The Stranger Diaries

The Stranger Diaries is the first book in the Harbinder Kaur series and is a mix of genres. It's a murder mystery with a Gothic vibe, a police procedural and there's a ghost story t'boot. 

There is also a story within a story that is broken up into small bits throughout the main plot which adds to the creepy feel, but the story wasn't as creepy as I had expected. It is a slow burn mystery (not my fav) that never quite had me on the edge of my seat.

There's a lot going on in this book with multiple POVs, a couple of timelines, excerpts from a Gothic story, diary entries and, of course, murder. I was surprised that Detective Kaur's character wasn't at the forefront of the story or the main POV. Instead, she shares storytelling duty with Clare (and her diary entries) and Georgia, Clare's teenage daughter. 

That's a lot of 'cooks in the kitchen' and I was disappointed that I didn't feel invested in their lives. And the way the story was told with these different POVs gave the story a repetitive feel as readers revisit situations we already experienced with another character. Kaur comes off as the most interesting of the bunch which is good since this is the first book in the series. 

Griffiths gives readers a few culprits and the murderer's identity was a surprise to me, but their motivation came out of left field and was weak at best. When you add in Griffiths heavy-handed attempts to connect the current-day and fictional story, this book left me feeling not quite satisfied with a tale that had a cool setting but wasn't nearly as sinister as I had hoped to read during the week of Hallowe'en. 

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Elly Griffiths

Genre: Mystery

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Series: #1 in the Harbinder Kaur series

Publisher: Mariner Books

First Published: March 5, 2019

Book Description from GoodReads: Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from R. M. Holland’s most famous story, “The Stranger,” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favourite literature.

To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her closest confidant, her diary, the only outlet she has for her darkest suspicions and fears about the case. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary: "Hallo, Clare. You don’t know me."

Clare becomes more certain than ever: “The Stranger” has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?