Set in West Sussex in a local school Talgarth High, where a renowned Author, R M Holland used to live and the ghost of his wife is purported to haunt there.

Claire Cassidy is an English teacher, tall beautiful and has a daughter, Georgia. Claire’s friend, Ella is found murdered at home and so the mystery begins. There is a second murder and DS Harbinder Kaur investigates, becoming close to the Cassidy family in the process.

There’s a suspicion of witchcraft, hauntings and misdeeds in the school, all done in a very believable way. I loved the way the book reads, with chapter from each of the characters perspective, sometimes of the same conversations or situations, which felt original and really built the characters well. There’s also a little romance thrown in too.

There are twists and turns in this whodunnit and some genuinely creepy and tense moments. It keeps the killers reveal to the end which was a great twist. A great read from Elly Griffiths

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

If you are looking for the perfect book to give you the chills and make you check that all doors and windows are closed before getting into bed at night, then THE STRANGER DIARIES is the right book.

The story is told from three points of views, from three women I really liked. The first one is Clare Cassidy. She is an English teacher who, after her divorce, left London and moved to a small town in Sussex with her daughter. She took a job at the local comprehensive school, Talgarth High, that, in the early 1900s, was the home of R. M. Holland, a reclusive Victorian writer who is the subject of a biography Clare is writing. He wrote The Stranger, a Gothic short story that it’s at the centre of this novel. Clare’s life focuses on her daughter, her job, and the book she is writing, but it’s turned upside down when her colleague and close friend, Ella Elphick, is found murdered. That’s how she meets DS Harbinder Kaur, the second protagonist of the novel. Harbinder is in her middle-thirties, single, and she still lives with her parents. She is in charge of Ella’s case and she works relentlessly to find out the killer, especially as Clare becomes more and more involved in the case. Clare and Harbinder are completely different women, from different backgrounds and culture, and, even though at the beginning they don’t really like each other, a friendship begins between the two women as the case progresses. The third protagonist of the novel is Georgia, Clare’s fifteen-year-old daughter. Like all teenagers, she is moody, annoyed by her mother, and angry to the world, but she is also clever, intuitive, and a gifted writer.

I am a big fan of Elly Griffiths’s series featuring Dr Ruth Galloway so I was really looking forward to her stand-alone novel and I am happy to say that it went above my expectations because I was hooked from the first to the last page. Between the surprising twists and a cast of suspicious characters the suspense is always high and there are ghosts, magic, spirits, and séances that agree perfectly with the spooky and dark atmosphere that fills the pages. The plot is often interrupted by passages from Holland’s short story, The Stranger, which I found captivating, and snippets from Clare’s diaries that made the novel more gripping and sinister.

Unsurprisingly, Elly Griffiths wrote a compelling and captivating novel with a ghostly atmosphere and engaging characters and I’d like to thank Quercus for providing me with an early copy of the book.

Two books for the price of one.
Elly Griffiths has a new crime mystery that has no direct link with her two established series. One of the things it does have in common is that is very good. Full of her delightful humour and investable characters but lacking the security of the familiar. It strays into uncharted territory moreover as there is a cap doffed to horror and ghostly terror.
Interspersed with the modern day fiction is the frightening tale of a Stranger on a train who recounts a horror story while the journey is delayed, fittingly he narrates his story this 31st October, as it concerned events that happened on a previous Halloween nights.
The mantra “Hell is empty” ties this story into the modern murder mystery as an English teacher is found dead. With the body is a note which is a quote from The Stranger which also relates to a quotation from The Tempest.
Set in part within a school English department which in itself shares part of Holland House where the author of the Stranger lived and where is wife is a noted ghostly apparition. Elly blends the fiction of the narrated tale on the lonely train with her modern murder mystery. The detective team in the police investigation are as lost as we readers are. The book tells its story through the perspective of three characters which spins the narration around like a fairground ride and disorientate one’s own focus on who is perhaps less open and truthful.
It is almost a play within a play full of drama and high pitched tension. It is a genuine stand-alone by a well respected author who does not need to enhance her reputation but this novel clearly does that in the originality and self-belief The Stranger Diaries reflects on her story telling and writing prowess.
I loved his homage to English Literature and thought it a fitting tale to grow for an accomplished author at ease in her work and in love with literature.
I can imagine the plot has moved across the waters of Elly’s subconscious since her own student days, like some sea fret rolling ashore.
It is always a pleasure to meet Elly at book events and signings. Behind bright, intelligent eyes you know that there is talent with so much more to give. I am delighted to say that twinkle in her eyes just got brighter as this new novel is a tour de force.
Other authors look away now. She is also one of my favourite modern writers as a person and as a exponent of her art.
And the reading audience shout. “More..........”

