Book Review - The Stranger Diaries - Elly Griffiths

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Death lies between the lines.

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

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

This was a book subscription pick which I really enjoyed.

It's quite spooky in places and there is a story within a story. It's written in several POV too. I do enjoy a book that has depth to it and, although I probably should have worked out the identity of the killer I didn't.

This seems to be the first book featuring the detective Harbinder Kaur so I'll be looking out for other books she appears in.

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Book Review - The Murders at Fleat House - Lucinda Riley

The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Murders at Fleat House is a suspenseful and utterly compelling crime novel from the multi-million copy global bestseller, Lucinda Riley.

The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.

But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for stepping away from her police career in London, but reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss.

Reunited with her loyal sergeant Alastair Miles, she enters the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn.

Charlie is exposed as an arrogant bully, and those around him had both motive and opportunity to switch the drugs he took daily to control his epilepsy.

As staff at the school close ranks, the disappearance of young pupil Rory Millar and the death of an elderly Classics master provide Jazz with important leads, but are destined to complicate the investigation further. As snow covers the landscape and another suspect goes missing, Jazz must also confront her personal demons . . .

Then, a particularly grim discovery at the school makes this the most challenging murder investigation of her career. Because Fleat House hides secrets darker than even Jazz could ever have imagined . . .

I'm familiar with the works of Lucinda Riley having read all but the last book in her "Seven Sisters" series. I was interested in how well she would write a murder mystery as it's a very different genre. It was also written back in 2006 but not published until 2022.

I wasn't disappointed. Following a sudden death of a schoolboy at a private boarding school in Norfolk, D.I. Jasmine "Jazz" Hunter is drawn back to work after leaving the Met police in London. The death which is at first suspicious quickly becomes a murder inquiry.

As expected from Riley the plot is complicated, involving lots of characters. It kept me turning the pages and I would have given the book 5 stars but there is a wrapping up of a loose end that I felt was unnecessary and a bit twee. Such a shame that Riley's life was cut short due to cancer. I'm sure a whole series could have been created around Jazz Hunter.

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Just Jot it January - 2 days in 1! (15 & 16/1/24)

I missed a day!

I am so cross with myself.  I saw the prompt for yesterday which was "craft" supplied by Astrid  and immediately had ideas for a post but then I whiled away the time during the day and we were out for the evening.  So no post!

We did have a nice evening though using a voucher Hubby had for his birthday last year from our daughter and her wife which was for a meal out at a venue in Mayfair - yes the posh part of London.  The venue also has live acts on.  I'll write about that in more detail later this week.

But back to crafting - I do enjoy crafting, particularly knitting and crochet.  Regular visitors will have followed my progress on making Maisie for my Granddaughter's birthday.

I'm not sure Ella was too impressed with Maisie initially but she has recently discovered that Maisie can be undressed.  And redressed.  And undressed.  I'm sure you get the picture.

Another project is still a WIP. 

I started this back in 2015!  Trying to use up odds and ends of wool.  When I posted this picture I reckoned I needed another 7 squares to have enough to start sewing it together.  Well I revisited it not long before Christmas and decided I still needed another 9!  Thankfully I have just started square #9 and then I will definitely be making it into a blanket.  I've already bought the yarn to make another knitted animal (a dog) but I'm determined to finish this blanket first.

But then I sign up for blogging challenges and book reading challenges and ......I'm sure you know what I mean.

Anyway, moving on to today.

The prompt is "variety" provided by John.

John is a prolific blogger and heavily involved with the A-Z challenge.  He is also very knowledgeable on music, adverts and a lot of other things.  Variety is a good word for John.

I think I need to put more variety into my blog but much as I tend to start crafting projects and then get distracted I seem to be the same with blogging.  I've had various things going on here on the blog over the years but they tend to fall by the wayside.

One of the things I used to post about for example was items in the news each week - I would bookmark items on various topics such as news, sport, entertainment etc and then write about them.  Now I hardly watch the news - particularly at the moment as it's too horrific.

But maybe I shouldn't switch it off.  We need to be informed and not just let it all wash over us.

Hmm food for thought!

Right I'm off to bed now - I have an early start tomorrow - taking Granddaughter Ella to nursery.  I might need an afternoon nap!

Just Jot it January - 14/1/24 - Writing

It's day 14 of the challenge and today's prompt is "Writing" provided by Joanne.  You can check out her blog here.  Or go here to find out more about the challenge on Linda's blog.

Oh crumbs, I think the writing's on the wall!  This is the second day in a row that I'm getting a post done and up in time by the skin of my teeth.

At least today's post has the badge on it, although some would say why isn't it the 10 year badge:

Yes the challenge is now in its 10th year but I haven't participated for that long so wasn't sure I should use the badge.

Anyway, well done to Linda, who not only writes novels, but also keeps this challenge going each year and One Liner Wednesday and #SoCS going every week!

And here's me struggling to write more than a few lines each day.  

I'm also trying to keep up with reading right now having signed up for a 52 books in a year challenge.  Except I'm probably spending as much time reading all the Facebook posts connected to that as I am actually reading.  And then there's all the other JJJ posts to go and read.

There aren't enough hours in the day!

We did have a nice few hours with our youngest son and his family today who were here for lunch.  Grandsons Rory and Vinny are always entertaining.

I'm waffling!  Time for bed.