I was attracted to this book simply because of the author. I loved Elly Griffiths’ other books and was hopeful that she would create similar magic with this title. She certainly did but this book is so different from her other work! Reminiscent of Agatha Christie at times, this book offers a mystery which is entertaining but not too challenging, making it a perfect read for when you want to focus on characterisation. A fantastic example of an author who is able to offer so much more than the books for which they are most famous.

We are coming for you.

These are the words on a postcard tucked into a book open on a chair next to a dead body. It’s the body of Peggy Smith, a 90 year old self-styled “murder consultant” and unlikely murder victim. But Natalka, a beautiful Ukrainian bitcoin expert turned caregiver, has doubts. She contacts DS Harbinder Kaur and asks her to investigate. Since Natalka is not sure that DS Kaur has taken her seriously, she enlists help from Edwin, an 80 year old retired BBC presenter who was Peggy’s neighbor, and Benedict, a former monk who owns the local coffee shop.

It is quickly discovered that several authors of crime novels have dedicated their books to Peggy. These authors have also received the same threatening postcard. When an author is killed after meeting with Harbinder, Natalka, Edwin and Benedict, the investigation turns serious. While Harbinder and her partner Neil Winston follow police procedures, Natalka and her friends have no such constraints. Soon they are off to an Aberdeen literary festival to follow two authors. A texted selfie from the amateur detectives alerts a dismayed Harbinder that they are in Aberdeen. After another killing, Harbinder herself goes to Aberdeen to unravel a mystery complicated by Ukrainian mobsters, unpublished manuscripts, a long ago meeting and romance.

The Postscript Murders is the second on a series featuring Harbinder Kaur. As her personal life seeps into the story, you find yourself in total support. She’s a 36 year old Sikh who still lives with her parents and her two brothers and has not told them that she is gay. Instead she slips back and forth from her traditional family home life into her police work where she is unappreciated by her mostly male coworkers.

At this point in a review, the author is usually compared to other well known popular authors - a “for fans of” statement. Not here. Elly Griffiths is incomparable. No one else can construct a mystery like a jigsaw puzzle. No one else can deliver such quirky, captivating characters. A Ukrainian bitcoin expert? A coffee shop owner who used to be a monk? I have loved Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series and am now captivated by Harbinder Kaur. I can’t wait for the next in this series and I really hope that Natalka, Edwin and Benedict are featured again. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Elly Griffiths for this ARC.

This is the second book in the author’s new series featuring Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur, a member of the West Sussex Murder Squad. Harbinder is 36 but still lives at home with her Punjabi parents, with whom she gets along well although they don’t know she is gay. But her mother is a good cook, after all. Harbinder is peppery, witty, and very clever, but underestimated by her peers, much to her chagrin.

In this installment, a young Ukrainian care worker, Natalka Kolisnyk, comes to see Harbinder about her suspicions that a client, Peggy Smith, although 90, was murdered. Peggy was in excellent shape and seemed in fine health just the day before. But while cleaning up Peggy’s apartment along with Peggy’s friend and neighbor Edwin, a dapper and young-at-heart 80-year-old, the two found a number of alarming signs that Peggy’s death could have had a more sinister cause than just “old age.” Peggy’s apartment was full of mystery books, and a surprising number of them were dedicated to Peggy. Moreover, Natalka found a business card identifying Peggy as a “murder consultant.” Then she saw a postcard with the ominous message 'We are coming for you’. But the biggest sign something was unusual was that while Natalka and Edwin were in the flat, a masked person came in with a gun and stole one of the mystery books - very odd indeed!

Harbinder agrees to look into it, especially after one of the mystery authors who dedicated his books to Peggy is murdered soon after Peggy’s death. He too had received a threatening postcard.

Natalka, Edwin, and Benedict, an ex-monk who runs the local coffee shop, take off on a hilarious Scooby-Doo type mission to an Aberdeen book festival to try and find out what is going on. Harbinder now has to chase after them in addition to doing her own investigation, and arranging for her injured mother to have a caregiver (Natalka recommended one for her) since she will be in Aberdeen.

The plot thickens with more murders, mysterious Ukrainian thugs, and romantic complications. As if that weren’t enough to keep readers entertained, there are red herrings and twists galore.

