Between the Pages

I’ve found audiobooks a bit hit and miss lately, and as this one was a Daily Deal from Audible (I probably would have passed it over if I had had to pay full price for it, but for £1.99 it’s worth a punt), I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I’m happy to say I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it – this book kept me company on some long runs, and I actually found myself looking forward to hearing the next ‘installment’.

A quick note on the narrators – we hear from four narrators in the book (one is a character in a book-within-the-book) – and they are voiced by Anjana Vasan, Esther Wane, Sarah Feathers and Andrew Wincott. They were all excellent and I personally think it was a great move to give each narrator their own voice.

The story revolved around Clare Cassidy – one of the narrators – an English teacher at Talgarth High School, which is famous for being the former home of gothic horror writer R M Holland (note – Holland is a fictional character created for this book, more’s the pity, as his short story The Stranger, laced throughout this book, kept me interested!). Clare is in fact writing a book about Holland, and is fascinated by his former quarters at the school which are kept more or less intact. She is horrified when her friend and colleague Ella is murdered, and even more horrified when she realises that the murder is connected somehow to the murders in Holland’s most famous story – and possibly to Clare herself.

DS Harbinder Kaur is the detective leading the investigation into the murder(s) and also narrates parts of the book. She is obviously wry and cynical, but clearly clever and brave, and without doubt was my favourite character. Her narrated chapters were my favourite parts of the story.

The third narrator was Clare’s teenage daughter Georgia, who provides important elements to the story, having inherited her mother’s passion for writing and fascination for gothic horror.

The fourth ‘narrator’ was the main character of R M Holland’s story The Stranger. As mentioned earlier, this story is told in excerpts through the book, and – brilliantly – is told in its entirety at the end.

Each character was distinct and believable, and I loved hearing about the same events from different viewpoints. I don’t want to give too much away because this book deserves to be read/listened to unspoiled, but I would highly recommend it. I actually did  guess the culprit, but it was fairly near the end of the book, and only because if you suspect enough people, you will probably end up hitting on the right one eventually!

I’ve never read anything by Elly Griffiths before but based on this book, I would definitely read more by her in future.