I appear to be losing interest in Elly Griffiths' books. *cry face emoji*
After loving her Ruth Galloway series but being disappointed with her latest installment, I got the same 'meh' vibes with this one.
We all know Griffiths can create amazing characters, and Kaur is no exception. But I am definitely more of a plot-driven reader and this one was so much less of a thriller to me, and screamed cozy mystery. It looks like other readers felt the same.
It was an enjoyable book nonetheless, and will definitely appeal to mystery fans, but this was too much of a slow burn for me to love it.

Elly Griffiths’s second Harbinder Kaur mystery tells us more about her love of Golden Age mystery writers, Murder She Wrote, and Georgette Heyer than it stands as exemplary crime fiction. I did not give an owl’s hoot about this, but to the tightly-plotted-is-best mystery reader, Postscript Murders is a sprawling mess, an octopus of great characters going nowhere in a plot meandering towards the improbable. Still, I liked it. I’m a fan of character-driven mystery, especially when the characters, amateur and professional, work together to solve the crime.

The blurb will lead us by setting things up:

The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should not be suspicious. Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing out of the ordinary when Peggy’s caretaker, Natalka, begins to recount Peggy Smith’s passing. But Natalka had a reason to be at the police station: while clearing out Peggy’s flat, she noticed an unusual number of crime novels, all dedicated to Peggy. And each psychological thriller included a mysterious postscript: PS: for PS. When a gunman breaks into the flat to steal a book and its author is found dead shortly thereafter—Detective Kaur begins to think that perhaps there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all. And then things escalate: from an Aberdeen literary festival to the streets of Edinburgh, writers are being targeted. DS Kaur embarks on a road trip across Europe and reckons with how exactly authors can think up such realistic crimes . . .

Um, there’s actually no road trip “across Europe”, unless you count the characters’ miles-long foray from Shoreham-by-Sea to Aberdeen? Truth be told, Griffiths’s plethora of characters, plenty of them “found dead” like Peggy Smith, and convoluted plotting left me confused and indifferent to the goings-on. What did I enjoy? Her detecting crew, made up of adorable eccentrics.

My favourite was Benedict Cole, 32-year-old former priest, former monk turned one-man-operated barista-café-proprietor. He’s smart, methodical, loves to read classic mysteries, ganglingly handsome, and a virgin. As we learn, he hasn’t lost his faith. He left the monastery because he yearned to love and be loved, marry and have a family. Enter Natalka, Peggy Smith’s carer, originally from Ukraine, possessor of a bizarre cache of bitcoin (a plot thread left dangling, btw), model-beautiful, wild, eccentric, and determined to find Peggy’s killer. Enter Peggy’s neighbour and friend at Seaview Court, Edwin Fitzgerald, geriatric dandy, former BBC 4 announcer, and as determined as Benedict and Natalka to find Peggy’s killer, brought together by sharing a picnic table and Benedict’s lattes. While the blurb, and possibly what Griffiths originally envisioned, suggests this is Harbinder’s crime to solve and story to tell, her on-page time is equal to the amateur merry band. Benedict, Natalka, and Edwin are so vibrantly alive as characters, they jump off the page and into your heart. As does Harbinder, with her Panda Pop addiction and wonderful Indian family. Therein lies Postscript‘s strength: wonderful characters and a love for, and homage to, classic mysteries.

Where it comes apart is in a mystery that runs away from Griffiths. Writer-characters die right, left, and centre: Natalka, Edwin, and Benedict take one lead and harry off, only to be faced with another red herring, another bizarro death. When Harbinder joins the sleuthing, she takes centre stage, then disappears. We leave Shoreham and lose ourselves in Griffiths’s obvious love for Aberdeen. (Understandable. Who wouldn’t love Aberdeen? I’m one Google search away from booking tickets, if not for this pesky pandemic.)

