Title: THE STRANGER DIARIES
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
From the author of the beloved Ruth Galloway series, a
modern gothic mystery for fans of Magpie Murders and The Lake
House.
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?
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?
My musings:
"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
An atmospheric Gothic setting in an old school building that
is rumoured to house a ghost? A literary inception (book within a book)
element? Some gruesome murders with cryptic notes that have the police puzzled?
Yes, yes, YES! *clapping my hands together in excitement and
jumping up and down*
It’s true – this book has it all – but wait, there is more!
I am incredulous that I have never read any books by Elly Griffiths before,
because this one had all the elements I enjoy in a good thriller. It starts
with an excerpt of The Stranger, a novella by classical author R.M. Holland,
featuring a stranger telling a story to another passenger on a train as they
ride through the dark night. It’s creepy, and it’s menacing, and it had me
hooked immediately like a hapless little fish flapping around on the end of the
line. This story may not be the main plot, but its theme flavoured the rest of
the story and cast its dark shadow over it. Just the way I like it!
The rest of the book is being told through three POVs:
Clare, an English teacher at Talgarth High School whose best friend Ella gets
murdered very early in the story; her daughter Georgie; and DS Harbinder Kaur,
the detective investigating Ella’s death. Each of the three women are
well-rounded and intriguing characters with complex backstories and secrets to
hide that may – or may not – make them unreliable narrators. I especially
enjoyed the character of DS Kaur, whose different cultural background added a
lot more depth to the storyline than in many other police procedurals.
Another favourite of mine was the setting, which was so
atmospheric and creepy that it almost featured as another character in the
story. Talgarth High, the setting of much of the story, is an old brownstone building
that was once home to R.M Holland, the author of the famous story The Stranger
and its infamous quote: “hell is empty”, which featured prominently in the
spate of murders to follow. The building also has its own resident ghost, the White
Lady, who has been spotted by many townsfolk and is believed to herald an
imminent death. This particular ghost will soon have her work cut out for her,
when the bodies mount up!
Summary:
All in all, this was just such a delicious read for me. Murders inspired by a classical gothic novel, an old English schoolhouse setting with its own resident ghost, a white witch, ghostly scribbles in a diary and a detective who must solve the puzzle before more lives are lost. My highlight was to be able to read R.M. Holland’s novella The Stranger in its entirety at the end of the book, which left me duly spooked and thoroughly satisfied. THE STRANGER DIARIES was a perfect blend of gothical, suspense and police procedural with a touch of the supernatural, based on a (fictional) classical tale. It was clever, engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable. I can’t wait to read more from this author in future.
Thank
you to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the free electronic copy of this novel and
for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
If you enjoyed both the gothic element in this story as well as the "book within a book" theme, then I strongly urge you to pick up:
The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter
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