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

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While this book is accessible for newcomers to the series, established fans will be especially pleased with how Harbinder grows as a character and becomes more comfortable in her own skin. Harbinder is a lesbian, and in previous installments, her sexuality was a source of tension, especially when it came to her conservative family. But living in a larger urban environment allows her far more freedom, and she is able to explore a liberated life on her own terms. Harbinder has moved to London and is starting afresh as a DI in the London Met in charge of a team. This introduces a parcel of new characters at work plus she moves in with two other women in a shared house. Her first case becomes very high profile when an MP is murdered. Most of the suspects are old friends of the victim and they all get opportunities to express their own points of view. There are red herrings aplenty and the murderer is the person you least suspect. There is a nice romance for Harbinder too which lightens up the action. 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. Bleeding Heart Yard is the third instalment of the Harbinder Kaur series, about a British Sikh CID detective solving complicated murder mysteries, although it would work fine as a stand-alone too. I loved the first book (The Stranger Diaries) but found the second rather too cosy In style. However I liked Harbinder enough to continue the series regardless - a good decision as this one is the best to date. It’s a more conventional police procedural, and change in direction for the series, but worked brilliantly in my opinion because of the intriguing cast of characters. Harbinder Kaur, although the central character in this series, seems to almost be overshadowed by the school friends around whom the investigation is concentrated. I wonder if this is why I didn't enjoy Bleeding Heart Yard quite as much as its predecessors which focused more on Harbinder.

years before, the woman now known as Detective Sergeant Cassie Fitzherbert believes she was at least partially responsible for the death of David Moore, a fellow pupil at Manor High School, a day before they were due to receive their A-Level results. Then, when Cassie attends a school reunion party, another of her former classmates, controversial right-wing MP Garfield Rice is also murdered. 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. The kids used to love playing Murder in the Dark. It really is a very easy party game and kept them quiet for ages. They would all shut themselves in the downstairs bathroom, about ten of them. The detective would be left outside, sitting disconsolately on the stairs. After a few minutes of giggling, a blood-curdling scream would ring out and the door would open to reveal someone lying on the floor between the loo and the basin. The law enforcer would then have to solve the crime, sometimes with a little help from me. 'That's not fair Mum,' Lucy and Sam used to say. 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?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 it has nothing to do with Manor Park and she seems to be succeeding.

Along with her promotion to DI, Harbinder has taken a job with the Met, and as a result has had to leave the comfort of her parents' home and move to London. She's living in a sharehouse with two other professional women and enjoying the excitement of all the new in her life - even if she is a little lonely at times. One Saturday night she gets a call to attend the scene of her first suspicious death in the big city - that of prominent MP Garfield Rice - and suddenly her life is too busy to think about her loneliness. Rice had been attending a school reunion at the time of his death, and amongst the attendees were most of his close friends from 21 years earlier at Manor Park school, including Cassie Fitzherbert who just so happens to be a DS on Harbinder's new team. Of all the Elly Griffiths novels I’ve read and enjoyed, her Harbinder Kaur books are by far my favorite so far. Bleeding Heart Yard is the third in this not-a-series, as Harbinder is promoted to Detective Inspector and transferred to London from her relatively sleepy beachside home. We’re police officers,’ said Harbinder, already terrified by the traffic on the South Circular. ‘We love crime.’ I’m fairly sure that the defunct Imperial underground station doesn’t exist though, as I rode that tube line for six years so surely would’ve noticed.My what a tangled web the former students of Manor Park weave. Is it possible to forget that you've committed a murder twenty one years ago?