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

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!

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.

Although I was interested in the description of this novel, I was, initially, a little wary. I had tried Elly Griffiths popular Ruth Galloway series, and stalled with it. However, I am glad that I gave this a try, as I absolutely loved it and it has made me determined to go back and give Ruth Galloway another try.

This is a clever, literary mystery, with an excellent cast of characters. Clare Cassidy is a divorced English teacher, living with teenage daughter, Georgie and working at Talgarth High. Although a modern secondary school, there is an Old Building, where Gothic author, R.M. Holland once worked. Indeed, his study remains, intact, at the top of the building and Clare is writing a book about him. However, when we meet her, her research has stalled and she is teaching a creative writing class in the holidays. When fellow English teacher, Elly Elphick, is murdered, it sends shock waves through the school. There is a quote left by the body and then messages are written in Clare’s private diary…

I particularly enjoyed the characters in this novel. Spiky, assertive, D S Harbinder Kaur and her partner, Neil Winston, added an excellent dimension – so often in crime novels you have either interesting suspects, or interesting investigators, but this novel has both. There is also an engaging academic flavour, with Henry H. Hamilton, a Cambridge academic, contacting Clare about some possible information he has on R.M. Holland, and a rather creepy teacher, Bryony Hughes, who seems to see herself as a modern Miss Jean Brodie.

Over-riding the story are snippets from R.M. Holland’s most famous story, which mirrors events in a very creepy way. A really good cast of possible suspects makes it hard for you to spot the killer and I enjoyed Clare’s diary snippets too – as well as those of Georgie. Diary writing might be a dying art, but hopefully Elly Griffiths will persuade some readers to take up their pen. Overall, I loved this and I particularly hope that D S Kaur will appear in future books. I am now, most definitely, an Elly Griffiths convert! I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Having enjoyed Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway books, and the Stephens and Mephisto series, I was intrigued to read this Gothic creepy tale of ghosts and unquiet spirits.
Claire Cassidy is a divorced teacher of English at a modern comprehensive school, who lives with her teenage daughter Georgie.
She is also writing a book an R M Holland, a Victorian author whose haunted study is in the old part of the school, and who is famous for a short story “The Stranger”.
Her work, and research collide when her colleague is murdered, and a quote from this story is found by her body, “Hell is empty”, and then writing in another hand appears in her diary, quoting from the story, and other Victorian authors.
The police are involved, in the shape of Harbinder, a detective who attended the same school in her youth, and has unhappy memories of it.
As the body count increases, as does the danger to Claire, inexplicable things keep happening, and the atmosphere becomes more strained.
The story is told in the voices of Claire, Harbinder and Georgie, and this works well, as their different views of the same events become clear.
In between their voices are extracts from The Stranger, a very creepy, atmospheric story.
Add a white witch, some teenage boys, a Cambridge academic, an ex-husband and stir well, and a very satisfying mystery evolves, with an exciting climax, when the murderer is finally revealed.
An added bonus is the full text of “The Stranger”.
An excellent read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read this book.

Elly Griffiths’ latest novel takes us away from Norfolk and down to the South coast, focusing on a group of English teachers and their pupils. The story is told from the points of view of three women: Clare, an English teacher who is researching the life of R M Holland, writer of a Victorian Gothic short story ‘The Stranger’ (extracts run throughout the novel), her fifteen year old daughter Georgia, a secret writer with a group of close friends, and Harbinder, a gay Sikh detective in her thirties who still lives at home with her parents.
The two murders and a third attempted killing create the narrative propulsion of the novel. The crimes are strangely similar to the modes of death in ‘The Stranger’. All connected to Clare and Georgia through the supposedly haunted Talgarth High, the school which Georgia attends and at which Clare works and which was originally R M Holland’s home, they provide the reader with a good deal to unravel. There are plenty of suspects for the murders and also plenty of alibis which makes this an entertaining and thought-provoking read. There are plenty of suspects for the murders and also plenty of alibis which makes this an entertaining and thought-provoking read.
However, it is not just this challenge which makes ‘The Stranger Diaries’ worth reading. The writer has given us three strong female voices – all very different but equally convincing. My particular favourite is Harbinder Kaur who is funny, self-aware, competent and ambitious. It would be good to see her further developed in subsequent novels.
Ironically, it is the short story ‘The Stranger’ itself which is told in full at the end of the book which blights the overall effect of this tale. Dull, clichéd, and predictable, I found myself skim-reading the extracts peppered throughout the novel (much more intriguing were the real literary references even though they didn’t link ‘The Tempest’ and ‘The Woman in White’ with Griffiths’ novel in any profound way). Because the twenty-first century story had me gripped, it was a shame that the novel ended with a weak Victorian pastiche.
My thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Editions for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I am a huge fan of Elly Griffith and adore the Dr Ruth Galloway books so I was excited to read this stand alone book. I was not let down! It is creepy and dark and also a fantastic murder mystery. I adore books like this so I am giving it a huge thumbs up.

It's ironic, there is no way I would have tried this title if I didn't enjoy the authors previous works, the irony being that this book bears absolutely no resemblance to her previous books. So set aside your preconceptions (I don't like gothic) and enjoy this slightly blended, moderately spooky gothic style police procedural. More from Ds Kaur too please!

This book held my interest all the way through, it is a great combination of murder mystery and ghost story.
It is filled with quirky characters and a very well thought out plot.
The story is told from more than one persons perspective and I liked the way we saw some of the incidents from more than one point of view.
The present day murders take place at a public school , previously the home of R.M.Holland. A victorian writer, his most famous, a ghost story "The Stranger".
The two stories intertwine and the eerie atmosphere is cleverly created.
A really entertaining read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read this as an ARC

Really enjoyed reading this book a lot. The story seemed to flow very naturally and the characters were believable.
The story itself had some gripping and tense moments and I was very happy I got the chance to read it.

Ella, an english teacher at the local comprehensive is murdered. Naturally the police investigate her department and friends. Clare Cassidy was her best friend and colleague in the english department. As the investigations progress Claire finds writing in her diary which isn't hers and then there is another murder........

I am a big fan of Elly Griffiths work having read all the Stephens & Mephisto as well as the Dr Ruth Galloway. I very much enjoyed this book being in a slightly different direction to those. I do hope that it is intended as the beginning of a series as I would be very happy to see the policewoman, Harbinder, again and maybe Clare Cassidy as well?

This book takes various forms in its writing. We see things from the view of different characters - Clare, Harbinder and Clare's daughter Georgia. We also have diary entries from Clare and Georgia. The book also follows the path of a short story - The Stranger. We gets bits of this story as the book progresses. Naturally there are some similarities. At the end of the book is the complete version of The Stranger which I very much appreciated. I like books which employ a variety of methods in the telling - parallel time periods, different characters per chapter, letters, diaries and so on. Having The Stranger as a story running throughout was a different approach but one which I liked.

Clare is quite a bland character. She is quite an ordinary person with few distinguishing characteristics or personality. If this book is the start of a series which includes Clare again then I hope to see her character develop more. I loved Harbinder. She had plenty of character & personality. She has some very caustic thoughts which add spice to the text. Although single she does not come from a dysfunctional family - hurrah a break from detective cliche! She lives at home with her parents & has a Mum who cooks wonderful food and waits up for her.

The plot itself was solid. I did have a fair idea as to who the murderer was & why quite early on in the book. However I did enjoy the story as it arrived at its conclusion - not quite as simply as I had. Oh the advantage of the reader being able to read people's thoughts!

I very much enjoyed this book and I would certainly be happy if it was the beginning of a series.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.