‘The Last Word’ by Elly Griffiths

Published by Quercus,
30 January 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-5294-3-343-2 (HB)

It’s back to Shoreham-on-Sea in Elly Griffiths’s latest novel, and a new case for Edwin, Natalka and Benedict, the crew of unlikely amateur sleuths who solved a previous murder with the aid of Detective Inspector (then Sergeant) Harbinder Kaur.

Harbinder has decamped to the Met, so this time she is present in a purely advisory capacity, but the doughty trio manage quite well without her. In fact, Edwin and Natalka have set themselves up as a private investigation agency, with a little reluctant help from Benedict. When Benedict and Edwin are witnesses to a suspicious death at a writers’ retreat, the local police become involved too, led by Detective Sergeant Liv Brennan, who regards Harbinder as a role model.

Write what you know, goes the mantra preached to aspiring writers. As the body count rises, one might be moved to wonder what Elly Griffiths knows about her fellow scribes that makes her want to kill them off – in a purely fictional sense, of course. There’s Melody, whose daughters suspect her new husband of poisoning her; Don, whose heart attack may have been staged; Sue, the ‘suicide’ at the retreat... and the list continues to grow.

As always, Griffiths’s characters are at least as important as the ever-twistier plot. Elderly, dapper Edwin, diffident but perceptive Benedict and spiky, efficient Natalka are joined by a mixed bunch of writers, both would-be and published: unpleasant Peter, self-important Leonard and ebullient Johnnie are just a sample. A new arrival who seems set to stay around is Valentyna, Natalka’s boundlessly energetic and sometimes infuriating Ukrainian mum. DS Brennan bodes well as a future ally despite her less politically correct boss. And Harbinder Kaur is never far away.

All is revealed by the end, along with an extra surprise or two which may (or may not) impact on future investigations. It all happens with a large helping of the wry wit which has become Elly Griffiths’s trademark; and it left me itching to know what Edwin, Natalka and Benedict will encounter next.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Elly Griffiths is the author of a series of crime novels set in England’s Norfolk County and featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. The first in the series, Crossing Places, earned a good deal of praise both in Griffiths’ native country, England, and in the U.S. The Literary Review termed it “a cleverly plotted and extremely interesting first novel, highly recommended.  Since then, Elly has written fifteen further novels in the series.  Recently she has written a second series set in Brighton in the 1950’s featuring magician Max Mephisto and DI Stephens. There are six books in the new series, and a seventh scheduled to be published October 2023.

www.ellygriffiths.co.uk

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.