Author: Elly Griffiths
Published: April 23, 2024 by Mariner Books
Format: Hardcover, 338 Pages
Genre: Mystery
Series: Harbinder Kaur #4
First Sentence: Monday, 4 April 2022. There are some advantages to being the oldest sleuth in the country, thinks Edin.
Blurb: Natalka and Edwin, whom we met in The Postscript Murders, are running a detective agency in Shoreham, Sussex. Despite a steady stream of minor cases, Natalka is frustrated, longing for a big juicy case such as murder to come the agency's way. Natalka is now living with dreamer, Benedict. But her Ukrainian mother Valentyna has joined them from her war-torn country and three's a crowd. It's annoying to have Valentyna in the tiny flat, cooking borscht and cleaning things that are already clean. To add to Natalka's irritation, Benedict and her mother get on brilliantly.
Then a murder case turns up. Local writer, Melody Chambers, is found dead and her family are convinced it is murder. Edwin, a big fan of the obit pages, thinks there's a link to the writer of Melody's obituary who pre-deceased his subject.
The trail leads Benedict and Edwin to a slightly sinister writers' retreat. When another writer is found dead, Edwin thinks that the clue lies in the words.
Seeking professional help, the amateur investigators turn to their friend, detective Harbinder Kaur, to find that they have stumbled on a plot that is stranger than fiction. (GoodReads)
My Opinion: Disappointing even though it brings back much-loved characters. The Last Word should have been a DNF with a slow start and too many names to remember, but I persevered and realized too late that it would never live up to the previous books in the series. For a person who prefers the mystery and the namesake investigator to start in the first couple of pages, the “body” doesn’t appear until the reader is a third through the book.
For this being a Harbinder Kaur novel, even though the trio is branching out and investigating, she doesn’t appear until too late. Natalka, Benedict, and Edwin are great characters, but the reader also wants Harbinder’s ”dead pan humor and no-nonsense manner” when dealing with an investigation. She is sprinkled here and there but has no real presence. Unfortunately, the final twist was too little too late.
Being an Elly Griffiths fan makes it hard to recommend this book since it misses the mark and is a chore to get through.
Blurb: Natalka and Edwin, whom we met in The Postscript Murders, are running a detective agency in Shoreham, Sussex. Despite a steady stream of minor cases, Natalka is frustrated, longing for a big juicy case such as murder to come the agency's way. Natalka is now living with dreamer, Benedict. But her Ukrainian mother Valentyna has joined them from her war-torn country and three's a crowd. It's annoying to have Valentyna in the tiny flat, cooking borscht and cleaning things that are already clean. To add to Natalka's irritation, Benedict and her mother get on brilliantly.
Then a murder case turns up. Local writer, Melody Chambers, is found dead and her family are convinced it is murder. Edwin, a big fan of the obit pages, thinks there's a link to the writer of Melody's obituary who pre-deceased his subject.
The trail leads Benedict and Edwin to a slightly sinister writers' retreat. When another writer is found dead, Edwin thinks that the clue lies in the words.
Seeking professional help, the amateur investigators turn to their friend, detective Harbinder Kaur, to find that they have stumbled on a plot that is stranger than fiction. (GoodReads)
My Opinion: Disappointing even though it brings back much-loved characters. The Last Word should have been a DNF with a slow start and too many names to remember, but I persevered and realized too late that it would never live up to the previous books in the series. For a person who prefers the mystery and the namesake investigator to start in the first couple of pages, the “body” doesn’t appear until the reader is a third through the book.
For this being a Harbinder Kaur novel, even though the trio is branching out and investigating, she doesn’t appear until too late. Natalka, Benedict, and Edwin are great characters, but the reader also wants Harbinder’s ”dead pan humor and no-nonsense manner” when dealing with an investigation. She is sprinkled here and there but has no real presence. Unfortunately, the final twist was too little too late.
Being an Elly Griffiths fan makes it hard to recommend this book since it misses the mark and is a chore to get through.
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