So I requested this one mainly because it has been ages since I’ve read a contemporary thriller – and this one spoke to me, with the synopsis and the slightly literary angle. This time of year always makes me want to read murder mystery and thriller, but most of my TBR is Fantasy at the moment. I’m happy to say this book did not disappoint!

We follow multiple perspectives in this book. First off is Clare, a teacher at the local school who is obsessed with RM Holland, and is writing a book about him, when there’s a murder among the faculty. Her struggle as she mourns her friend, tries to keep work going, care for her daughter (and argue with her ex-husband) is made that much worse when she suddenly notices strange writing in her personal diary. I don’t think there’s many things scarier than someone not only reading your most private thoughts, but also leaving some creepy writing on the page.

We also follow Harbinder, one of the police detectives assigned to solve her colleagues’ murder. It was really interesting not only to see how two such very different people react to the events and suspects, as well as it being nice in general to see the investigator angle. Oftentimes we just follow someone connected to the murder, and it helps to get the less emotional, more analytical angle. The funny thing is, even with a look inside the head of someone investigating the murder and having all the resources and information the police have, I still wasn’t sure who the murderer was going to end up being!

The writing was fast paced and kept me wanting to keep on reading the whole time. The different point of views had very distinct tones, and while I may have gotten annoyed with some of them (their opinions, mostly) it is only because they were such believable and realistic thoughts for the characters.

The story and world is very atmospheric, with the simple English town, abandoned factory and old country manor turned school. The inclusion of the Gothic writer RM Holland, his history, as well as his famous story The Stranger created a supernatural edge to this thriller. Many a time I was wondering if in the end they would have to arrest a ghost for the murder! The Stranger is a very simple story, but very ominous, with its enigmatic narrator and train carriage setting. No stranger is ever allowed to talk to me on a train again!

This was the first book written by the author I had read and I will certainly be trying another. The cover and description appealed to me very much, gothic and spooky, what more could I ask for !
It was creepy without being too scary, a real page turner and flowed so easily. The book is written from the viewpoint of multiple narrators which I don't usually get on with but somehow it worked and kept me gripped from start to finish. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this.

This is quite a departure from the two wonderful detective series of books written by this author (Ruth Galloway and Stephens & Mephisto) and I was a little unsure what to expect from the gothic spooky story. It was excellent - very well written and planned out, and it drew me in right from the start. It is a tale of murder, centred around English teacher Claire Cassidy who has a passion for the Victorian mystery short story "The Stranger" and its author who just happens to have lived and worked at her present school. There are deaths and strange goings-on around Claire's friends, family and colleagues, and suspicion falls on several people in turn as DS Harbinder Kaur and her partner DS Neil Winston try to put all the pieces together before anyone else dies. The story is narrated by Claire, her daughter Georgia and Harbinder (who would make a great book lead character in her own right!) in turn. Quite often this style doesn't work, but all credit to the author it really works well here as each character relates several chapters in succession and is able to overlap the story and fill in the gaps. The unveiling of the culprit probably won't come as a surprise to many readers and the story is comfortably silly in places but overall highly enjoyable.

I am predisposed to enjoy Elly Griffiths books, but I nervously awaited this stand-alone. Would the ghost element be too much for me?

Answer: no.  It's creepy without being scary.  There are mysterious lights that create atmosphere, but not too much in the way of things swooping down on you. Dead bodies are really dead bodies for crime solving, not for gore.

But it is weird.

The plot twines between Clare's research into a long-dead author, his spookier works, and the rumour of the ghost of his wife. Did she die, or was she pushed? His preserved study at the top of the school building might hold the key.

The Stranger Diaries is an excellent diversion from Elly Griffiths.  All her hallmark detail, accuracy in crime elements, empathetic character-building.

The narrator feels like someone I'm comfortable with, and then, suddenly it changes, to a much more abrasive character, who sees the first narrator in a completely different light, one I hadn't seen at all from her own musings. After a while I really enjoy the second character. She'd make a good friend. A third narrator tells her own point of view, which adds to the complexity of the story.

Are any of them reliable narrators?  I think they all were, and that is the author's genius at work.  She shows how three people, each with part of the story, backed by their own backgrounds and experiences, can come to completely different conclusions.

I might be tempted to dock half a star for authorial negligence, which led me to suspect the right perpetrator early, but then, it was always a guess, and the revelation was well worth the wait. Although I did consider someone else for a long time, too. So I'm sticking with five stars for this excellent, haunting, creepy, gothic take on a modern crime novel.