How can one not love diffident Benedict to Natalka’s glamour? Benedict is smitten and plays Watson to her Sherlock: ” ‘Now it’s happening,’ she says to Benedict. ‘We have to act before he kills again.’ ‘How do we do that?’ says Benedict, making Natalka her regular cappuccino with an extra shot. He notes that Natalka has somehow hypnotised him into thinking they’re a crime-fighting unit. He draws a careful heart on the foam.” How adorable is Benedict’s endearing knowledge of the mystery genre, as Griffiths’s references and allusions delight the armchair-sleuth reader? ” ‘We need to think who would benefit from Dex’s death,’ says Benedict. ‘And Peggy’s too, for that matter. Motive and means.’ Natalka and Edwin look gratifyingly impressed. Benedict doesn’t tell them that this methodology comes straight from Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote.” Irresistible characters and Griffiths, I think, fell in love with them. They take centre stage and declare it at the novel’s conclusion: ” ‘I suppose we’re the loose ends in this story, ‘ says Edwin. ‘No,” says Natalka. “We’re the main characters.’ ” If you’re not a stickler for narrative cohesion, you’ll enjoy The Postscript Murders. To boot, given Griffiths has a character suggest that Miss Austen’s Emma is a “damn good mystery” with “lots of clues in Miss Bates’ monologues” (hiphiphurrah for MissB!), how could Miss Austen and I not deem The Postscript Murders “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma?

Elly Griffiths’s The Postscript Murders is published by Mariner Books. It was released on March 2nd and may be found at your preferred vendors. I received an e-galley from Mariner Books, via Netgalley, for the purpose of writing this review.

This mystery features a detective sergeant, Harbinder Kaur, but it nevertheless feels more like a traditional cozy than a police procedural. The plot is fine but less compelling than the characters, who are almost all quirky and interesting to follow: an ex-monk, a Ukrainian woman who cares for elders by day and trades cryptocurrency by night, etc. The suspects include mystery authors, editors, and various other publishing-adjacent types. By far my favorite part of this book was the spot-on portrayals of the personalities on display at authors events and book festivals. Everything from the selection of panelists (including the inevitable young woman writer of bestsellers about vampires, the pretentious “literary fiction” writer who’s too good for the genre, etc.) to the behavior of the attendees is hilarious. Not to mention the pitch-perfect fictional book titles that sound like they came straight out of golden age mystery fiction. Read it for the affectionate sendup of all these types, and enjoy the cozy mystery as an added bonus.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance digital review copy.

This was such a fascinating, absorbing premise - that drew me in from the start! A older woman is found dead and friends/acquaintances delve into her death which seems to have mysterious circumstances, especially when they discover she was a "murder consultant" for many authors. I felt drawn in by the situation and its complex characters, the pace slowed somewhat in the middle, before picking up again. Twists I didn't see coming kept me reading and enthralled. Another solid book by Elly Griffiths.

"The Postscript Murders," by Elly Griffiths, concerns a series of murders that are investigated by, among others, DS Harbinder Kaur, of the West Sussex police. Kaur is proud of her Sikh heritage, lives with her parents even though she is thirty-six, and hopes that when her mother and father discover that she is gay, they will not ostracize her. The first to die is Peggy Smith, a ninety-year-old who resided in Seaview Court (an accommodation for senior citizens), and was a huge fan of murder mysteries. Her nickname was "the murder consultant," because she advised writers how to kill people in print with style and creativity.

Much to Harbinder's annoyance, a trio of nosy civilians interferes her case. They are eighty-year-old Edwin Fitzgerald, Peggy's former neighbor; Benedict Cole, an ex-monk who runs a local coffee kiosk; and Natalka Kolisnyk, a pretty Ukrainian expat. Griffiths is a veteran storyteller who, unfortunately, goes astray here. There are too many characters, the action is confusing, and the pace is painfully slow. On the plus side, there are some passages of humorous dialogue and a poignant, albeit unlikely, romance.