Evaluation: Griffiths’s main protagonists always manage to come across as wryly funny and even adorable. The author’s sense of humor is so delightful that I often find myself laughing out loud even while reading about murder. For fans of murder mysteries like those of Anthony Horowitz that feature books within the books and take us into the world of writers, literary agents, and publishers, for my money Griffiths is much better. Her tongue-in-cheek self-deprecatory takes on authors and the industry that surrounds them are funny and insightful rather than tediously self-aggrandizing, as I find Horowitz to be. One can’t help loving Griffiths’ recurring characters, and I can’t wait to read more about them.

When a care giver suspects the death of one of her charges was not natural, despite appearances, she contacts the Sikh, lesbian Detective Harbinder Kaur with her evidence. A postcard with what may be a warning, and the fact that the deceased, Peggy, has been thanked by many mystery writers for helping them. The carer and two Peggy’s friends, a former monk turned coffee shop owner, and an elderly BBC radio announcer, team up to ask questions, helping Harbinder and her officers while becoming friends of sorts with her. As more authors die, the question is what, if anything, ties them together.
The second in a new series by Elly Griffiths, it can be read as a stand alone. I liked the characters and their interactions, and found myself growing more and more interested in them as the book progressed. Elly’s characters are always so real, warts and all. I would love to hear more of Harbinder’s family and their dog!
While the Ruth Galloway series by the same author is still one of my all time favorites (in part because we’ve gotten to know Ruth and crew so well) I’m enjoying this new series, and am looking forward to more.
Thank you to the publisher, and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my review.

Plot: 3/5 Writing: 3/5 Characters: 4/5

Crime novelists keep turning up dead in this second Harbinder Kaur novel by Elly Griffiths. The first to go is Peggy Smith — resident of Seaview Court in Shoreham and murder consultant to the literary stars. While our 35-year old lesbian, Sikh, still-living-at-home detective grumbles her way through the case, she is aided (against her will) by a beautiful Ukranian carer with a history of cybercrime, an ancient BBC producer, and an ex-monk turned coffee shop owner, shyly looking for a woman with quirks.

Griffiths’ books always grow on me — they can start off kind of klunky, but I always get involved and want to finish. I like the characters, and although these are definitely cozies with a capital C, there are enough surprises to keep me going.

I do prefer the Ruth Galloway series — this book felt like it was written a little more quickly, had more filler, and was slower paced than some of her previous books. On the other hand, I’ve had many Galloway books which see the characters fully develop, and I am personally more interested in the details of forensic archeology than I am with literary murder writers. There are a lot of fun crime fiction references (both book and film) that I enjoyed.

What a wonderful premise, and what a disappointing ending.

The first half of this book is fantastic. An elderly lady seems to have died peacefully at her sea view window, but who sent her the postcard with the ominous message? And why have so many mystery authors — from the famous to the faltering — thanked her for her help with their murders? Was her knowledge of murder and mayhem merely academic … or more personal?

Soon a merry band of misfits (a former monk who owns a coffee shop, a stunning Ukrainian carer with a murky past, and a gay octogenarian who was a radio announcer for the BBC) is on the road to Edinburgh to attend a mystery writers’ convention to investigate what may have happened to their friend. Their efforts come as an unwelcome surprise to the detective in charge of the case, the broad-minded, tired, Panda Pop-loving Harbinder Kaur.

It’s all great fun until the balls start to land. The characters are distinct, unusual, and compelling; the settings are sharply drawn and evocative; and the descriptions of elder care are realistic without being maudlin. You may want to stop around midpoint and make up your own ending. I found the reveal rushed and muddled, with thin and unconvincing motives.

Second in the author’s (Ruth Galloway, Magic Men) new series starring Harbinder Kaur. You need not have read the first book.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first novel by Elly Griffiths, and dear heavens, it will not be my last.

The Postscript Murders is the second installment in the Harbinder Kaur series and a sequel to The Stranger Diaries. While the case and characters are different, both novels feature DS Harbinder Kaur - a gay thirty-something who still lives with her parents. While no one thinks the death of a ninety-year-old woman Peggy Smith is suspicious, her Ukrainian care worker, Natalka Kolsnyk, reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition. What's more, Harbinder is suspicious about the fact that Peggy had received a postcard with the message 'We are coming for you'... In fact, Peggy had an interesting prefession: as a 'murder consultant' who plotted deaths for authors, she knew everything about murder for a reason she didn't want the world to know.

