This was a cleverly-told mystery, a level up from a ‘cozy.’ Plus, it’s got a bunch of characters who are mega-fans of Georgette Heyer, so that’s just fun.
Clare is an English teacher who keeps extensive diaries. When a fellow English teacher is murdered, and the police question her about a conference the two of them attended, Clare goes back to her diaries to read her thoughts about the weekend in question. She finds a new note at the bottom of the page: “Hello, Clare. You don’t know me.” How creepy is that??!? More bodies and creepy things happen, and then more notes show up in her diaries.
I expected to spend the whole book with Clare’s point of view, but it switches to the detective, Harbinder Kaur, a ways in. It’s interested to see how DSI Kaur views Clare, who the reader is already predisposed to like and believe, but now might be a suspect. Kaur is great – a snarky Indian lesbian who lives with her parents. I believe there are more books with her, and I’ll definitely be checking those out. We also get some chapters from the perspective of Clare’s teenage daughter. Those were my least favorite; the daughter just seems less believable and more annoying.
The sections are all tied together by a short story Clare has been teaching in her adult creative writing class, The Stranger. Everybody seems to be obsessed with the story, which provides clues to the mystery, as it seems like the murderer is killing people according to how characters died in the story. There are many red herrings, lots of academic gossip and intrigue, and a love interest. This was a quick, fun ride of a mystery.
