Blog Tour & Review: The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

I was thrilled to be asked to take part in the blog tour for Elly Griffiths's latest novel, The Stranger Diaries. It's a brilliant story with a fiendishly clever  mystery, and I know you'll love it! Scroll down for my review and details of where to buy the book. AND, sneakily buried right at the bottom of this page, you'll find the chance to win your own copy! (Not the chocolates though! They didn't last longer than Halloween!)

About the Book

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to tales of murder. As a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer R.M. Holland, she teaches a short course on them every year. Then Clare's life and work collide tragically when one of her colleagues is found dead, a line from an R.M. 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...

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Review

I was attracted to this book because of the beautiful cover but I'm also a huge fan of Elly Griffiths, particularly her Ruth Galloway series. However, The Stranger Diaries is slightly different - it's a standalone murder mystery, set in a school, which may or may not be haunted!

The story starts with Clare, who teaches English at Talgarth High. The school was once the home of gothic horror writer R.M. Holland, and the top part of the school has been kept as a museum to him and his work; his study is exactly as it was in his day. Scattered throughout the novel are extracts from his most famous short story, The Stranger, and when one of Clare's friends is found dead, a line from this story is found beside the body.

The second point of view is that of the investigating police officer, DS Harbinder Kaur, who was my favourite character, mainly because of her dry sense of humour and the way she is permanently in a grump. I do hope she gets her own series - along with her mother! The third main character is Georgia, Clare's daughter, who humours her mother's ideas of how teenagers should behave and is very funny.  

The Stranger Diaries is a modern take on Victorian mysteries and ghost stories, particularly the way it cleverly backtracks to show the same events from a different character's viewpoint. Running alongside the present-day murders is the mystery of how R.M. Holland's wife died. Is it her ghost that reputedly haunts the school? And just who is Mariana? 

The Stranger Diaries will appeal to anyone who enjoys traditional murder mysteries and I'm sure fans of Elly's Ruth Galloway series will love it. I adored the touch of gothic and the spooky bits - particularly when the teenage Harbinder 'met' the ghost. I hadn't a clue who the murderer was and, as I read a lot of crime fiction, this is always a plus for me!

One of my favourite reads this year! And please, please can Harbinder have a series of her own?!!

Thank you to Elly Griffiths and Quercus for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

About the Author

Winner of the 2016 CWA Dagger in the Library, Elly Griffiths was born in London. She worked in publishing before becoming a full-time writer. Her bestselling series of Dr Ruth Galloway novels, featuring a forensic archaeologist, are set in Norfolk. The series has won the CWA Dagger in the Library, and has been shortlisted three times for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Her Stephens and Mephisto series is based in 1950s Brighton. She lives near Brighton with her husband, an archaeologist, and their two children.

If you're in London on the 12th of November, you'll be able to hear Elly talk at the Crime Files Rooftop Book Club, along with fellow authors Sabine Durrant and Rachel Abbott. More details, including how to obtain tickets, can  be found here.

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Win a Copy!

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win a hardback copy of The Stranger Diaries you can enter via Rafflecopter below. It's simple to use and the more clicks (follow Elly on Twitter, follow Elly on Facebook, etc) the more chances you have to win. The competition closes on 8th November 2018. Good luck!

Terms and Conditions: We're sorry but this competition is only open to those living in the UK. Your personal details won't be stored for longer than the competition runs and your details won't be passed onto anyone else. We will only contact you if you are a winner. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours of being notified, another name will be drawn.

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Review: The Lost Sisters (Novella) (Folk of the Air #1.5) by Holly Black

I became addicted to YA fantasy over the summer holidays and discovered Holly Black after reading The Cruel Prince, which I loved. The Lost Sisters is a companion novella to The Cruel Prince, so you really need to have read that one first to appreciate it.

Jude and Taryn are twin sisters, of human parents, who have ended up living in the world of the fae after being kidnapped by their step-father. Both have very different tactics to survive this strange new world, tactics that are often in conflict with their sister's. Both crave respect from the fae; is power a way to achieve this?

As this is a novella, it's hard to say more about the story without giving away the plot. So I'll just say that whereas The Cruel Prince was from Jude's point of view, this story gives Taryn's version of events. 