I fell in love with the quirky, odd characters in this book. The plot was totally unique, and as a book lovery, I really appreciated a twisty thriller set in the world of publishers, authors and literature. It was just so much fun and different - definitely a reason for me to gladly reach for other books by this author.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another great book by Elly Griffiths. Our library purchases all of her books. My favorite series is the Ruth Galloway one. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I am a huge Elly Griffiths fan and was excited to see another DS Harbinder Kaur story come out! This is a wonderfully created mystery with twists, turns, and surprises that all come together in a believable and dramatic way. The characters are also amazing and very human, relatable, and funny. I was sad when the book ended as the characters started feeling like my friends and I was rooting for them in their personal lives (and of course to solve the mystery!). The story had tie ins from the first book in the series (The Stranger Diaries), but also would work as a stand alone read.

One other thing that is really fun about this book is the literary tie ins. It's all so skillfully put together and executed. Also, the representation made me so happy. The characters just happen to be who they are and are real characters, but I'm always happy to see South Asian families that just happen to be South Asian (and aren't just reduced to their nationality or ethnicity) and I really enjoyed the Kaur family dynamics. Definitely worth a read, I hope there will be a third book in this series!

This past summer, I binged the first half of the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. When I got the opportunity to read her new mystery, I jumped at the chance. While this is not part of the Ruth Galloway series, it has all the trademarks of Griffiths' other books--quirky characters, a British setting, and an entertaining puzzle.

After ninety-year-old Peggy Smith passes away, her Ukrainian caretaker Natalka discovers a series of crime novels in Peggy's library--and all of them contain a message to Peggy in the acknowledgments. Soon it's revealed that Peggy was a "murder consultant" to a group of mystery writers. And one of them may have killed her.

This book will appeal to murder aficionados, especially those who enjoy Golden Age mysteries. There are many references to Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and many other famous writers, as well as some fictional authors. The cast of characters includes the mysterious Natalka; an elderly gay radio host, a former monk, and a lesbian Sikh detective (who was apparently introduced in one of Griffiths' earlier mysteries, which I must now add to be TBR list). The interactions with these characters was my favorite part of the book.

I highly recommend this book to mystery lovers. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Postscript Murders.

The second book in the DS Kaur series was more of a cozy mystery than I expected, and though I've read some cozy mysteries, they're not my favorite genre, yet I enjoyed The Postscript Murders.

When an elderly woman dies, her carer suspects murder and enlists the help of DS Kaur. When mystery novelists start dying, Kaur realizes this case is more complex than she expected.

The carer, along with two neighborhood men, play Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys and the narrative switches from their POVs to Kaur. Generally, I'm not a fan of multiple POVs, but the author made it work here.

The congenial atmosphere and bond forged by budding friendships made the tone of the narrative engaging and interesting.

In my opinion, the premise of the mystery is weak; the carer suspects murder because of a business card.

There's a lot going on here; subplots on book publishing, writing, healthcare, Russians, spy games, a missing brother, and the narrative got a bit confusing with all these threads running through it. And a bit hard to suspend disbelief a few times.

The ending is satisfying, though the way Kaur figures everything out is a stretch, and the clues not solid, kind of silly, really. A suspect is discovered because he/she is caught on CCTV holding a gun out in open public?!?

The Postscript Murders is less about the mystery and more about friendships and how we move on with our life after the death of a woman who touched so many lives.

Elly Griffiths does it again! She has an amazing gift for creating a diverse and interesting cast of characters that weave around a complex mystery - you get addicted from page one. I follow the Ruth Galloway and Magic Men series and it's always a nice change to have a good stand alone. You will feel like you know everyone in the book and will miss them when you finish!

I am not so sure that she was meant to become the break out character of author Elly Griffiths' exceptional modern gothic The Stranger Diaries, but Harbinder Kaur made a memorable debut in that much honored book from 2018--female, Sikh, lesbian, living at home with her parents, and a detective of rare and keen insight.

Harbinder's investigation into multiple deaths in the world of publishing is supported by an unlikely trio of misfits--a mysterious Ukrainian young woman who suspects the death of her 90-year-old employer was not from natural causes, a ex-monk turned barista, and an elderly gay broadcaster who had been friends with the deceased--a group who seems likely to turn up in sequels.

Griffiths' insider knowledge of the world of writers and publishing are on full display here and adds depth to this twisty mystery.

A real reader's delight.

Full Disclosure--NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

I love that DS Harbinder Kaur did not leave us after her wonderful debut in The Stranger Diaries. Ms Griffiths has given us another wonderful story with Harbinder and many new quirky friends. The characters are so fun to read.

