The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

The Bestselling Richard & Judy Book Club Pick

Book blurb

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

This is what the police know: English teacher Clare Cassidy’s friend Ella has just been murdered. Clare and Ella had recently fallen out. Found beside the body was a line from The Stranger, a story by the Gothic writer Clare teaches, and the murder scene is identical to one of the deaths in the story.

This is what Clare knows: No one else was aware of her fight with Ella. Few others have even read The Stranger. Someone has wormed their way into her life and her work. They know her darkest secrets. And they don’t mean well.

This is what the killer knows: Who will be next to die.

My thoughts

The story is told from the alternating points of view of Clare, DS Kaur and Georgia, between which are extracts from ‘The Stranger’ itself. It works well.

This book has terrific characters which add to the spooky atmosphere of the story and which flit through your mind as you read and try to figure out who, if anyone, killed Clare’s friend Ella.

The book will send chills up your spine and the added intertwined extracts ramp up the scariness. Still it has a fine detective strand running through and DS Kaur’s character comes into her own with some inside knowledge of the school. She’s a character who could well be given another story or two.

Elly Griffiths tells a terrific story, with good characters – not just the main ones, many of the ‘lesser’ ones too – which are well rounded and add something to the storyline.

It’s a well-written, atmospheric book which I thoroughly enjoyed and would say is well worth reading.

Do read the full ‘The Stranger’ story at the end for another shiver up your spine and another wonderful twist to this terrific book.

Thanks

My thanks to Quercus via NetGalley for an eCopy of The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths.

#20BooksofSummer

I’m catching up with my reviews, at last! Although the final reviews are somewhat after the 3rd Sept. As I had only anticipated reading 10 books this summer I’m thrilled to have read the full twenty. I’ll put up the final review and a full update on this summers reading challenge as soon as I can.

Information

Publisher: Quercus (Paperback: 16 May 2019)

Buy: Quercus. AmazonSmileUK

Author:

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 Brighton-based mystery series is set in the 1950s and 1960s. She lives near Brighton with her husband, an archaeologist, and their two grown children.