"The two men have been standing there for eighteen minutes. Peggy has been timing them on her stopwatch. They parked on the seafront just in front of Benedict's cafe. A white Ford Fiesta. Annoyingly she can't see the registration but, if she uses her binoculars, she can see a dent on the nearside door. If they have hired the car, the company will have taken a note of this. Peggy makes a note too, getting out her Investigation Book which is cunningly disguised as 'A Seaside Lady's Diary', complete with saccharine watercolours of shells and fishing boats."
PS: Thanks for the murders.
The death of a ninety-year-woman with a heart condition should absolutely not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka's account of Peggy Smith's death.
But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she has been sure someone was following her.....
And that Peggy Smith had been a 'murder consultant' who plotted deaths for authors, and knew more about murder than anyone has a right to...
And when clearing out Peggy's flat ends in Natalka being held at gunpoint by a masked figure...
Well then DS Harbinder Kaur thinks that maybe there is no such things as an unsuspicious death after all.
From the sleepy seaside town of Shoreham, to the granite streets of Aberdeen and the shores of Lake Baikal, The Postscript Murders is a literary mystery for fans of Antony Horowitz, Agatha Christie and anyone who's ever wondered just how authors think up such realistic crimes...
***
Whenever I hear that Elly Griffiths has a new book coming I am filled with joy and my heart sings a little song. Every word she writes is wonderful and the anticipation is only excelled by the actual reading experience.
This book is the second in the Harbinder Kaur series. In fact, I have not read the first, The Stranger Diaries, (shock and horror from those of you who know my compulsion for reading a series in order!) However, this book reads perfectly well as a standalone novel but I will definitely be getting my hands on a copy of The Stranger Diaries at the first opportunity.
DS Harbinder Kaur is a character who I would really like to spend more time with and I sincerely hope that there will be more books in this series. Ms. Griffiths has a real skill in portraying her characters in a way that by the end of the book you feel as though you have made a friend.
Another thing I really like about her books is that they are never full of blood and gore but meander along at an appropriate pace which allows the reader to really get to know the endearing characters. It is coupled with a terrific plot that kept me turning those pages well past my bedtime.
I have read all but the most recent of the author's Ruth Galloway series. You can read my review of Dying Fall, The Dark Angel, The Janus Stone, The Woman in Blue and Ruth's First Christmas Tree by clicking on the title links. If you have not yet discovered this lovely series then I highly recommend them.
Happy reading.
ISBN: 978 1787477636
Publisher: Quercus
Bestselling crime author Elly Griffiths worked in publishing before becoming a full-time writer.
Her series of Dr Ruth Galloway novels, featuring a forensic archaeologist, are set in Norfolk and regularly hit the Sunday Times top ten in hardback and paperback. The series has won the CWA Dagger in the Library and has been shortlisted three times for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year. There are twelve books in the series so far with number thirteen to be published in February 2021.
Her Brighton-based mystery series set in the 1950s and 1960s is inspired partly by her grandfather's life on the stage and the war magician Jasper Maskelyne, who claimed to have spent the war creating large scale illusions to misdirect the enemy. One of the two leading characters in the series, Max Mephisto, is based on Maskelyne.
In 2017 she was Programming Chair of Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Festival in Harrogate, the oldest and best-established crime fiction festival in the UK.
In 2018 Elly wrote her first standalone novel The Stranger Diaries. The novel was a top 10 paperback bestseller, selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club and as a summer 2019 Richard and Judy book.
In 2019 Elly published her first children's book in spring 2019 to great reviews with a second following in 2020.
Elly Griffiths lives near Brighton with her husband, an archaeologist, and their two grown children.
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