The Stranger Diaries: A Mystery

I'm rating this book 2 1/2 stars rounded up to 3. The Stranger Diaries is number one in a series by Elly Griffiths about Harbinger Kaur. In this book, Harbinger Kaur is a detective who is assigned to the case of a murdered English teacher by the name of Ella. I like the writing and storytelling style so far. However, I was thrown by the story within a story. Usually I like that idea, but this one did not work for me. I wasn’t sure sometimes if I was reading the book or if I was reading what a character had written. During the investigation Harbinger is introduced to a woman named Clare who was close friends with the victim. I think this is where the author messes up because they make it way too obvious of Clare’s involvement whether it was innocent or otherwise. I understand Kaur has to be suspicious as part of her job, but the author took it too far in my opinion. I think that’s why it took me awhile to get into this book. The author wasn’t focused on making the character of Harbinger someone the reader wanted to understand and learn more about. Sure, they gave us her background, but it was more tell than show. I expected more. The character spent more of her time being suspicious of one person than her job. The ending didn’t give me much to like of her either and the case went from interesting with Ella’s murder to bland with each obstacle Kaur encountered that it felt flat when it was over. I think I will give another book in the series a try because I understand the first book is usually about the set up0 of the world and character, but this one had me underwhelmed. I am not sure if I would recommend this author and book to another reader. I believe more research is needed.