I did enjoy it but this is really one for existing fans of the series - something to keep us going until the next book in the series, The Wicked King, comes out in January 2019. If you can't wait that long, Holly Black's other books - Tithe and Ironside - are set in the same world and some of the characters reappear in The Cruel Prince.

Related Posts:

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

After discovering YA fantasy over the summer, I have had a lovely time catching up on authors' backlists. I've particularly enjoyed reading Holly Black's urban fairy stories. Each one is set in the same world yet mentions characters from her other books, so  it's like catching up with old friends. The Darkest Part of the Forest is a standalone, so you don't need to have read her other books to enjoy it - which is lucky, because I seem to be reading them backwards!

In the forest outside the town of Fairfold is a glass casket containing a sleeping faerie prince. He's been there for as long as anyone can remember and has become quite a tourist attraction. Ben and his sister Hazel find him fascinating and long for him to wake up ... but the sleeping prince isn't the only faerie creature in the forest.

I loved this story because it took several well-known fairy tales and turned them on their head (Snow White, Kate Crackernuts, etc). I thought it great that it was a prince in the glass casket who needed rescuing and, although there is a bit of a romance, the characters don't necessarily end up with who you think. I loved the way the inhabitants of Fairfold had long since become used to supernatural creatures straying over their boundaries, and the hapless tourists who took selfies of themselves with the prince, but usually ended up becoming faerie fodder!

Recommended for anyone who loves YA fantasy and fairy tales with a dark, urban twist.

Review: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

I loved Big Little Lies so I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of Nine Perfect Strangers - and it didn't disappoint! I love Liane's writing, brimming with characters I recognise from real life (ouch!) and chock full of funny lines - the kind of thing we all think, but aren't brave enough to say out loud!

The story is about nine, not remotely 'perfect' strangers who meet up at a radical new health resort hoping to completely overhaul their lives. All have suffered some kind of loss in their life, from loss of a loved one to loss of self, and they mostly blame themselves. Each chapter is told from a different viewpoint but it is so skilfully done you don't become confused as to who is who. Yet despite the humour, some serious issues were touched upon in a sensitive way: dealing with grief, divorce, self-image, substance addiction, etc. 

My favourite character was Frances, a middle-aged romantic novelist, whose confidence has been undermined after receiving a particularly vicious review. This is probably because I felt Frances was basically me! She thinks the same way, reacts the same way, even loves the same brand of chocolate! Although I suspect many women reading this book will feel the same way! This is a particular skill of this author, to create well-rounded, thoroughly believable characters we all recognise, can connect with and want to root for.

I absolutely adored Nine Perfect Strangers. I've recommended it to all my friends, and even read bits aloud to my long-suffering husband. One of my favourite books this year!

Thank you to Liane Moriarty and Michael Joseph (Penguin) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Related review:

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Review: A Keeper by Graham Norton

I absolutely loved Graham Norton's last book, Holding, and couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, perhaps another cosy-ish crime story, but A Keeper is much darker and quite sad in places.

Elizabeth Keane has returned to her childhood home in Ireland after her mother's death, intending to close up and sell the house. Instead, she finds a cache of letters hidden in her mother's wardrobe, making mention of the father Elizabeth never knew. That, combined with another unexpected inheritance, makes Elizabeth determined to investigate her mother's past.

"She imagined her family tree as a couple of bare branches with an ancient vulture perched on one of them."

As always, the character studies and dialogue are brilliant. Despite the sadness of the tale (towards the end), there are some funny one-liners too. Instead of multiple viewpoints, like Holding, A Keeper is mostly told from just two - Elizabeth in the present day and Patricia (her mother) in the 1970s. Because I was thoroughly enjoying the story, it didn't dawn on me until about two-thirds of the way through that this is a story about mothers and their relationship with their children. Clever title too!

The dual timeline, the strong female characters and the challenges they face would appeal to fans of authors such as Eve Chase and Lulu Taylor. I read a lot of books, so I kind of knew where the story was heading, but there were some good twists that took me completely by surprise. (So that will teach me to be smug!) 1970s rural Ireland is very well realised and, as I've said, the characters are brilliant and I loved them, flaws and all.

A five-star read, thoroughly recommended! 

