'...plot is overrated,’ says Lance. ‘I try to get beyond describing what happens next.’ Edwin reminds himself never to read Lance’s book. [p. 168]
This is the second novel by Griffiths to feature Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur, who is gay, Sikh, and lives with her parents despite being in her thirties. Harbinder is visited by care worker Natalka Kolisnyk, who believes there's something suspicious about the death of an elderly lady who was a client of hers. Peggy Smith died in Seaview Court, apparently of natural causes, but when Natalka is clearing out her flat she finds a plethora of crime novels, many of them dedicated to Peggy -- and a card saying 'we are coming for you'. Turns out Peggy was a 'murder consultant', inventing ingenious new murder techniques for successful crime writers.
Natalka shares her suspicions with Peggy's elderly friend Edwin, another Seaview Court resident, and Benedict, an ex-monk who runs a seafront coffee hut. What Natalka doesn't mention is that there are suspicious characters following her, too, and her past in Ukraine may be about to catch up with her. Could that be connected with the murder of another author, one of Peggy's clients?
This is quite a cozy mystery. The characters are likeable, their interactions are friendly and supportive, and their trip to a literary festival in Aberdeen is hilarious. We get narratives from Natalka, Harbinder, Edwin, and Benedict; of these, I liked Edwin (gay, former BBC, well-dressed despite not always recognising the old bloke in the mirror) the best. Harbinder's unspoken observations on her partner Neil Winston, who's obliviously racist and who she can't help thinking of as a small woodland creature, are amusing, and Natalka's shady cryptocurrency past in the Ukraine adds a contemporary element. To be honest I was more intrigued by the wartime exploits of Peggy and her friend Weronika than by the (unresolved?) Slavic subplot.
This was a pleasant read but it didn't engage me as much as The Stranger Diaries (which introduced Harbinder Kaur) or Griffiths' 'Ruth Galloway' books. Nice vignettes of Sussex life (Seaview Court is in Shoreham-by-Sea; Harbinder goes on a date in Brighton) and an evocative depiction of Aberdeen, which I've never visited. And it's always fun to read a mystery set in the world of publishing, with authors and festivals and misguided promotional gimmicks.
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