Guest review by Rachel Ward: THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS by Elly Griffiths

 

"A light-hearted read in the vein of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club or S.J.Bennett’s The Windsor Knot."

Rachel Ward has written five thrillers for young adults, the first of which, Numbers, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Her novels for adults, The Cost of Living, Dead Stock and Expiry Date (Sandstone Press) are cosy crime stories set in and around a supermarket. Rachel lives in Bath where she also paints and takes photographs. Twitter: @RachelWardbooks Facebook: Rachel Ward Art

When ninety-year-old Peggy Smith is found dead in her armchair by the window in a care home by the sea, her death is put down to natural causes, but her carer, Natalka, suspects foul play. For Peggy was a ‘murder consultant’ who plotted deaths for authors and had told Natalka that someone was following her. Natalka investigates, helped by Peggy’s friends, eighty-year-old former BBC Radio 3 presenter, Edwin, and ex-monk turned coffee barista, Benedict, and also local police detective D.S. Harbinder Kaur. The case takes them through the murky world of publishing and to further deaths before the truth is finally revealed.

This is a light-hearted read in the vein of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club or S. J. Bennett’s The Windsor Knot. The action keeps coming with surprising twists and turns. For this reader, there are rather delicious references to the crime-writing world. What marks this book out from others in the cosy crime genre is the fine and complex characterisation. Griffiths makes you really care about Natalka, Edwin, Benedict and Harbinder. We learn about their, in some cases unusual, backgrounds and history and enjoy their friendships developing. The plot may stretch credibility a little (which I didn’t mind at all) but the relationships between the main characters are utterly believable.

This is the second book to feature D.S. Harbinder Kaur. I don’t think it matters that I am coming to them out of sequence and I’m looking forward to reading the first one, The Stranger Diaries.

The Postscript Murders is published by Quercus.

Rachel Ward's Ant and Bea books are reviewed here by Savita Kalhan.

The Windsor Knot  by S J Bennett is reviewed here by Penny Dolan.