I am a huge fan of this author's Ruth Galloway and Stephens & Mephisto series so, when I heard she'd written a stand alone Gothic thriller, that went straight on my tbr.
Clare is a teacher of literature in a comprehensive school. She has a particular interest in the work of RM Holland, a Gothic author who actually used to work in the building that now houses the school; his study remaining untouched to this day. She is especially interested in the myth and legend of the man, specifically around his wife and her death. In fact, her interest in him is so high she is actually writing a book about him. In between working at the school, teaching adult classes, and bringing up her 15yo daughter as a single parent.
But, then a fellow English teacher, Elly, her immediate supervisor is found dead with an RM Holland quote found on her body. Enter DS Kaua, an old girl of the school herself with some notsogood memories of her time there, to investigate. But does Elly know more about the death than she is willing to tell, she certainly keeps key information back, such as the extra entries that appear in her diaries. And then there's another death, and it looks more and more like Clare is involved in some way.
RM Holland's most famous work The Stranger is serialised throughout the book (and presented in its entirety at the end). This added colour and flavour to the actual story being told with regard to the deaths in the present day. It also gave the book its cold, creepy and Gothic feeling.
Taking the Gothic element out of the equation for a moment and concentrating on the whodunit part of the book and, here, the author has excelled herself with the same quality she delivers in her series books. All the element of the genre are expertly encapsulated within the narrative with the added spin of the inclusion of the myth that surrounds RM Holland and his life. We also hear more about him from an academic which added yet another layer to the tale being told. As I try and do with this genre of book, I was trying to formulate my theories about the killer along the way. But, as I so often am with her series books, the author kept me guessing and second guessing all the way through as I, along with Kaur, tried to cut through the noise - the secrets and lies - to get to the bottom of things. Especially when she also threw in a bit of witchcraft to rock the boat!
Told from the perspective of several of the characters, it's an interesting and intriguing tale, played out by rich, colourful, well drawn characters that gripped me from the off and held my attention right til the end.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I am not a fan of the way this is written and it's making it incredibly difficult to read and get into/invested. It's pretty saddening that I couldn't even bring myself to read even 25% of this novel as the summary sounded very promising. Maybe I'll come back to it one day but for now it's a definite no.

Something a bit different to my usual read. This is the first book that I have read by this author, strange I know since I have read lots of glowing reviews in the past. It is a story that is embedded in tales of the supernatural, ghosts past and present and murder. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be reading more in the future.

This is exactly the sort of book I want to hunker down with as the nights get darker and the shadows longer; it's fast paced, spooky, there are plenty of red herrings and multiple narratives to add depth to the overarching story line.
Clare is the English Literature teacher with a passion for the author R.M. Holland, and his seminal story 'The Stranger' starts to take on new meaning when her friends and colleagues are found murdered with a key line from the story. Is she the next victim, or is she the killer?
Georgie her daughter certainly knows more than she is letting on and has a secret life that her mother knows nothing about. Does she have something more to hide?
D.S. Harbinder is the detective brought in to solve the case, and her insights are brilliant at showing a different side to the narrative of both Clare and Georgie.
Nestled between the pages are things that go bump in the night, work politics, teenage secrets, unrequited love and a genuinely creepy setting. It's a fun read and one that I really enjoyed as Halloween approaches.

My thanks go to the publishers and net galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I was slightly disappointed by this book. Although it was a quick and easy read, I didn't find it to be even slightly spooky which I was expecting from the blurb. I also guessed quite early on who was writing in Clare's diaries. It wasn't hard to work out given that not many people had access to her home. I wasn't really keen on any of the main characters though I did like the detective Harbinder Kaur. I haven't read any of this author's book before but it hasn't put me off trying them in future.

The Stranger Diaries is a standalone thriller from Elly Griffuths and it is an enjoyable read.

The story is told from the perspective of 3 people something which the author manages to pull off as each person's view of a particular incident adds to the story overall

My only reservation is that the ending felt just a bit rushed however I would still recommend the book overall

A dark murder mystery with a touch of the gothic, I was really excited to start this book.
I got into it easily and I loved the excerpts from the Stranger and the Hell Fire Club but I am afraid that this book was not for me. It was well written and thìs is the first time I have read this author. The reasons the killer gave were confusing and it was drawn out in places. Not a read for me.
I would like to thank the author Elly Griffiths, Quercus Books and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

Oh there’s lots to love here - a fictitious Victorian author R M Holland , a mysterious book The Stranger, a dead body with a message from the book found beside it, a visit to the hallowed literary halls of Cambridge....

There’s a mystery to solve and a literary one at that with plenty of references to books and Victorian classics. I was soon immersed in this gothically crafted setting. One minute I was in a gothic novel and then the next, a sunny Sussex town with a modern day character of DS Kaur who I hope to see again!

I like the idea of a crime linked to a classic book with bodies of real victims mirroring those of the fictional ones. Then a modern day school with a old undisturbed office of a infamous writer. Ooh the goosebumps started pretty early on! I really liked reading the extracts of The Stranger sprinkled throughout the novel too.

