I love reading books by the author Elly Griffiths so was very pleased to read her latest, Postscript Murders. It started with the death of Peggy, an old lady in her nineties whose body was discovered by her carer. It seemed as though it was a natural death. Peggy had been a murder consultant though to several authors and her help was acknowledged by them in the books. She had told her carer, Natalka, that she was worried she was being followed. Natalka visits the police and speaks to DC Harbinder Kaur who considers the death to be from natural causes.

Natalka has an unusual friendship with an ex priest, Benedict, who runs a coffee shack in the town. She tells him her worries about Peggy's death and when they are clearing her flat a gunman appears.

With Edwin, an elderly resident in Peggy's block of flats, and Benedict she tries to solve the mystery of Peggy's death and they end up going on a road trip together to Scotland for a book:festival and eventually help the Police in solving sevReal murders along the way.

The book is an enjoyable easy read and I hope Elly Griffiths writes another in the series featuring DS Harbinder Kaur.

This book is as brilliant, clever, warm-hearted and witty as all Elly Griffiths’ books. I loved the setting, the book-world plot, the road trip and, more than anything, the wonderful characters. I also think this was the most complex and surprising plot of all her books. A brilliant, triumphant read.

Have always loved Elly Griffiths books and this was no exception a great new bunch of characters to get to know, Loved the cover, Lovely read 5 stars thank you Elly Griffiths and thank you Netgalley for allowing me to review it.

I really enjoyed this book. It was different and full of twists and turns. Highly recommend it for all crime fans

Elly Griffiths is known for her series of Dr Ruth Galloway novels, which I’ve very much enjoyed.
The Postscript Murders is a stand-alone crime novel I believe it’s the second one featuring detective Harbinder Kaur.
She investigates the murder of Peggy, known as the murder consultant. Famous crime novelists use the older lady to help with plotting their novels - in effect choosing the right murder.
An unlikely band of people are also investigating Peggy’s murder including Ukrainian home carer Natalka, ex-monk Benedict and Peggy’s friend Edwin.
But as more crime novelists start to die, it’s up to Harbinder to prove the link between them and solve the case.
I like Griffiths’ wry turn of phrase and humour and this novel is far-fetched but good fun. Harbinder - a gay Sikh woman - is endearing, and constantly irritated by her guileless police sidekick Neil.
I hope that this isn’t the last we see of police officer Harbinder.
An enjoyable murder romp. Recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy. My review is my own opinion. Having read The Stranger Diaries a few months ago, I was pleased to see that Griffiths had written a second novel with the character of Harbinder Kaur. Unfortunately, the chapters from her POV are limited, with more chapters told from the POV of the other characters. Had there only been one other narrative viewpoint then the novel would not have felt as disjointed. However, by giving so much space to the other narrators, it often left me frustrated as in each chapter we are bombarded with backstory, telling rather than showing, everything we could ever need to know (often more than was necessary) about each characters entire lives. The plot itself is engaging and would translate well to television, but doesn’t work as well as a piece of fiction. Would really like to see a novel told entirely from Harbinder perspective as she is an interesting character who deserves to take centre stage.

This is an excellent follow up book to The Stranger Diaries with the same Detective Harbinder Kaur. Elly Griffiths develops her characters and their backstories very well so the reader feels like they really know them. While this is book 2, it is a totally new mystery with new characters, where Harbinder needs to solve the mysterious deaths of old people in a retirement home as well as crime writers who are being murdered themselves. Just what is it that links them all? Throw in some suspicious Ukrainians, carers with secrets, and a few money-grabbing relatives and you get a great page-turning mystery!

I really enjoy an Elly Griffiths book - she tells a good tale. This is no exception - there is a murder, a plucky crew of characters keen to solve the mystery and a few red herrings to mix it up. This is a new(ish) series and Harbinder Kaur is a likeable addition to Griffith's stable of detectives.

Unfinished... I am sorry but this simply didn't grip me enough to carry on beyond 20%. I appreciate the range of characters and diversity but there was just very little to the development of the story and it was frustratingly slow.

