Murder in the obituaries

Readers of this blog will know that I very much enjoy reading the crime novels of Elly Griffiths. The most recent book of hers I have read is The Last Word which features a Detective Inspector called Harbinder Kaur who has been present in four books now – I have reviewed one of the previous books in this series and you can find the post here. Although I call it a series and the books share the same main character they are less closely connected than usual and can each be read separately.

In The Last Word the author brings back some characters from The Postscript Murders. Natalka is an immigrant from Ukraine, Benedict is her partner who is an ex-monk and current coffee seller, and Edwin is an older man we met in the previous book who has formed a detective agency dealing mainly in small matters with Natalka.

We get to experience the story from the viewpoints of the three main characters after a local writer is found dead and her family engage the detective agency to find the murderer. This takes the characters into the worlds of writing retreats, book clubs, authors, and obituary writing but still leaves room for the development of the main characters and events in their lives. Harbinder is almost tangential to the story and appears only a few times to give Natalka, Benedict, and Edwin advice and wrap up the loose ends.

The story is enjoyable and the author has a good sense of humour which makes the book easy to read. Eventually all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and the ending is very satisfactory. I recommend all the books of this author but am particularly enjoying this series.