Bleeding Heart Yard is the third Harbinder Kaur crime thriller from Elly Griffiths. Thank you, NetGalley and Quercus Books for the ARC. I’m delighted this series is extending – read my reviews of The Stranger Diaries and the Postscript Murders to remind yourself.
This book is published 29th September. Please help publicise it with the Click to Tweet below, and the sharing buttons!
Bleeding Heart Yard (Harbinder Kaur #3)
A propulsive new thriller set in London featuring Detective Harbinder Kaur from the author of the No 1 bestselling Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries. A murderer hides in plain sight – in the police.
DS Cassie Fitzgerald has a secret – but it’s one she’s deleted from her memory. In the 1990s when she was at school, she and her friends killed a fellow pupil. Thirty years later, Cassie is happily married and loves her job as a police officer.
One day her husband persuades her to go to a school reunion and another ex-pupil, Garfield Rice, is found dead, supposedly from a drug overdose. As Garfield was an eminent MP and the investigation is high profile, it’s headed by Cassie’s new boss, DI Harbinder Kaur. The trouble is, Cassie can’t shake the feeling that one of her old friends has killed again.
Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies? It’s in Cassie’s interest to skew the investigation so that it looks like the latter and she seems to be succeeding.
Until someone else is killed…
My Review
One thing you can be sure of when reading an Elly Griffiths novel. Misdirection is forced upon you with every turn of the page.
Even the title, Bleeding Heart Yard, could be misdirection, although it is part of the plot, in several different forms.
But although Elly Griffiths leads you through a tortuous maze of lies, deceit and forgetfulness (the characters, not mine this time), the story is brilliantly written. It never lets you down. The characters consistently come up with excuses and false memories. Somebody mentions reading Machiavelli. Did that have a bearing on their life as a politician? Or someone else’s life?
Both Anna and Cassie have memories of the day David died, the last day of their school exams, 25 years ago. Occasionally I forgot who Anna was, but this may be because she herself is wondering who she is and what she should do in the future. She is drifting, and easy prey for someone trying to twist her memories.
But it turns out to be the author who is twisting all our thought processes, leaving the killer in plain sight. It even says that on the cover, although I didn’t notice. Fortunately Harbinder Kaur is prepared for anything. Although maybe not for her flatmate. I love Harbinder. She’s a real person, even if she is a cop.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!
Book Review | Bleeding Heart Yard @EllyGriffiths 'Elly Griffiths leads you through a tortuous maze of lies, deceit and forgetfulness' It's brilliant. #BleedingHeartYard #crime #psychological #5stars #netgalley Share on X
Hi Jemima – I enjoy Elly’s books … and this is one I haven’t read; sadly I’m not into reading novels … I veer towards non-fiction … but one day I’ll settle down and read all her books – thanks for the review – cheers Hilary
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