Thank you to Graham Norton and Coronet (Hodder and Stoughton) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Related review:

Holding by Graham Norton

Review: A House of Ghosts by W.C. Ryan

I was attracted to this book because of the absolutely gorgeous cover and the title. I love, love, love stories about spooky old houses as well as traditional-style murder mysteries. I should probably have paid a bit more attention to the blurb because, while there is both a deliciously haunted house and a clever murder mystery, the story is set in 1917 and is also about spies, secret plans and traitors - which is not normally my thing at all. However, I absolutely loved it!

Donovan (the sole survivor of his regiment) and Kate (employed by the War Office to crack codes) are dispatched by 'C' to a house party at Blackwater Abbey on a remote island just off the Devon coast. Lady Highmount has invited her friends and two psychics to her house for a seance. She is hoping to make contact with her sons who are missing in action, believed dead. Her husband, Lord Highmount, is a man of working class origins who has made his fortune manufacturing weapons. Someone is selling plans of these to the Germans, and it's up to Donovan and Kate to find out who.

While there are plenty of (real) ghosts at Blackthorn Abbey, I think this book would suit readers of murder mysteries best. There are some truly chilling moments (the seance!), but perhaps not enough jump shocks for fans of ghost stories. There are, however, plenty of twists for vintage crime fans and a good puzzle to get their teeth into!

I adored the characters and their sparky dialogue. The action is shared equally between Donovan and Kate; she's a thoroughly modern heroine and not just there to make the hero look good. I really hope this is the first book in a new series, because I would love to read more!

Brilliant stuff! Thoroughly recommended!  

Thank you to W.C. Ryan and Bonnier Zaffre for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

YA fantasy, particularly with fairy tale and folklore references, is my new favourite genre. So that, combined with the beautiful cover, is what drew me to this book.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is set in the village of Dubossary, on the border of Moldova and the Ukraine, in 1903. It combines traditional folk tales and real-life history (the Russian pograms). The author's note at the back of the book explains which scenes really happened, and how she drew on her own family history for inspiration. The story is about two Jewish sisters, Liba and Laya, who live in a village where Jews and non-Jews live quite happily alongside each other, until a band of handsome men arrive in town to sell the most wonderful fruit at the market - and spread dissent. Suddenly everything bad that happens (deaths and disappearances) is blamed upon the Jews. It's hard to explain more, without going into spoiler territory, so I'll go with what it says on the blurb: 'Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realise the old fairy tales are true . . . and could save them all.'

While I did enjoy the story (for me, it's a solid four stars) it is aimed firmly at the YA market, so at times I found it a bit teenage-y. Most of the drama deals with the two girls' discovery of who they really are and the pains of first love. The growing tension in the village, and the mystery of who was responsible for the deaths and disappearances, kept me gripped and I read the book very quickly. I found the historical parts fascinating. I liked the characters and thought the way the author alternated the viewpoint of each sister - Liba spoke in prose, Laya's voice was more like poetry - was clever.

However, the amount of Yiddish and Hebrew words at the start of the book made it hard to get into at first (there is a glossary at the back), and while I like stories that reference classic fairy tales and folk tales, I did feel The Sisters of the Winter Wood borrowed a bit too heavily from Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, particularly towards the end. Meaning that if you've read that, you'll have no trouble working out the plot. (The author, in her notes, admits this is deliberate.)

So, while older folk like me might find The Sisters of the Winter Wood lacks crossover appeal, the target audience will love it and probably give it an extra star. 

Thank you to Rena Rossner and Orbit for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters

The Turn of Midnight is the second book in Minette Walters's new historical series. It is set in the 14th century, when the Black Death hit England with devastating consequences. I was desperate to get my hands on this book because I loved the first one in the series, The Last Hours, and I would recommend reading that one first to fully understand and appreciate the characters and their motivation. 

At the end of 1348, the people of Develish have only survived the plague that devastated the rest of country by forcibly isolating themselves. When it seems the pestilence might have finally run its course, former serf Thaddeus Thurkell ventures outside the walls with a band of teenage boys to scout the surrounding villages for food and news of fellow survivors. But to enable Develish to continue to prosper and thrive in this new world, a deception will be necessary. Can Thaddeus pull it off? Because the penalty for his failure will be death ...

The strength of these stories is in the characters. It is impossible not to root for their success and be completely gripped by their adventures. I particularly love Lady Anne, who uses her intelligence and cool logic to outsmart her enemies (usually men who underestimate her!), and former serf Thaddeus, who is determined to rise above his lowly status and is, in fact, far smarter than those who are supposedly his 'betters'. I also loved the way Thaddeus's band of surly teenagers have grown into mature soldiers.

