Editorial Content for The Postscript Murders

Ninety-year-old Peggy Smith stares from her bay window located in the town of Shoreham-by-Sea. Under her arm she carries her investigation book, disguised with pretty seashells on the front to resemble more of a journal. Inside, she takes notes that play into her obsession --- murder. On this particular day, she observes two strange young men who are outside. They seem to be up to no good as they clearly are out of place with the usual swarm of people she spies from her window on the world.

Peggy has no idea that this will be her last day alive. Her caretaker, Natalka, finds her dead in her favorite chair, hands folded in a peaceful manner as if she simply passed away. Upon closer inspection, Natalka will learn that some things do not add up about her death, and clues abound in Peggy’s apartment. To begin with, there is the eerie business card found under the crossword puzzle that she was working on. It reads: “Mrs. M. Smith, Murder Consultant.”

"THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS is Elly Griffiths’ love letter to mystery novels, the authors who write them, and the people or places that inspire them. It is great to see the literary process from this angle; as an acclaimed mystery writer, there is no better tour guide through it than Griffiths."

When Peggy’s son arrives to go through his mother’s possessions, he decides to get rid of all her books. This alarms Peggy’s friends: Natalka, Peggy’s neighbor Edwin, and the owner of the local coffee hut, Benedict. They all know that she was a tireless reader, and murder mysteries were her life. They begin looking through some of her collection and are amazed to find that a number of her favorite mysteries list her name on the dedication page. It seems that she was far more than just a passive reader, and the people who thought they knew her best are only now finding out that she may have been helping different writers over the years with ideas about how to devise their ingenious murder plots.

Natalka arrives at the police station and reports her suspicions that Peggy may have been a murder victim, which intrigues Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur, who describes herself as the “Best Gay Sikh Detective in West Sussex.” It turns out that the one author who dedicated the majority of his work to Peggy is bestselling mystery writer Dex Challoner. The police want to question him about a postcard that was found inside one of his novels in Peggy’s home with these words: “We are coming for you.”

One morning after the funeral, the three friends are enjoying coffee at Benedict’s beachside shack when a masked gunman enters the place and leaves after taking a book: a rare, out-of-print mystery titled Thank Heaven Fasting by Sheila Atkins. What could he have wanted with that particular novel? Natalka, Edwin and Benedict join Harbinder as they meet with Dex at a local pub. They share stories about Peggy, who Dex claims was referred to him by his mother because of her love and superior knowledge of murder mysteries. Everyone is shocked when Dex is shot to death in his apartment that very night.

Harbinder gets a call from another author, Julie Monroe, who writes under the pseudonym “J.D. Monroe.” She reports receiving the same threatening postcard as the one found in Dex’s book. It is obvious that she is the next victim of a killer who is somehow connected to the mystery-writing business.

To play their own role in the investigation, Peggy’s friends now turned amateur sleuths leave a message with Harbinder that they are headed to Aberdeen, Scotland, for a large book event that will feature many regional mystery writers. The festival has a great name --- “Is HAMLET a Crime Novel?” --- and the killer may very well be there. This is confirmed when another author, who ironically also had made a dedication to Peggy, is killed in his hotel room. Harbinder gets everyone involved into a safe house as she tries to put together the various puzzle pieces and find out who might want all of these people dead and why.

THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS is Elly Griffiths’ love letter to mystery novels, the authors who write them, and the people or places that inspire them. It is great to see the literary process from this angle; as an acclaimed mystery writer, there is no better tour guide through it than Griffiths. Whether she is writing a new installment of a series or composing a stand-alone novel, you can never go wrong with her clever literary creations.