Blodeuedd's Wednesday Review: The Last Word by Elly Griffiths

Series: Harbinder Kaur (#4)

Format: 352 pages, Paperback

Published: July 18, 2024 by Quercus Publishing

Crime/ from the  Library

Do I remember these people from PSmurders? No, not really, but that did not matter since this is fully their book.

Natalka and Edwin have a detective agency and they are contacted by someone to solver a murder. But things gets complicated, many authors seem to have died. And I had no idea what was going on or who had killed someone. I would be a lousy detective and die at once.

Edwin was this charming older man, Natalka is Ukrainian with a drive. Her boyfriend Benedict who also helps out, used to be a monk. They are quite the trio. This is in the Harbinder Kaur series but she is not in it a lot, they call her up for help but this is their story.

A good book. I could not guess anything

Natalka and Edwin, whom we met in The Postscript Murders, are running a detective agency in Shoreham, Sussex. Despite a steady stream of minor cases, Natalka is frustrated, longing for a big juicy case such as murder to come the agency's way. Natalka is now living with dreamer, Benedict. But her Ukrainian mother Valentyna has joined them from her war-torn country and three's a crowd. It's annoying to have Valentyna in the tiny flat, cooking borscht and cleaning things that are already clean. To add to Natalka's irritation, Benedict and her mother get on brilliantly.

Then a murder case turns up. Local writer, Melody Chambers, is found dead and her family are convinced it is murder. Edwin, a big fan of the obit pages, thinks there's a link to the writer of Melody's obituary who pre-deceased his subject.

The trail leads Benedict and Edwin to a slightly sinister writers' retreat. When another writer is found dead, Edwin thinks that the clue lies in the words. Seeking professional help, the amateur investigators turn to their friend, detective Harbinder Kaur, to find that they have stumbled on a plot that is stranger than fiction.

Blodeuedd's Monday: The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths

384 pages, Hardcover

Series: Ruth Galloway (#15)

Published: February 2, 2023 by Quercus Publishing

Mystery Thriller Fiction /Library

 The end. Aye, it has been quite the ride. When my bookclub mentioned the first one I was all nope, I do not read books like that. But then I tried book 1 anyway and I was hooked. I read ALL of them in a few months, and then I waited for more to come out. Which brings us to the end. The end.

A body is found in a wall. Ruth gets called in. Her workplace is in trouble. She is wondering what to do with Nelson. He finally seems to be free, or? And then Cathbad disappears. Lots going on.

I have been wondering about Nelson and Ruth for ages. They do have a 12 year old together now. Oh that book where they almost found happiness, damn that book still kills me. But this is the last book and I wanted them settled and happy. But then Ruth was always perfectly fine on her own.

As always, I never know who the killer is.

Great book. Great thrilling series. I will never found anything like it again.

When builders discover a human skeleton while renovating a café, they call in archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be modern--the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily's Cambridge tutor and also on another archeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared--Ruth's friend Cathbad.

As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archaeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily's bones were found. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. The trail leads Ruth a to the Neolithic flint mines in Grimes Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?

B's Monday Review: The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

 Series: Harbinder Kaur (#1)

416 pages, Paperback

Published: May 16, 2019 by Quercus

Fiction Mystery Thriller

Library

I really like her books! This is not my awesome Galloway series, so I was a bit unsure, but she had me hooked from page ! Damn she is good.

The book has 3 povs. Claire, a teacher, who is writing a book about a long dead writer. Her teenage daughter, who is dating someone too old in her mother's opinion (and mine!) And Harbinder, the detective on the case. Because Claire's friend and colleague is brutally murdered, and there is a connection to Claire.

And then she finds a note in her diary, ohhh spooky! Did the murderer write it? How?

I was so into this book, who is the killer? I as always suspect everyone.

It is strange, but Griffiths is the only writer I can truly get behind, I have tried a lot, but I never find anyone in her style. And her style rocks! Next one please

Death lies between the lines. A dark story has been brought to terrifying life. Can the ending be rewritten in time?

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. As a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer RM Holland, she teaches a short course on it every year. Then Clare's life and work collide tragically when one of her colleagues is found dead, a line from an RM Holland story by her body. The investigating police detective is convinced the writer's works somehow hold the key to the case.

Not knowing who to trust, and afraid that the killer is someone she knows, Clare confides her darkest suspicions and fears about the case to her journal. Then one day she notices some other writing in the diary. Writing that isn't hers...

Blodeuedd's Monday Review: The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published February 6th 2020 by Quercus

Series: Ruth Galloway #12

Mystery

Library

This is the last one! Well right now ;) Another book is coming next year, but now I am all caught up. I can't believe I that I read my first one in Aug. I have sped through them

Ruth has given up and gotten a new job, a new town, and she and Frank is living together. You go Ruth! Of course, even though she likes him, yeah, Ruth is a loner, she is happiest with her daughter and cats. Poor Frank, I doubt this will end well.

This one actually felt like it was more about the murder. Women who have gone missing, creepy tales of Lantern Men who lure them in and kill them. Ruth in the middle of it digging up bones, and Nelson trying to find out if a serial killer did it or not.

I liked it, I always do. I can never put them down

She has a new job, home and partner, and is no longer North Norfolk police's resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this, and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried - but only if Ruth will do the digging.

Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees. March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travellers to their deaths.

Is March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over?

Blodeuedd's Monday Review: The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published January 5th 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published February 5th 2009)

Series: Ruth Galloway #1

Mystery

Library

I do not read many mysteries, or thrillers (not counting historical), so when I was recommended this one I just did not know. But then I picked it up, and then I binged it.

Ruth is 40, an archaeologist. Lives with 2 cats. And likes her life just as it is. Then a cop shows up asking for her help with the remains found in an henge. Two girls are missin

And Ruth was perfect, I liked how she helped solve the murder, I'd love this as a tvshow btw. She doesn't always make the best decisions, but that makes her human.

Good mystery too. I had my suspects, and I was pretty good this time around.

Final thoughts: Yes, I would totally recommend it

Blurb:

Forensic archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties and lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy. Is it the same killer or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?