I know very little about this time period and felt the author really brought it alive for me. I do hope someone turns it into TV series! My favourite scenes were when Thaddeus and his men finally see the sea, and their confrontation with one of the villains from the first book. The only negative was that I felt the scene set in Blandeforde went on for a bit too long - I was eager for Thaddeus to get onto his next adventure!

Thoroughly recommended, particularly for anyone who loves gripping, character-led historical fiction.

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of The Turn of Midnight, which will be published in the UK on the 4th of October 2018.

Thank you to Minette Walters and Allen and Unwin for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Related Review:

The Last Hours (Book 1) by Minette Walters

Review: The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton

Kate Morton is one of my favourite authors and The Forgotten Garden is one of my all-time favourite books, so I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy of The Clockmaker's Daughter. I really enjoyed the story but wavered between giving it four stars or five stars. However, it was the ending that made me finally settle on four. It's hard to explain, without giving away spoilers, but I was hoping for a kind of Spielberg/Disney fantasy ending (with all the characters' talk of time and space). But as this is a historical and NOT a fantasy, I obviously didn't get one!

The story is in the main part is about a Victorian woman called Birdie, who overcomes her Oliver Twist style background (thieving and picking pockets) and falls in love with an upcoming artist named Edward Radcliffe, before tragedy strikes at a house party in 1862. A woman is murdered, Edward leaves England never to return, and the priceless Radcliffe diamond is lost forever. In the present day Elodie, who works in an archive, finds Edward's satchel and sketchbook, with drawings of a house she thought only existed in a children's fairy story, and is determined to solve the mystery.

I had thought The Clockmaker's Daughter would switch between Birdie and Elodie's viewpoints, like an Eve Chase or Lulu Taylor novel, but instead it told the story of everyone who had lived in Edward's Elizabethan manor house (Birchwood Manor) up until the present day. The only connection between each of these characters is the house and the fact that they have all lost someone - either through a tragic death or removal by distance. It reminded me of The Suffolk Trilogy by Norah Lofts. And this was another reason the rating dropped to a four: I'd rather have read about Birdie, who was a fabulous creation, and Elodie, who kind of disappeared beneath the weight of all these other characters - some of whom I didn't feel added anything to the story. Having said that, I did love how we discovered the ways all the characters were ultimately connected - Elodie's Great-Uncle Tip, for example.

I always love stories about old houses and I loved the mystery of what happened that night in 1862; to Edward and Birdie, the necklace and the painting. I loved the stories of Pale Joe and Ada - she was my favourite character! I think it could have done with being shorter (it's almost 600 pages) and have less characters. Having said that, I was completely gripped and read it very quickly! I really enjoyed the way the stories wrapped around each other and I'm happy to give it a solid four stars. If you're not hung up on ghosts deserving their happy ending along with everyone else, you might want to give it five!

The Clockmaker's Daughter is out in the UK on the 20th of September 2018.

Thank you to Kate Morton and Mantle (Pan Macmillan) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse

I've enjoyed Kate Mosse's books in the past, but the thing that made me pick this one up was the word 'gothic' on the cover. I do love gothic novels!

The Taxidermist's Daughter is a historical murder mystery, set in the tiny village of Fishbourne (West Sussex) in 1912. It is a tradition that on the Eve of St Mark's the ghosts of those destined to die in the coming year will be seen walking into the church at midnight. The villagers have gathered in the churchyard to wait and watch, despite the pouring rain. At the appointed time the doors open - and hundreds of tiny birds fly out. It is obviously a message - but for whom? - and while watching from the shadows a woman is murdered...

Connie Gifford lives with her father in the dilapidated Blackthorn House. Huge chunks of her memory are missing after a childhood accident. Once famous for his taxidermy museum, Crowley Gifford is now more interested in drinking himself into oblivion while Connie does most of the work. What secret is Gifford drinking to forget - and is it the same one Connie can't remember?

I loved this story! It is so atmospheric - downright creepy at times - with the sinister house, the constant rain, the encroaching flood waters, the increasing body count and the very creative murderer! It is a bit gory at times though. At the beginning of each chapter is an 'extract' from a history of taxidermy, there are detailed descriptions of Connie's work, and that's before we get to the murders! So, not one for the faint-hearted but definitely recommended!