Bleeding Heart Yard: Breathtaking new thriller from Ruth Galloway's author

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There are also several errors, such as here in ch. 1: "... the tree outside Harbinder's window is turnng from green to amber to red, like a traffic light in reverse". That IS the sequence ! In reverse it would be red, red and amber and then green. The error is repeated at the start of ch. 25. It is all very standard mystery writing and there is nothing wrong with that, especially as Griffiths always writes well. Despite a teeny bit of disappointment in the change of direction I will still be one of the first in line to read the next book.

A gothic thriller and crime novel combined, "Bleeding Heart Square" is set in the 1930s in and around Bleeding Heart Yard and the adjacent Ely Place. Many of the street names in the area, e.g. Holborn Circus, Farringdon Road and Hatton Garden remain unchanged, but many have been altered, in keeping with a long and respected tradition among novelists.A murderer strikes at a school reunion—but the students are no strangers to death— in this propulsive, twisty thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries Anna Vance, now teaching English to students in Italy, was also a member, having dated Chris, as was Sonoma Davies, who is now the Headteacher at Manor Park. Due to the new London setting, and since Harbinder is the only character in this (apart from a brief appearance by her parents) who featured in this one, Bleeding Heart Yard could easily be read as a standalone. It was a pleasure to read this thrilling novel, and has me so excited for the next in the series. Of course, there’s a murder to investigate at a school reunion, and this time it involves one of the officers that Harbinder now supervises – Cassie. We learn early on that there was a student’s death while she was going to school, and Cassie and the Gang were responsible. Just exactly what happened is part of the mystery of the book. And does that death have something to do with the current murder? Harbinder Kaur #3 and I think possibly my favourite so far! Harbinder is now serving in the Met as a DI in the Homicide and Serious Crimes Unit and jolly happy she is too with her promotion. One of her team DS Cassie Fitzgerald has a big secret, so big she’s tried to wipe it from her memory bank. However, fate or something more sinister has a habit of resurrecting the past. The storyline centres around Manor Park School, a posh Chelsea State School with several well-known former pupils all contemporaries and former classmates of Cassie. At the 21st anniversary celebration of this golden gang leaving school, one of their number Conservative MP Garfield Rice is found dead, a suspected drugs overdose but Cassie suspects this links to the past. Is she right? The story is told via Harbinder, Cassie and Anna another school friend of Cassie’s. This is done so well as each voice is unique and adds to the growing intrigue.

But then another member of the group is found dead in the legendary Bleeding Heart Yard, a courtyard in Holborn named after the murder in the seventeenth century of Lady Elizabeth Hatton, second wife of Sir William Hatton- and the pressure to solve this case is ramped up!

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THE AUTHOR: Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway novels take for their inspiration Elly's husband, who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist, and her aunt who lives on the Norfolk coast and who filled her niece's head with the myths and legends of that area. Elly has two children and lives near Brighton. I don't know if it's the difference between listening to audio books as I do with the RGs, or reading as I did with this but I just don't find the characters convincing, plus there's just the main one so far and not the hinterland of RG. Manor Park’s graduating class of ‘98 was quite distinguished. “The group” as they were known in school included seven members. Oh, don’t forget Cassie Fitzherbert, who is now a DS on DI Harbinder Kaur’s new “Murder Investigation Team”.

This was the class reunion for a posh school, Manor Park Comprehensive; this class has a lot of high profile graduates!! I am a massive lover of crime and thriller stories; it is one of my top (if not THE top) genres. The description of the plot sounded fantastic and I was very much looking forward to it... however my expectations were unfortunately not lived up to. A murderer strikes at a school reunion--but the students are no strangers to death-- in this propulsive, twisty thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries

Bleeding Heart Yard is mentioned (as "Bleeding-Heart-Yard") in Stephen Vincent Benét's poem American Names, as one of a list of old world places whose names are compared, unfavorably, with the place names of America. My expectations were very high as I have loved the Ruth Galloway Series and “The Stranger Diaries”. These novels were all very intricately plotted while I thought this was a straight up police procedural. DS Cassie Fitzherbert has a secret. When she was at school, she and her friends were responsible for the death of a fellow pupil. Decades later, Cassie is happily married and loves her job as a police officer. Cassie who was in attendance has secured the guests in the library, but after overhearing a private conversation, she is afraid that one of the group has killed again to make sure that what they did to David Moore remains a secret from the past, so she tries to steer her new boss away from those at the reunion, suggesting an alternate motive instead.

And Cassie of course, the only friend who doesn’t turn up is Sonoma who is now the school principal. Before the night is out Garfield Rice is murdered. Cassie cannot be on the case as she present at the reunion. Yes, this is my first Elly Griffiths book and yes, I started with #3 in a series. Did you expect anything more? Since I read half of this with the good ole peepers, I'm writing a full review. I was actually vibulating with the audio so much, I wanted to read it with my eyes. The narrator did a fabulous job playing all the different roles. Even her Italian accent was pretty legit. I highly recommend this one to audio lovers. What initially looks like a drug overdose is soon revealed to be murder, and her team has quite a task ahead of them, interviewing and investigating the reunion attendees, one of whom, it turns out, is a DS under Harbinder’s command. Cassie Fitzherbert has to be excluded from the investigation, but Harbinder might rely on her for some inside information about those present. Wise? I really liked Griffiths writing style. Her dry wit is right up my alley and reminded me of my faves: Jo Spain, Cara Hunter, Angela Marsons, Sharon Bolton, etc. I don't know what goes on in the U.K, but the police procedural ladies can WRITE write. As the investigation proceeded, my wild guesses were all over the place. I never did get it quite right, but the ending did make sense.I’ve been loving this series so much! Harbinder Kaur is such a fantastic character. It’s been great seeing her out of the comfort of her hometown and her parent’s wings. She’s still caustic and has a dark sense of humour, but is much more mature this time around. Her move to London means she has new colleagues at work, and they were such a nice team. Her duo with DS Kim Manning was a really interesting one. Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies? It's in Cassie's interest to skew the investigation so that it looks like the latter and she seems to be succeeding. The actual murder was so long ago that it genuinely seemed to have happened to someone else. I suppose we all think of our eighteen-year-old selves as different people, but I could honestly look at pictures of the blonde, smiling girl and not recognise her. What did she think, who did she love, what music did she listen to? I simply couldn’t remember. Dissociation is a word I remember from my psychology degree. I think I once wrote the definition on a cue card. ‘A mental process where a person disconnects from their thoughts and feelings…often linked to trauma in childhood.’ But I never thought that it was possible to live so happily with this condition. Who was the girl in the school photos? Nothing to do with me.