{"id":3010,"date":"2019-02-23T04:55:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T12:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2019-02-23T04:55:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T12:55:14","slug":"elly-griffiths-the-stranger-diaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/elly-griffiths-the-stranger-diaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Elly Griffiths: The Stranger Diaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a banner week for us as we add two new reviewers!\u00a0 The second is our daughter Margaret. who unsurprisingly is a big mystery fan, and one of her favorites is Elly Griffiths.\u00a0 Welcome, Margaret!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Elly Griffiths, author of two mystery series, takes a stab at stand alone fiction with The Stranger Diaries<\/em>. This novel brings us a modern-day gothic horror story while keeping solidly grounded in tradition. Instead of a castle or drafty mansion, there is an old school with secrets. Instead of a threatening lord of the manor, characters are menaced by fellow teachers and students. There is a ghost story in the background of the novel, and a mystery concerning the true identity of someone long dead. Delightfully, the novel\u2019s three heroines are not quite so traditional.<\/p>\n

Clare Cassidy is a single mother who brought her daughter, Georgia, to a small town to help them both restart after Clare\u2019s separation from her husband. Georgia\u2019s father. She teaches English, and is working on writing an academic book throughout about a fictional author and gothic story that ties into the rest of the plot. It\u2019s her best friend who is killed very early on in the story (in fact the murder victim is never alive on page, being developed only through Clare\u2019s memory of Ella and the other character’s perceptions of her).<\/p>\n

After her section, we get some of the same events retreaded by DS Harbinder Kaur, a generally bad ass detective with ties to the small town herself, and Georgia, whose insights as a student and teenager offer a different sort of perspective than her fellow narrators. Each of the three has a strong voice \u2013 strong enough that Harbinder\u2019s assessment of Clare, who seems endearing in her own section, calls the reader\u2019s own view of Clare into question with her instant dislike.<\/p>\n

The plot follows the investigation of Ella\u2019s murder from these three perspectives, while sprinkling in threads about older mysteries in the school itself, key mistakes made in the character\u2019s pasts, and a light exploration of supernatural elements. In the end, while the mystery itself is fun and well told, it is these characters and their relationship to each other that shine the most. The prevailing sense of paranoia and dread is a close second, and it fully secures the book\u2019s place as an updated and well done gothic story.<\/p>\n

The killer is perhaps the least interesting part of the whole book \u2013 but everything else about it made that fact very forgivable. One of the side characters, white witch and writing teacher Bryony Hughes, tells writers they have \u201cstylistic tics.” Harbinder might not be impressed with this comment, but it\u2019s quite true \u2013 and The Stranger<\/em> Diaries<\/em> has all of the best of Elly Griffith\u2019s \u201cstylistic tics.\u201d Her unique writing style, strong characterization, and the ability to create a prevailing atmosphere make this a book not to be missed. \u2013 Margaret Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Margaret Agnew grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and attended Ripon College in Wisconsin and Indiana University where she earned a Masters of Library Science Degree.\u00a0 She enjoys reading mysteries by Louise Penny, Elly Griffiths and Agatha Christie.\u00a0 She is a librarian in St. Louis, Missouri, where she lives with two cool roommates and her cat, Desdemona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a banner week for us as we add two new reviewers!\u00a0 The second is our daughter Margaret. who unsurprisingly is a big mystery fan, and one of her favorites is Elly Griffiths.\u00a0 Welcome, Margaret! Elly Griffiths, author of two mystery series, takes a stab at stand alone fiction with The Stranger Diaries. This … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,80,79,81,14],"class_list":["post-3010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-british","tag-elly-griffiths","tag-gothic","tag-margaret-agnew","tag-psychological"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3014,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010\/revisions\/3014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}