I’m a big Ellie Griffiths fan- I love all her Ruth Galloway books and eagerly await each new one in the series.
I read the previous novel featuring Harbinder Kaur - The Stranger Diaries- and thought at the time she would make a wonderful series character. I was delighted to see she was featuring in The Postscript Murders.
When elderly Peggy Smith dies in her sheltered housing in Brighton it looks to all intents and purposes as if her heart has given out: she is after all well in to her nineties.
However, the carer who finds her, Natalka, suspects foul play and takes her suspicions to Detective Kaur who resolves to investigate. Natalka and her friends Benedict, a coffee shop owner and retired monk as well as eighty year old Edwin, Peggy’s friend and neighbour decide to do a little bit of investigating on their own.
Natalka finds a card in Peggy’s flat which describes her as a “Murder Consultant” and she is mentioned in the postscript of several books including those written by famous crime fiction authors such as Dex Challoner.
What is. Peggy’s connection and was she really murdered? When other characters start to die the mystery really takes off!
I already knew I liked the character of Harbinder, the laconic Sikh detective who still lives with her parents. They feature more in this book and the reader learns a bit more about them and their life.
In fact the other characters in the book were equally appealing. , Edwin, the retired, BBC producer was wonderful- I could just picture him in his bright pink bow tie full of knowledge about all sorts of interesting things, thoroughly enjoying his amateur sleuthing with his new young friends.
Benedict was great too- his love of crime fiction and attention to detail was incredibly endearing.
Natalka was slightly mysterious but very gung ho and independent, having left the Ukraine after
“taking “ some cryptocurrency she’d help to earn. She is obviously very bright, studying for a Maths degree before escaping the war in her own country and relocating to the UK. Caring is her day job- she deals in Bitcoin online in the evenings. A fantastic character I’d love to see more of in a further book.
Elly Griffiths is so good at describing her fictional characters that I was desperate to drive to Brighton and meet them all at Benedict’s Coffee Shack!
A thoroughly enjoyable read with lots of references for golden age crime thriller fans. I whizzed through this book in a couple of days..
A definitely five star read.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

DS Harbinder Kaur investigates in a delightful meander from the south of England to the north east of Scotland, with a motley crew of civilian 'assistants', who are trying to solve the mysterious death of a friend and neighbour. Fans of the cosy mystery and of crime writing festivals will find much to enjoy here, with golden age literary references and plot twists aplenty. Will Harbinder get a break from her noisy, loving family? Will she ever get a date?
The Stranger Diaries was a standalone thriller, also with a literary setting; some characters from that novel reappear here but this is another standalone.
As always, Ms Griffiths is strong on a sense of place and lets the plot build through the eyes of her well realised characters.

Firstly thank you to Netgalley and Quercus Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first time reading anything by Elly Griffiths and I enjoyed her style of writing. This was an enjoyable read with a varied and entertaining cast of main and secondary characters.

The setting of Shoreham was vastly different to the latter of the book where the action moved to Aberdeen and I liked how the tone of the book changed when the setting did, as the action ramped up in the second half.

It was refreshing to read a book with so many varying types of characters, an enjoyable read.

Book 2 in the Harbinder Kaur series published 2020.

This, I imagine, is what is referred to as a cosy mystery and not a genre that I would normally gravitate towards. But much to my surprise, and pleasure, I found it to be a highly entertaining and enjoyable read.

What made it so entertaining was the eclectic cast of characters, the evolving mystery and the subtle but ever present humour.

The characters include.
1. DS Harbinder Kaur, a female detective in a male dominated work place. She is also gay; a Sikh and in her mid thirties is still lives with her mum and dad.
2. The beautiful and mysterious Natalka, a refugee from The Ukraine now living in England and working as carer for the aged. As luck would have it she is also a maths wizard.
3. Bernie, who until recently lived a cloistered life as a monk but know is the barista in his own coffee shop. Bernie also has the hots for Natalka.
4. Last but not leased there’s elderly, dapper Edwin a retired TV producer, who like Harbinder, is gay.
What’s not to like.

When Natalka finds one of her clients, Peggy Smith, sitting in her favourite chair in front of her favourite window all seems normal but for one thing Peggy is dead. The police are called, enter DS Kaur, but given the fact that Peggy was in her nineties the verdict is death by natural causes.

The obligatory spanner in the works turns up when Natalka finds some very strange cards inside some of Peggy’s books, cards that read “We’re coming for you”.
Natalka is sufficiently intrigued that she decides to share this worrisome information with her friends, Bernie and Edwin. The group then decide to take their worries to DS Kaur who soon finds herself drawn into the mystery.

