With three top-notch series to her credit, Elly Griffiths is one of my must-read mystery authors. BLEEDING HEART YARD, her third DI Harbinder Kaur novel, will keep readers guessing right up until the very end.

Cassie Fitzgerald is a police officer who finds herself the prime suspect in the murder of a former classmate during a school reunion. The investigation is high-profile as the deceased, Garfield Rice, was a Conservative MP. He was also a member of Cassie’s highly exclusive clique at Manor Park School, which has produced several well-to-do and famous alumni, a handful of whom were part of her group.

"Elly Griffiths certainly knows how to manage a tightly wound plot and maintain a high level of suspense throughout her stories. BLEEDING HEART YARD is no exception..."

Ironically, Cassie and Garfield were close friends. Even more stunning is the fact that Garfield, Cassie and the rest of their gang were nearly implicated in the mysterious death of a lecherous character named David Moore, which originally was ruled a suicide. In the opening lines of the prologue, Cassie asks, “Is it possible to forget that you’ve committed a murder?” This immediately will have readers believing that she could have been capable of killing --- or at least being involved in a homicide --- even if the victim deserved it.

Before this cold case is reopened, Kaur must dive in and try to piece together the many suspects and clues surrounding the death of Garfield, who was poisoned via an overdose of insulin. But then another member of Cassie’s group is killed: Henry Streep, a Labour MP. Cassie would like everyone to believe that the murders of Garfield and Henry were politically motivated and not related in any way to Manor Park. But what is really going on here?

Elly Griffiths certainly knows how to manage a tightly wound plot and maintain a high level of suspense throughout her stories. BLEEDING HEART YARD is no exception, and it makes me look forward to what she has in store for us in 2023 --- and beyond.