The Stranger Diaries: An Edgar Award Winner Paperback – October 1, 2019

Elly Griffiths is an exceptional writer. I have followed her Ruth Galloway novels (and pre-ordered them) ever since I read the first one. I did not connect with her Magic Men series, but on the basis of other reviews, I dove into this one. With no reservations, it is terrific! So good, that I am hoping that it is the beginning of a new series. The story begins with an excerpt of a ghost story. The spooky ghost story sets the tone and serves as an element of plot and mystery for the book. It is the murder of a teacher that drives the investigation. The characters in this police procedural are very well developed which is good because the point of view switches between the main characters. It is never confusing because the chapter titles are the name of the character who has that turn with the point of view. Our detective is DS Harbinder Kaur. She could definitely carry a series. The story is complex and richly detailed. The setting along the Sussex coast adds another element of interest. We were traveling through this area of England while I was reading the book and her descriptions were spot on. The evocative setting, excellent characters, spooky ghost story, well-thought-out plot, and skilled writing combined to make a very good mystery story. Elly Griffiths is part of an elite group of mystery writers that I follow and preorder. Her Ruth Galloway books (and any future Harbinder Kaur books) are eagerly anticipated and enjoyed. A few other mystery writers that I consider to be in that elite group are Louise Penny (Armand Gamache set in Canada), Anne Cleeves (The Shetland Island books and Vera Stanhope novels set in Northumberland), Martin Walker (Bruno, Chief of Police set in the Dordogne region of France), Paul Doiron (Mike Bowditch set in Maine), Cay Rademacher (set in Provence), Jean-Luc Bannalec (set in Brittany), Robert Galbreath a.k.a. J.K. Rowling (Comorran Strike set in London), and the remarkable Jane Harper (set in Australia). Many congratulations and thanks to Elly Griffiths for this well-written and very entertaining story.

This book started off slowly. It began with a character, Clare, who was writing in her diary the kind of simple banal stuff we diarists write. And then she mentions that a friend of hers has been murdered. She’s horrified but really not that horrified. I actually didn’t like Clare, she seemed very cold and self-absorbed.Then a second character takes over the narrative, one of the detectives on the murder case, Harbinder Kaur. I liked her a lot better, she explained what was happening with the murder (I mean, if one is reading a mystery, it’s because one wants to know about the murder!) And she is a fun character, Sikh, lives at home with her parents, doesn’t understand some of the niceties of Clare’s life (her opinion of diarists is so funny.) She becomes quite friendly with Clare and Clare’s daughter Georgie who becomes the third narrator.Georgie is 15 years old, a good writer, and very involved with a creative writing group with three other teens. They are mentored by a teacher at the sixth form school, who professes herself to be a white witch. One thing that surprised me was the Georgie had a 21 year old boyfriend, Ty. Clare seems to be quite cavalier about it all although she rather desultorily writes from time to time that Ty is too old for her.Those are the main characters with a few that hover in the background; one of these minor characters gets murdered and another attacked before the murderer is finally caught. I thought I had the puzzle solved three quarters of the way through the book but the ending actually surprised me. Griffiths threw a couple of red herrings in and I was taken in.This is a good light read. Yes, it is suspenseful and there is a ghost story in it. As I said, I felt it started rather slowly but that could be because I have read Griffith’s other books and it is quite different from them.

I have to admit that I am a rabid fan of Griffith's Ruth Galloway series of mysteries. Galloway, a forensic anthropologist at a university in Northern England, is brilliant, individual, and keeps a huge poster of Indiana Jones on her campus office wall. She is frequently called to assist the local police, with investigations led by DCI Harry Nelson, a married inspector. The two fall in love and begin an affair, conceive a child together, and...well, I recommend this series.The Stranger Diaries is a separate story from Griffth's series, and is one of my favorite books of all that she has written. It takes place in another academic setting, but this time the heroine is an English teacher at a school housed in the former home of a mysterious writer, R. M. Holland, long dead. He has written a story called, The Stranger, considered a masterpiece, and the high school English teacher has made a life long study of it and teaches a course on it. And then the murders begin, weaving a dark unfathomable pattern that ultimately threatens Cassidy, her fifteen-year-old daughter Georgie, and their little white dog, Herbert.This Edgar Award-winning novel is worth every second spent to read. I could not put it down and finished it in one setting. Excellent with a terrific plot twist, a fine Gothic-type novel. Atmospheric, suspenseful and beautifully written.

I really enjoyed this book. The three narrators provide a good vehicle for telling their own versions of what is happening. Their stories are a Venn diagram, intersecting but not fully aligning.The setting is a modern version of a classic Gothic novel complete with a forbidding abandoned factory and a supposedly haunted school building.The ending was unexpected and heart pounding. And, if that isn’t enough, an adorable dog is an important character.

El envío fue muy bueno y el libro se me hizo muy entretenido. No podía dejar de leerlo y me atrapó la manera de contar la historia a través de 3 perspectivas distintas.

Love the new characters in this book by Elly Griffith's. Brilliantly written and thoroughly enjoyable read. Difficult to put down chapter by chapter keeps you glued.

I love Elly Griffith. This book is not part of a series. As a stand alone it is an enjoyable mystery.

5 stars for an outstanding mystery of very high quality! It's intellectual, spooky, smart, modern and historical feeling at the same time. I highly recommend that you read it!

This is one of her stories, so full of suspence that it keeps you reading it in one go.As usual the main characters grow on you, and I was pleased to know that DI Harbinder Kaur will appear again.