Not many real locations in this one but the fictional ones are inviting and compelling!

I decided to request this on NetGalley when I saw that it was described as "A gripping contemporary Gothic thriller... Wilkie Collins and MR James meet Gone Girl and Disclaimer"; I do love a Gothic thriller!

Clare Cassidy is a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer RM Holland, about whom she teaches a short course 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 the body. The investigating police detective is convinced the writer's works somehow hold the key to the case. And Claire realises she is right when, after the (first) murder, she notices some other writing in her diary. Writing that isn't hers...

I enjoyed this novel, particularly the meta narrative element of the novel. Elly Griffiths 'quotes' regularly from Holland's work throughout The Stranger Diaries and in fact opens the novel with a long extract from his most famous short story, before shifting the reader cleverly into the main story arc by introducing Clare's creative writing group deconstructing the Gothic story.

The only quibble I had was with the 'big reveal' - I just wasn't convinced by the murderer or his motive. However, it was a lot of fun getting to the denouement and definitely worth a read!

Really enjoyed this dark murder mystery I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I loved it. Likeable characters maybe slightly drawn out in places but I’d still highly recommend thanks for the preview.

The Stranger Diaries is a great mix of spooky and entertaining. Anchored around an old ghost story taught by main character Claire in her English class, the book follows a series of strange events sparked off by the murder of one of her fellow teachers. I like the way that modern scandals are intertwined with ancient ones - rumours of illicit affairs, suspicious Facebook messages, and accusations of witchcraft abound. A lot of thought has been given to establishing a dark and spooky atmosphere, but at the same time the characters’ voices are frank and often funny.

The ending felt a little rushed, but otherwise the book was really well paced and very engaging. An ideal almost-Halloween read.

Am a great fan of Elly Griffiths and this didn't disappoint. It is a stand alone book.
Claire Cassidy is a literary teacher, specialising in the Gothic writer R.M. Holland. She actually teaches within the house where he lived. Then, one of her friends, a fellow teacher is found dead and so begins the nightmare. Who is killing off her work friends, is it someone she knows and how is the Stranger Diary connected to the modern day tragedies. Then her own diary suddenly has someone else's writing in.

This is a book to be read around Halloween with a fire in the hearth and the wind blowing!!

Elly Griffiths writes the perfect October read with this contemporary take on the Victorian Gothic novel set on the Sussex coast. Attractive Clare Cassidy is a divorced English teacher with a 15 year old daughter, Georgia, teaching at local comprehensive school, Talgarth High, where there is a building that Roland Montgomery Holland, a reclusive Victorian writer lived, a man famous for a short story titled The Stranger. Clare is writing a biography of RM Holland and is interested in the death of his wife, Alice Avery, rumoured to have fallen to her death, and his mysterious daughter, Mariana, about whom virtually nothing is known. Alice's ghost is said to haunt the school, and if seen, is said to foreshadow a death. Clare's best friend and colleague, Ella Elphick, is found murdered with a note that is a quote from The Stranger 'Hell is empty'. In a narrative delivered by three female voices, Clare, Georgia and DS Harbinder Kaur, aspects of The Stranger are interspersed throughout the novel, as creepy and menacing echoes of the Victorian story are to be found in a series of murders in the present.

Ella was a well liked member of the English department and the entire school is shocked by her death. The police investigation is led by DS Kaur who attended Talgarth High as a pupil and her experiences of the school pepper the story. Clare is less than forthcoming to Kaur about the intrigue in the department and Ella, but then events take a sinister turn and more murders take place. Clare has been a long term keeper of personal diaries documenting her inner thoughts and events in her life. She is left afraid and unsettled when she discovers someone else has written in her diary at which point she hands her journals to Kaur who finds them revealing of Clare, and the truth of Ella's character and personal life. Clare thinks she knows her daughter, Georgie, rather well, but there is much that Georgia keep secret, including her attendance of a creative writing course run by Bryony Hughes, known as a white witch. In the meantime, Clare finds a romantic interest in Cambridge academic, Henry Hamilton, who has unearthed further information on RM Holland.

Elly Griffiths always writes compelling stories with gripping characters and this is no different. There is plenty of atmosphere of the ghostly and menacing kind along with that of the location with its dense sea mists and abandoned warehouses. Whilst Clare was of less interest to me as a person, I loved her daughter, Georgie, with her much older boyfriend, the dog, Herbert, and the gay DS Harbinder Kaur is a person I would definitely like to meet again with her wit, her family, her mum that waits up for her and cooks such fabulous food. This is a great read for this time of year with Halloween approaching. I found it an enthralling read which I recommend highly. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.