The Stranger Diaries – Elly Griffiths

*This review may contain spoilers*

The Stranger Diaries is the first stand alone novel I’ve read from Elly Griffiths. I admit I was hesitant at first – not because I doubted Griffiths’ skill at all, but because I was worried that my loyalty to Ruth Galloway (from the Ruth Galloway series) would spoil it for me.

I am am so pleased I shoved that feeling to one side, because The Stranger Diaries is most definitely well worth the read. I would even go as far as to say that it would make a perfect introduction to Griffiths’ work.

The Stranger Diaries is a fantastic detective thriller, with a wonderful cast of well rounded and diverse characters. I’ve read my fair share of teen fiction, and it was nice to have a thrilling plot and a teen character who didn’t radiate teen angst and nothing more.

Quite often I find that crime fiction writers can become predictable – you can see how the plot will likely develop, you recognise the characters from their other work and you have a strong idea of who the suspect will turn out to be. I had none of these problems with The Stranger Diaries.

Strong writing mixes some great plot twists and dramatic killings, with softening for the main characters in all the right places. Of course about 3/4 of the way through I had some ideas of who the killer would turn out to be, and one of them was right! But rather than being being boring or predictable, Griffiths makes possible for it to be fun for the reader to have a guess, but still not actually know who it would be, right until the very end.

One of my favorite things about this book was Griffiths’ skill at making the right characters seem aloof and dodgy, and at the same time the right characters were also relatable and just like me and you – even their quirks, dreams and habits like keeping a diary. I mean, who hasn’t kept a diary of some sort at one time or another?

The pace of this novel was spot on – it allowed for plot twists and turns as well as character development. It didn’t stop me devouring it in 2 days though! I just couldn’t put it down – I was actually worried for the safety of the main characters and needed to know what happened next, and that they would be safe. That truly proves the skill of a good writer, when they can conjure such strong emotions for characters – people who don’t exist outside those pages – and literally keep the reader awake.

Over all this novel is a knock out and I would definitely recommend not only this book, but Griffiths’ other works to anyone wanting to try or are already fans of crime fiction.