Book Review: The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Prior to this, I only knew Elly Griffiths from the Magic Men series. This book could not have been further from that in style or scope, but as I’ve always enjoyed the writing in those, I thought this seemed like a great way to break into her contemporary work. I did still enjoy the writing, although not quite as much – and the back and forth perspective shifts that included the presentation of overlapping events from the perspective of various characters was interesting but did require more page flipping back and forth than I suspected or, to be frank, enjoyed.

Still, the underlying mystery of the murders was interesting and I particularly enjoyed the way the RM Holland short story was interspersed with the text to provide a terrifically eerie and Gothic setting for everything that was going on.

This was a well-paced mystery with just the right amount of misdirection and secret-keeping, and the characters were a decent balance of personalities, albeit not as robustly developed as I’d come to expect in her writing. I’ll admit it wasn’t my favorite of her pieces, but I did enjoy it – particularly the tongue-in-cheek wryness of Harbinder and, as mentioned, the interplay of the short story as mood setter.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.