On My Radar: Elly Griffiths' The Last Word!

 

I know that many of you let out a cheer when you saw Elly Griffiths' name in the title of this post. She writes wonderful mysteries filled with fantastic characters, doesn't she? 

 

Griffiths' series featuring forensic archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway will always rank among my all-time favorites, but I have to admit that her books with Harbinder Kaur, a gay Sikh police detective, are rapidly elbowing their way farther and farther up my favorites list. 

 

It should come as no surprise to you that when I discovered that two recurring characters in the Harbinder Kaur series feature in her latest book, I did a fist pump and a pre-order. Let me tell you more about the book!

Available April 23, 2024. Mark your calendars!

 

Synopsis:

"Natalka and Edwin are perfect if improbable partners in a detective agency. At eighty-four, Edwin regularly claims that he’s the oldest detective in England. He is a master at surveillance, deploying his age as a cloak of invisibility. Natalka, Ukrainian-born and more than fifty years his junior, is a math whizz, who takes any cases concerning fraud or deception. Despite a steady stream of minor cases, Natalka is frustrated. She loves a murder, as she’s fond of saying, and none have come the agency’s way. That is until local writer Melody Chambers dies.

Melody’s daughters are convinced that their mother was murdered. Edwin thinks that Melody’s death is linked to that of an obituary writer who predeceased many of his subjects. Edwin and Benedict go undercover to investigate and are on a creative writing weekend at isolated Battle House when another murder occurs. Are the cases linked and what is the role of a distinctly sinister book group attended by many of writers involved? By the time Edwin has infiltrated the group, he is in serious danger…"

 

I'm really looking forward to The Last Word, and I hope you are, too. Am I going to miss Ruth Galloway while she's on hiatus? (Hopefully that's all it is.) You'd better believe it! However, Elly Griffiths is such a good writer that I'm glad she's decided to explore other characters and other stories that have been percolating in that mind of hers.