The final chapters are a hodgepodge in which the sleuths race against time to identify the perpetrator. At last, they stumble upon a surprising solution that comes out of nowhere. Still, Griffiths deserves credit for her observations concerning the dog-eat-dog world of publishing. Many long to succeed, but few have the talent, support system, and good fortune to become bestselling authors. Another plus is the author's insights into the indignities that are part and parcel of old age, and the need that every person has to be respected and appreciated. Although Harbinder, Benedict, and Edwin are likable and amusing, their presence does not compensate for the novel's tedious, far-fetched, and overbaked plot.

I read and enjoyed The Stranger Diaries, but never expected the police detective in the book, Harbinder Kaur, to end up being the focus of a new series by Elly Griffiths. The tone of the series definitely takes a turn with this second book - where the first was a dark and twisty read, The Postscript Murders has more of a cozy feel, thanks to the characters. Harbinder is of course a professional, but in this book she's surrounded by a motley crew of amateur detectives who are determined to "help" by going off on their own despite her admonitions to the contrary. Griffiths does an excellent job of making each of them feel real, fleshing them out and making them all likeable and relatable. It was another well-written mystery, keeping me guessing until the end. I also wonder - might Griffiths use this series to explore different sub-genres of the mystery novel? Harbinder always at the center, but with the characters driving the feel of the book? That would be interesting indeed. At any rate, Harbinder Kaur herself is a well-written character - professional, prickly, contradictory at times. I definitely look forward to seeing what her next case will be.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mariner Books for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

Thanks to Netgalley for The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths. This an excellent follow up to The Stranger Diaries but it is not really necessary to have read that one to enjoy this one. As always with this author, Character development is impressive and the mystery is twisty convoluted humdinger. I loved it.

All of Elly Griffiths books are page-turners. I read this in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down. If you enjoyed her Ruth Galloway novels you will love this book too.

I loved _The Postscript Murders_, and am grateful to NetGalley for the ARC, which introduced me to Elly Griffiths. I went on from this to read all of the books in her Ruth Galloway series, and am eager to read more by this author! She crafts a solid mystery with engaging, complex characters.

I was delighted to find Griffiths had written a follow-up to The Stranger Diaries. This is the second outing for DS Harbinder Kaur, complete with a new cast of quirky characters and suspects. When caregiver Natalka finds her client dead with a business card beside her declaring her a 'murder consultant,' Natalka is suspicious. Soon she's investigating the murder along with a few friends. The characters are engaging, the mystery is first rate, and as a bonus for mystery fans, there are a lot of mentions of mystery novels. It's clear Griffiths knows her genre and relishes it. Readers will too.

An engaging read with characters that draw you in with lovely sketches of their internal lives before placing them in motion. I'm more of a plot-driven mystery fan (super not interested in the debt problems, marital difficulties, or various addictions at play in some mystery fiction) but somehow the internal conflicts and desires of our four narrators as they are swept up in a potentially related series of deaths hooked me and propels the reader through the book. The writing is very spare in its description of the physicality of our narrators, and only occasionally describes landscape and locality (but when it does it is to great effect) but I think this style serves the structure of the book very well. All that to say that if you prefer a little more... atmosphere? this may not be a smooth fit. I honestly got a little confused near the end as there are quite a few ties and coincidences amongst the characters but, to my surprise, I didn't mind too much. A recommend for sure.

Peggy Smith is dead when Natalka (her carer) finds her in her room. DS Harbinder Kaur does not quite buy the murder theory that is offered. But when Natalka and Benedict (owner of the Coffee Shack) are threatened by a gunman who steals a particular book from Peggy's collection, she starts wondering. Then a crime writer is shot in town, and the team of Natalka, Benedict, and Edwin (another pensioner at the Seaview Manor) work on tracking down assorted clues and bouncing ideas off DS Kaur. And when the trio go off to a crime writers festival in Scotland and encounter another murder, the pace picks up. The fun of the book is the interaction of the characters and how the mysteries/murders are linked. And then there are the types of murder mysteries discussed though the telling of this tale. It will be interesting to see what else the author will do with DS Harbinder Kaur in the future.