Peggy is 90 and living at a nice seaside retirement village. She sits at the window and observes life while making notes. When she is found dead by her daily care help, Natalka, the police are called. Although it is ruled accidental, Natalka feels that something more sinister has occurred. Enter Peggy’s friends Edwin and local coffee shop owner Benedict. They join Harbinder to do some amateur sleuthing. Another death of a famous author seems to prove that more is happening here.

Traveling from Shoreham to Aberdeen, the friends attend an author’s festival where they find themselves embroiled with the police yet again. There were so many surprises right up to the end. Very enjoyable!

Thanks so much to Netgalley, Ms Griffiths, and Quercus books for an ARC to review.

This is not what I was expecting. Definitely more of a cozy mystery than anything else. Even though this features the detective from The Stranger Diaries, you don't need to read that book in order to enjoy this one. After the death of her elderly client, carer Natalka goes to the police because she feels she didn't die of natural causes. Detective Harbinder Kaur becomes interested and sets out to find out some answers. From there we start to get a few pov's: Harbinder, Natalka, an elderly neighbor,and a coffee shack owner. They all come together to solve this mystery. Some things were okay about this story but others I could have done without. I didn't enjoy the multiple pov's in this book, some aspects of the storyline were somewhat unnecessary, and this almost seemed like a farce. Overall, this was just ok. Nothing stood out for me and I'm not sure I would continue reading if there were more books featuring Harbinder.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another engaging mystery from Griffiths with new characters I hope will stick around.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

336 pages

5 stars

Natalka is the caretaker who discovers ninety-year-old Peggy Smith’s corpse. She believes that Peggy’s death is suspicious. She goes to the police station and talks to DS Harbinder Kaur. Natalka's friends Benedict and Edwin are helping with her “investigation.”

When Natalka and friend Benedict are confronted in Peggy’s flat by a man with a gun, Harbinder and DS Neil Winston respond. Maybe there is something to Natalka's suspicions after all. When another author gets killed, the tension increases. DS's Kaur and Winston are looking at that murder, too.

Peggy received a threatening note, as did the second person murdered. The murders that follow are the same.

At the same time, Natalka is sure she is being followed. She becomes afraid for something she did while she was home in the Ukraine.

The identity of the killers come out of left field. I had not considered them at all, even after Benedict found the holy card in the book. I didn't pick out the clues – whoops...

There are a host of colorful and somewhat strange authors in this book. I found I didn't like many of them. Odd. I was glad to see that DS Neil Winston is coming along fine and I like the “little furry creature” thoughts that Harbinder has while thinking of him. It is an interesting and humorous aside. I really like Benedict and was rooting for him all the way. This book is so very well written and plotted as are all of Ms. Griffiths' novels. I especially appreciated the way that Ms. Griffiths revisited all the principals at the end of the book to tie up loose ends – just as Peggy would have wanted. I truly enjoyed reading it and look very much forward to reading more of her work.

I want to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for forwarding to me a copy of this great book for me to read, enjoy and review.

I want to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me to read and review Postscript Murders.

In her old age Peggy looks out het seaside window and keeps a log of everything that happens. She later uses this information to aid writers in crafting their plots, especially identifying how people can be murdered. She has business cards that show her title as ‘Murder Consultant’. Then, her care attendant finds her sitting in her chair facing the window, but she is dead, seemingly from heart failure. A team of friends, her carer Natalka, a neighbor Edwin, and the owner of the seaside coffee shack Benedict, cannot believe that Peggy’s death was from natural causes. After Natalka contacts DS Kaur, some clues are found that there is more to the story. When writers who used Peggy’s services are killed, the investigation ramps up. When the three friends go on the road to Scotland to interview other authors, more incidents bring DS Kaur there as a consulting police presence.

Just when the cases seem to be solved, the conclusion of the story finds DS Kaur’s family being threatened. This is another well-written murder mystery by author Elly Griffiths .

This is a fun stand-alone novel from the author of the excellent Ruth Galloway and Magic Men series. This one is lighter, and is a literary mystery that has some fun satirizing being authors and publishers. It also has a fine set of characters, led by DS Harbinder Kaur who is approached by three people concerned that the death of a ninety year old woman was actually murder. The characters come together nicely, and all grow as the story progresses. While not as deep and nuanced as the Ruth Galloway series, this is a good, enjoyable. DS Kaur and her friends should return.

This is a cosy simplistic ( thriller) I’m a fan of this author so was pleased to be given the chance to read a new book by her! I enjoyed it, but didn’t have me gripped like her others... Some lovely characters and twists, which did keep me guessing!