RogerBW's Blog

The Stranger Diaries, Elly Griffiths 31 August 2021

2018 mystery. Clare Cassidy's fellow teacher Ella Elphick has been stabbed to death, in a way that suggests more than casual killing. A further death, and other odd events, suggest that someone is modelling the crimes on The Stranger, a story by an obscure Victorian author that forms part of her creative writing course.

This is a mystery with literary flair. Apart from the notional R. M. Holland, these people read: Wilkie Collins, Georgette Heyer, P. G. Wodehouse, are all mentioned in passing. While it's always a bit iffy for a writer to refer to other books (and two out of the three are better writers, by my lights anyway), here it makes sense to explain the characters, and particularly how Cassidy and DS Harbinder Kaur, the principal investigator, find things to clash about in spite of their overall similarity of attitude.

I'd benefit too, I thought vaguely; a dog would keep me fit and allow me to meet other dog-walkers. Much better than a book club where there was always the danger that someone would suggest The Girl on the Train.

Regular readers will know that I have my own rules for how mysteries should work in order not to feel like a cheat. This book follows them. Nobody here is a liar, or "unreliable narrator". The dog lives. Literarily competent authors often seem to feel they need to go outside the mould to do Their Thing, and thereby lose the point of the story-form completely; this isn't one of those books.

All right, there are three narrative voices, but this allows everything to be told in tight first-person perspective. (Sometimes the same scene from different angles, which helps show good intentions going wrong.) There's a most obvious suspect, and a more subtle suspect, neither of whom is the actual murderer, whom I didn't spot.

And perhaps I'm just happy to be outfoxed by an author I haven't met before, who has written several other books that I can now look forward to. But I think there's a sense of enjoyment here that I've been missing in other things I've read lately; this is smart writing that still has a head of department asking Clare to cover up his little indiscretion…

‘Thank you,’ he says. And I’m embarrassed to see the relief in his face. ‘It’s just… [my wife]’s very vulnerable at the moment.’

This strikes me as low, even for Rick.

‘It was over,’ he says. ‘It was over between me and Ella back in the summer.’

Back in the summer is not that long ago and, before that, Rick was telling me that he’d kill himself if I didn’t sleep with him. I’m surprised at the anger that suddenly surges through me.

The victim was neither a saint nor a devil. The same applies to everyone we meet; they all have their good and bad points. There's a decent sense of place. The writing is competent and pleasant. Basically, Griffiths has done nothing wrong here, and many things right.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]


  1. Posted by Rand Brittain at 05:16am on 11 September 2021

    Picked this one up on your recommendation. Was extremely impressed by the writing and characters, but found the ending disappointing.

    V jnf pbzcyrgryl onssyrq orpnhfr abobql va gur obbx ernyyl frrzrq gb svg gur zragny cebsvyr bs n xvyyre jub'f bofrffrq jvgu guvf Ratyvfu grnpure naq jvgu Ivpgbevna yvgrengher naq unf pneevrq bhg n ahzore bs zheqref onfrq ba n fubeg fgbel fur'f jevgvat n obbx nobhg gur nhgube bs, naq yrnirf pelcgvp yvggyr abgrf ersrerapvat gung fgbel ba rirel pbecfr. Ohg va gur raq vg ghearq bhg gung vg jnf, va snpg, n crefba jub ol nyy nppbhagf qvq abg unir gung xvaq bs zvaq, ohg qvq nyy gubfr guvatf naljnl.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 10:41am on 12 September 2021

    Eek, the responsibility!

    I see your point, and I can't say you're wrong; the revelation of the murderer worked for me, but it needed a lot of authorial concealment. Still, I get a feeling of "cheat!" when I think there genuinely aren't enough clues (as opposed to my having failed to use the clues I was given), and I didn't have it here.

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1