The Postscript Murders (2020) by Elly Griffths

Before anyone panics, my Reprint of the Year Award nomination post will be popping up this evening, I am just waiting on a couple more blogger posts to go live, so I can gather all the links into one handy place. In the meantime, I thought I would share my thoughts on an author who I have recently tried for the first time. Griffths has written many a mystery novel, but what drew me to this particular one was the job of the primary victim, Peggy Smith, as I thought it might lend itself to metafictional possibilities.

Synopsis

‘The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should absolutely not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka’s account of Peggy Smith’s death. But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her… And that Peggy Smith had been a ‘murder consultant’ who plotted deaths for authors, and knew more about murder than anyone has any right to… And when clearing out Peggy’s flat ends in Natalka being held at gunpoint by a masked figure… Well then DS Harbinder Kaur thinks that maybe there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.’

Overall Thoughts

The author introduces her story in a way which raises questions for the reader. We get a brief glimpse of the victim, Peggy, while she is still alive, when she is people watching from her window. She notices two men who do not fit the usual pattern of pedestrians, added to which they are looking at her flat. Do they spot her watching them? Is it this which signs her death warrant? I think it is good when a novel’s opening chapter gets the reader’s brain whirring away with such queries. By the next chapter Peggy is found dead in her chair and there is not much information to go on, as the death is treated as a natural one. This is mystery in which a picture has to be built up piece by piece after the death, rather than the reader being able to use pre-death information to anticipate the shape of the case.

The action then moves on to other characters such as DS Harbinder Kaur, a café owner (who used to be a monk – an unusual career trajectory), Edwin (another resident Peggy interacted with at the sheltered housing she lived at) and Peggy’s carer, Natalka, who is the driving force behind Peggy’s death being investigated.

There is not much in the way of upfront evidence that foul play has occurred. This only creeps into the narrative very slowly. So, before that point characters are required to view everyday things with greater suspicion. For example, Natalka seems more suspicious than is warranted about Peggy’s son Nigel wanting to get rid of all her books. In real life suspect such an action is quite common after the death of a family member. Consequently, some stark measures are necessary in order to give the case some legs, including a masked and figure turning up at Peggy’s flat to steal a book at a gunpoint.

Due to the fact not much has been revealed by the time of the second death, the secondary killing is less useful than it normally is in such books. I was curious why no one followed up the investigation book Peggy kept, as that sounded like the sort of the thing which would have useful information in it and the characters did seem rather dim on why a person might get put in the acknowledgements of a book. However, I did enjoy how the postcards with the threatening message on are deployed in the narrative.

Because the case lacks strong concrete evidence to work with, the decision for three characters to take a road trip up to Scotland to interview a potential witness at a book festival, comes across as a bit barmy. Moreover, this segment of the novel was too long, in my opinion, and it adds very little to the overall story, as it contains a fair amount of fruitless interviewing and amateur sleuths acting ineffectually. I had high hopes for the stolen book (a mystery novel), wondering how it would function as a clue to the case as a whole. However, unfortunately, a bit like Anthony Horowitz’s Moonflower Murders (2020), which also has a book being used as a clue, the clue that stolen book provides is ultimately disappointing. So, all in all I found The Postscript Murders to be a very slow and plodding book and despite the case presented being a curious one, it did not grip me.

My hopes that the plot would afford the reader some metafictional humour was largely dashed, as Peggy’s involvement in helping mystery writers with their plots was not overly developed as a plotline. There was the occasional moment of humour, with my favourite being:

‘Lance and Julie are discussing Peggy. Her encyclopaedic knowledge of crime fiction and how she always knew what was wrong with a plot.

“Of course, plot is overrated,” says Lance. “I try to get beyond describing what happens next.”

Edwin reminds himself never to read Lance’s book.’

Regarding the solving of the case, the CCTV evidence arrives conveniently late in the day, so the investigation is not solved too quickly. However, one effect of this is that the plot felt like it was treading water, waiting for this break. I found the solution, which is rather flung at the reader, dissatisfying and a giant mental leap is required on the part of the solvers before it can happen. Furthermore, the denouement is sprawling. It just keeps going and not in a twist upon a twist sort of way. In addition, some character developments felt like they were shoehorned into the ending and therefore I didn’t find them very convincing. For me, the book needed to finish much sooner, as it concludes with a whimper rather than a bang.

Rating: 3.25/5