The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

The Postscript Murders

by Elly Griffiths

The ultimate gripping murder mystery from the bestselling author of The Stranger Diaries and the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries

PS: Thanks for the murders.

The death of a ninety-year-old 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 had 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 any 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 thing as an unsuspicious death after all.

From the sleepy seaside town of Shoreham to the granite streets of Aberdeen, The Postscript Murders is a literary mystery for fans of Anthony Horowitz, Agatha Christie and anyone who's ever wondered just how authors think up such realistic crimes...

PS: Trust no one.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Postscript Murders is the second book featuring Detective Harbinder Kaur written by Elly Griffiths. Due out 2nd March 2021 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, it's 336 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

The first book in the "series" was one of my best reads picks for 2019. The author is adept and widely talented with a whatever she sets out to write. The Ruth Galloway novels are engaging and atmospheric, academic, and warmly compassionate as well as intelligent (like the protagonist). The extant novels in this series are altogether different in focus and feel. I use "series" in quotation marks because the common thread between the two books is Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur and in both books, she's almost secondary to the plot. The focus, the main driving force, in the action in this book and The Stranger Diaries, is someone closer to the murders - in the first book an English teacher colleague of the first victim, and in this book it's the first murder victim's carer.

Throughout all the books, both this series and her others, it's the author herself - her well-crafted plots, engaging and intelligent dialogue, prose, likeable characters, and settings which keep everything she writes on my "must read" list. This book works very well as a standalone, and has only secondary connections to the first book. This is an engaging read with a tightly plotted narrative arc and very well rendered characters who are believable and varied.

Four stars. Classic plotting and a wonderful mystery. I loved the crime book and author tie-ins. Highly recommend this one to fans of classic golden age British mystery.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 27 February, 2021: Finished reading
  • 27 February, 2021: Reviewed