REVIEW: The Stranger Diaries

The Stranger Diaries
Author: Elly Griffiths

Mysterious messages in an unknown hand. A ghost haunting the dark halls of an old school building. A long-dead gothic author who penned a chilling short story. And murder. This book has all the dark shadows of a great gothic murder mystery, with modern suspense thriller nuances thrown in to give it a more updated feel. I binge read this book -- once I got started, I couldn't stop reading!

Clare Cassidy teaches in a British high school. A famous gothic writer, R. M. Holland, used to live in the old building on campus. His former office on the upper floor has been preserved. Holland's desk, notes, photographs....everything is still there. Clare spends her days teaching and her evenings working on a book about Holland. Things take a dark turn when a teacher at the school is murdered and strange clues are left for Clare.

I enjoyed the gothic feel of this book. The short story The Stranger by Holland is told in snippets, woven in with the modern day murder investigation. The full short story is only revealed at the very end of the book. The combination of Clare's obsession with the dead author and the violent events unfolding in her life set the tone for the story.

I love it when a mystery novel keeps me guessing until the very end. Every time I thought I knew the killer's identity, this story took a sharp turn and went in another direction. The story is told from the point of view of Clare, her daughter Georgia, and a female detective investigating the case. I don't usually enjoy stories that switch POV....most of the time it just makes the story confused and muddled. But, in this case, the different POVs worked perfectly. Griffiths masterfully builds suspense by revealing the story a little bit at a time through the three main female characters. Each sees the situation from a different angle....and it all comes crashing together at the very end.

My favorite character? Herbert the dog, of course. :)

This is the first book by Elly Griffiths that I've read. Griffiths also writes the Ruth Galloway series and the Stephens and Mephisto Mysteries. This book is a standalone story, separate from her other mysteries. I'm definitely going to be reading more by this author. I loved the story, the pacing and the creative, gothic feel of The Stranger Diaries. Any book that keeps me reading for an entire day because I just can't step away from the story earns full stars from me! Gothic chill and modern suspense masterfully combined -- loved it!

**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**