fed up. From a promising career as a detective, she's now merely Mrs Edgar Stephens and she feels she's wasting her talents somewhat.

At the station, Bob is now Detective Inspector, and there's a promising new woman police officer, Meg. She's a bit jealous of being compared to Emma, but she's got a lot of initiative. In the eleven years since the last book, Max has moved to LA, married an American starlet, and had two more children, Rocco and Elena. He's back in the UK though because another of the Magic Men has died, and because he may be filming a new film in the UK.

It's May 1964 and the mods and the rockers are set to clash on the bank holiday, but there's also a girl missing from the local private school. Her father is demanding that the police find her, but as they look into her disappearance, they uncover two more missing girls. Are they linked, and if so, how? And how does American heartthrob Bobby Hambro, currently residing in the Ritz in London, fit into it?

I loved being back with Edgar and Max and Ruby, Max's daughter from a previous relationship. Emma is great in this book - she loves Edgar and the two get along well as partners and as parents, but she's bored. The world is changing, but not quick enough for the wife of a superintendent to keep her own job. I really felt for her. I would have liked more from Edgar's point of view, although I guess that as a superintendent he is probably buried in paperwork most of the time anyway. I did think that solving the mystery came quite fast, but I liked the book. I'm giving it four out of five!

A Girl Called Justice by Elly Griffiths - Review

You know I'm a huge fan of Elly Griffiths' books, I've read all of her Ruth Galloway novels and her Stephens and Mephisto novels, so I was interested when I read that she was publishing a book for middle grade called A Girl Called Justice. So I ordered it from Wordery recently and thought I'd read it.

It is going to be compared to Robin Stevens' Detective Society novels, which you know I'm a huge fan of, so I'l start by saying that I don't think it is as good as those. It's not as fully realised or fleshed out - I didn't get as sucked into Justice's world as I do Hazel's and Daisy's. I will say that if you like Robin Stevens' books - or know a tween that does - you'd probably like this.

At the beginning of the novel Justice, aged 12, is going to Highbury school for the first time. Until then she's been homeschooled by her mum, but her mum has recently died (which kind of annoyed me, because why do mothers always have to die, and also Justice didn't tell anyone, which struck me as stupid on her behalf) so her dad, who is a QC, has decided to send her to school. The school is on the edge of Romney Marsh and as soon as Justice arrives she's determined that it is a creepy prison and that she won't escape.

Upon arrival she discovers that a maid, Mary, has recently died. She's sure there's a mystery and sets to unravel it. She is put in a dormitory with four girls, one of who she immediately decides she dislikes. She puts herself in some pretty stupid decisions in order to find out if Mary was murdered, and throughout I just found her so gung ho that I couldn't really get into the book. It just missed the mark for me, which I found really sad, because I wanted to love it. I will probably read the next one, if there is another one, because I hope these are just teething pains as Elly comes to grips with the nuances of writing for younger people.