Bleeding Heart Yard

Bleeding Heart Yard is the third installment in the Harbinder Kaur series but can easily be read as a standalone. I read the first book in this series a couple of weeks ago to get a feel for the main character and I ended up enjoying this latest book even more than The Stranger Diaries. We get to know DI Kaur better in this third installment - she has moved to the big city and now runs her own team as a new Detective Inspector at the Met in London. 

Kaur's first case is a murder at a school reunion that has its fair share of famous alumni. "The Group" was a clique of friends at the Manor Park school and many went on to bigger things - actress, MPs, pop star - but they all share a nefarious secret from their school days and at this reunion the bodies begin to pile up.

This was a good police procedural with an interesting sinister historical aspect with the Bleeding Heart Yard locale. I liked getting to know Kaur's personal life and seeing Kaur come into her own as she pulls her new team at the Met together. The snippets of Kaur's dark, dry humour were also a bonus. I had some issues keeping track of the large cast of characters (I ended up making a character list) and didn't love all of the jumping between the different POVs or the repetitiveness as the characters each rehash their memories of the same incident. But Griffiths provides some good red herrings and a few possible culprits to keep readers (including me) guessing. 

Bleeding Heart Yard is more police procedural than twisty mystery but an enjoyable whodunnit with many possible culprits that will have readers debating on whether they'll attend their next high school reunion.

 

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher Mariner Books for my complimentary advanced copy which was provided in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Elly Griffiths

Genre: Mystery

Series: #3 in the Harbinder Kaur series

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from publisher

Publisher: Mariner Books

First Published: November 15, 2022

Book Description from GoodReads: A murderer strikes at a school reunion--but the students are no strangers to death-- in this propulsive, twisty thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries

Is it possible to forget that you've committed a murder?

When Cassie Fitzgerald was at school in the late 90s, she and her friends killed a fellow student. Almost twenty years later, Cassie is a happily married mother who loves her job--as a police officer. She closely guards the secret she has all but erased from her memory.

One day her husband finally persuades her to go to a school reunion. Cassie catches up with her high-achieving old friends from the Manor Park School--among them two politicians, a rock star, and a famous actress. But then, shockingly, one of them, Garfield Rice, is found dead in the school bathroom, supposedly from a drug overdose. As Garfield was an eminent--and controversial--MP and the investigation is high profile, it's headed by Cassie's new boss, DI Harbinder Kaur, freshly promoted and newly arrived in London. The trouble is, Cassie can't shake the feeling that one of them has killed again.

Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies? It's in Cassie's interest to skew the investigation so that it looks like it has nothing to do with Manor Park and she seems to be succeeding.

Until someone else from the reunion is found dead in Bleeding Heart Yard.