When 90 year old Peggy passes away, her cater Natalka notices that Peggy’s crime novels all include personal dedications to her. Then when a gunman breaks into Peggy’s home to steal one of her books and it’s author is then found dead Natalka goes to speak to the police and her and Detective Kaur begin to think that there’s more to Peggy’s death.

I expected this to be more of a thriller but it was more cosy mystery like. I really loved the eclectic group of characters in this book and felt they were really well developed but some of the plot itself just felt a bit far fetched for me.

This is the second book in a series around DI Harbinder Kaur but I felt that it read fine as a stand-alone.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Aside from a few details that felt far-fetched for me, I enjoyed this book, especially the writing style and the characters, whose introductions were very on point. The plot is very creative and interesting: I love it when works of literature use books as a device, in kind of a metalinguistical way. I don't usually like mystery works, but I did become entertained by this one.

This delightful stand alone mystery by Elly Griffiths has a very clever plot! It is a page turner as the reader follows the twists and surprises to the end. Highly recommended!!

A solid 4.5 out of 5!
I went on a mystery thriller reading spree and this book caught my eye. and boy it did not disappoint! What caught my eye initially was the detective's name - Harbinder Kaur. I never expected a Punjabi detective!! Even though this is the second in the DS Kaur series, you don't miss out on much.
Do pick it up if you want to read a taut mystery with great characters and plot.

After thoroughly enjoying The Stranger Diaries, which based on the appearance of the same main characters, seemed to be part of a series, I was excited to read this "installment". Unfortunately, The Postscript Murders did not measure. The sluggish plot, the repetitive nature of the writing, the feeling the author lost her way and just kept writing hoping a resolution would come to her all added up to make for an annoying read. Perhaps enjoying The Stranger Diaries so much made this book a bigger let down, but I do not think so.

The heavy-handed attempt at complete political correctness was off-putting.

The outset of the book presented a unique idea that held so much potential and absolutely none of it was realized. The murder victim was more interesting than any of the living characters and, frankly, I'd rather have read more about her and less about the ex-monk, gay octogenarian, and the unlicensed and untrained carer from the Ukraine who attempted to be the main characters of the story. The dead woman stole the book and the rest of it was a complete waste.

This was an enjoyable murder mystery with an eclectic bunch of characters and lots of literary (particularly crime novel) references which made it a lot of fun. It was full of clues and red herrings and sometimes the characters overdid the explaining. The poking fun at literary festivals and writer cliches was incorporated well into the story. I liked the idea of crime writers needing a “murder consultant” to help them come up with new ways to kill characters!

I enjoyed this story! I definitely loved The Stranger Diaries more (the atmosphere and book within a book just made that whole book for me). But I will say that the mystery in The Postscript Murders is a little more complex than The Stranger Diaries. The Postscript Murders focuses on a series of murders involving mystery authors and a little old lady who used to help them come up with murders for their books. After the woman dies, a wonderfully diverse group of her friends decide to embark on a journey to solve her murder. I loved the characters, and I loved the setting, and I enjoyed the mystery. But I will definitely say that The Stranger Diaries is my favorite of the two!

I have long been a fan of Elly Griffiths – in particular her fabulous Ruth Galloway mystery series. Back in December of 2018 I read “The Stranger Diaries“. At the time it was touted as being a stand-alone. I loved the protagonist DS Harbinder Kaur so much that I wished then that her character would be brought back in another book. My wish came true!

DS Harbinder Kaur is a petite, though fierce, young policewoman, and a force to be reckoned with. Her character is written with empathy and humour. This time out she is accompanied by a diverse assortment of somewhat quirky characters.

The dual settings of seaside Sussex and Aberdeen, Scotland were well described.

The plot was interesting and read like a successful combination of serious crime fiction and cozy, at times almost farcical mystery.

It is the brilliant characterization coupled with the humour that makes this series special for me. I will eagerly read the next installment when the opportunity arises.

Overall, I found this novel to be an intelligently written, literary murder mystery with an outstanding cast of well-developed characters. A ‘whodunit’ rife with cryptic clues.

Highly recommended!