The Last Word

The Last Word is the fourth novel by award-winning British author, Elly Griffiths to feature Harbinder Kaur. At the K and F agency, Natalka Kolisnyk is excited to be hired to investigate a possible murder. Romance author, Melody Chambers had a heart attack, but her daughters believe her second husband murdered her. Coincidentally, her partner in K&F, Edwin Fitzgerald, who proclaims himself the oldest sleuth in the country, is engaging in his daily perusal of the obituaries, and notes that Melody's was written by Malcolm Collins, himself deceased.

While Natalka's investigations initially yield little of use, her life partner, Benedict Cole is asked by a friend from the seminary to look into the death of a country vicar who had a secret life as a romance novelist. Don(na) Parsons apparently also died of a heart attack. Meanwhile, one of DI Harbinder Kaur's team mentions that the death of an elderly journalist turned true-crime writer was also in question. Each of these authors was fit and healthy, not a candidate for sudden cardiac problems.

Their investigation takes numerous paths, but Edwin happens on a common feature: all had attended, at some time, a writer's retreat in the town of Battle. He also checks out more Malcolm Collins obits and discovers another potential death that might be unexplained.

Posing as aspiring writers, which Benedict secretly is, anyway, he and Edwin attend a weekend retreat at Battle House, intent on discovering something to help their cases along. The death of one of the attendees is quite a shock, but it does bring to their attention another similar death. But what is it about attending a writers' retreat or a book club that turns out to be fatal?

Edwin finds himself carrying much of the latter stages of the investigation as Natalka is distracted by the presence of her mother in their tiny one-bedroom flat, and worries about her brother, returned to Ukraine to fight. Edwin may not be expecting to deal with an attempt on his own life, but he handles it admirably.

Readers of an earlier book in this series will be familiar with this quirky trio and their talent for solving murders, but this can easily be read as a stand-alone. Griffiths gives her readers a cleverly-plotted cosy mystery with plenty of twists and turns, a hefty body count, and a delightful ending. More of this cast is most definitely welcome. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Quercus.