The search for the truth will take the sleuths from the south of England to the north of Scotland and before we get to the truth there will be a plethora of red herrings to confuse you every step of the way.

I can only say that this was an enjoyable and entertaining departure from my norm.

A highly recommended 4 star read.

Many thanks to the publisher Quercuc Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I've read lots of Ellie Griffiths books before, mainly Dr Ruth Galloway and I've enjoyed them all immensely.

Whooshed through this book with it's unlikely cast of characters.

It's always a good sign when I can't wait to find out what happens but I really don't want the book to end.

Brilliant!

I am a huge Elly Griffiths fan so when I saw her new book on Netgalley, I couldn't request it quick enough!!

This is the second in the new DS Kaur series and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The book begins with the death of Peggy, a ninety year old woman living in a retirement home. The doctors have said she had a heart attack, her friend's don't think so!

Her friends, a Ukranian carer, an ex-monk and a retired BBC radio presenter, embark on their own investigation into her murder, much to the annoyance of DS Kaur.

I loved the relationship between the three unlikely friends, they had me liking them to people in my life as they were so real. My favourite character was Edwin, a gay man in his 80's who is desperately lonely and always dresses in a bow tie. I just adored him and hes a character that I will remember.

Although this is the second in the series, you could easily read this on its own but The Stranger Diaries is an excellent book and I highly recommend you read them both.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus for the advanced digital copy of this book.

Elly Griffiths is easily becoming one of my favourite authors. It really is the characters who make this book for me. I really like Harbinder and we got to know her parents a little better too, who are just lovely. Then add in Edwin, Benedict & Natalka and you’ve got a brilliant set of characters to tell an interesting and sometimes amusing tale. I really love how Elly manages to make her characters so realistic, they all have their flaws and tiny oddities, which just make them so genuine.
This is at times a slow burner but it did give me great Agatha Christie vibes, especially some of the settings. It focuses a lot on books which I loved and the main plot was really enjoyable. My only one slight issue was I did find the side plot somewhat confusing and unnecessary. Altogether though, a great read!

As ever, Elly Griffiths creates a cast of 'ordinary', memorable, believable characters that draw in you to their domestic dramas as well as the unfolding crime drama plot. I particularly enjoyed Harbinder's woodland animal strategy to cope with Neil! The postscript murders has an engaging an enjoyable plot, enhanced with lots of elements that make it feel very current and believable. A great read - nice to travel with Harbinder again, hopefully not for the last time!

This is a very good thriller. This is the second one with Harbinder Kaur as a main character and I really like this character - and I like that Elly Griffiths obviously understood people might be tired by now of the main investigator being a white middle-aged man who is either divorced or single and smokes all day... I think the Ruth Galloway series already tried to fit more diverse characters, but this one makes the heroine a Sikh, gay young woman who lives with her parents, and I like the choice.
The supporting characters are very good as well - and you get to see characters you know in real life but who don't often appear in crime novels (the Ukrainian cleaner, the Indian parents, the lonely elderly neighbour).
The plot in this one is just as good as I expected - maybe a bit muddled towards the end (many twists in just a few pages) but the author clearly had a lot of fun writing something about crime writers and the writing scene. I found it really pleasant to read, wanted to know what happened, and enjoyed the writing as well.

With thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for a digital copy of this book. A new author for me and a new detective. Although part of a series, it is not necessary to have read the others. I really love crime fiction - for me key ingredients are an interesting setting, a fully fleshed and realised detective with a back story and a crime which is set up and unravelled with equal care and lastly not too much gore. This ticked all those boxes - Shoreham on sea with it’s glistening water, beachside cafe and retirees in their bay windowed flats clustered around the sands was enticing and an innocuous setting for murder. Harbinger, a gay female detective, has not yet ‘outed’ herself to her parents who she lives with and feels undervalued professionally and by her family. Added to this a delightful trio of an ex- monk, a savvy female carer from Poland and a retired gentleman yearning for excitement in his life. These three form an unlikely amateur sleuthing team determined to convince Harbinger that their friend did not die from natural causes. For me this often comic trio, enthusiastically pursuing leads all over the country to Harbinger’s horror, set the book apart from other crime fiction and is at the heart of the success of this book. The crime is carefully established and almost as carefully unraveled with the invariable little twists along the way. Hugely enjoyable!

Good read, likeable characters, original plot, keeps you guessing.
After reading this book, I’m excited to read more by this author.