Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths welcomes the call about illegal dumping in a Cardiff, Wales, suburb; it saves her from another dull weekend. What she doesn't expect is to find a severed human leg-- complete with a high-heeled shoe-- tucked away in a garage freezer. The police are able to identify the body part as that of a young woman who went missing five years earlier, but just as Fiona starts to get inside the murdered girl's head, another body part is found, and this one belongs to a male. As more body parts are found, the media begin whipping themselves into a frenzy, and-- contrary to the evidence-- Fiona is convinced that these two victims are connected in some way.
My first encounter with DC Fiona Griffiths was in Harry Bingham's Talking to the Dead, and it became one of my Best Reads of 2012. Love Story, With Murders is now one of my Best Reads of 2014, and it has everything to do with Fiona... Fi.
While in her teens she suffered an unusual sort of breakdown, and it has colored everything in her world: how she relates to people, how she thinks, how she copes with stress. She's almost the idiot savant of the Cardiff police force-- one moment disobeying orders and haring off to do something extremely foolhardy, and the next moment putting totally disparate clues together to crack a case. Reviewers have likened her to Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, and they are similar in their strange intelligence, but where Lisbeth radiates hostility, Fi is often endearing-- especially once you know the truth about her breakdown.
Love Story, With Murders continues the story of Fi's reintroduction to the normal world. She's got a man in her life now, and she works to remember to do all that "boyfriend stuff" that he expects. You can almost chart her progress as the pages turn, and it makes you feel good. She's also developing a rapport with her boss, Rhiannon Watkins, a woman so disliked that she could be "the first murder victim with over a million plausible suspects. A group that would include every one of her CID colleagues." Watkins can see flashes of Fi's brilliance, and Fi always seems to ignore the superficial to see things in people that normally go unnoticed. Boyfriend, boss... and family, for Fi's father also becomes part of the investigation, which is both a worry and a help to the young detective constable.
The case is a true puzzler; however, I was so wrapped up in watching Fiona put the clues together that I made no attempt to solve the crimes ahead of her. Bingham has combined an absolutely brilliant characterization with a finely constructed mystery-- for the second time in a row. Love Story, With Murders can be read as a standalone, but if wonderful characters are one of the main reasons why you read, why deny yourself the pleasure of even one paragraph of Fiona Griffiths' story?
Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham
ISBN: 9780345533760
Delacorte Press © 2014
Hardcover, 400 pages
Police Procedural, #2 Fiona Griffiths mystery
Rating: A+
Source: NetGalley
OK, you sole me right away on this book! A woman protagonist who is unusual and smart. And it's set in Wales, one of my new favorite locations for crime fiction.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, have seen raves about Ivy Pochoda's Visitation Street.
So, here's another book to put at the top of my TBR list. Gosh, I'll never get out of the house now, but that's OK with more snow coming this morning.
I'm glad you stuck your head up out of the snow long enough to say hello. I highly recommend both of Bingham's books... and now I'm going to go take a look at Visitation Street! :-)
DeleteCathy - I've heard other great things about this novel and Fiona sounds like a fascinating character. It's so refreshing to have a character who is in the process of growing and dealing with her life besides being a good detective. Thanks for reminding me of this.
ReplyDeleteNow that I've reminded you, don't forget to read about her! ;-)
DeleteCathy,
ReplyDeleteI now have another author and series to try. The two books by Harry Bingham sound very good.Thanks again for introducing me to a new author. I love your site and the information you give us as readers. I have many TBRs after reading your reviews. I have enjoyed the books that I have read that you reviewed. I look forward to looking at your site every week day to see what you are reading and recommending. I, also, love the interviews and the trips to the Poisoned Pen. Thanks!
You're very welcome, Lynn. Thank YOU. Words like these keep me going through periods of time when blogging more closely resembles slogging. You are appreciated-- all of you-- more than you know.
DeleteCathy, I hope you have Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver on your TBR list. Although not crime fiction, the book discussions the mystery of why Monarch butterflies are not going to Mexico, but to Appalachia. Also, it follows the journey of self-realization and change made by the main character, a strong woman.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the news came out recently that the Monarch butterfly population going to Mexico has dwindled a great deal due to climate change.
Flight Behavior definitely sounds like my kind of book!
DeleteAlso, just to say that I read some good books during the blizzards here: Lifetime by Liza Marklund, Sycamore Row by John Grisham (I think his best), and Pilgrim Soul by Gordon Ferris.
ReplyDeleteI recommend being snowed-in and having an excuse to read, drink tea and eat cookies. (Or the Arizona equivalent)
The last time I had a weather excuse to stay in the house, it was during the time of the 100-year and 500-year floods and if not for the airport Phoenix would've been cut off from the rest of the world. Now that I'm a homeowner with a pool, I'd rather not have that happen again! LOL
DeleteThanks for the lovely review, Cathy! I'm blushing.
ReplyDeleteThe winter weather I wrote about was all for real - so meteorologically exact that I actually checked the weather records on the key dates. We drove home from my mother's house in South wales that Christmas looking at 6 foot icicles hanging from some of the Georgian hill towns we passed through. You folks might get winters like that near the Canadian border - but we NEVER get winters like that here. Except, we did. On that drive home, I kept thinking, wow, imagine if a person got stuck out in that ...
We don't have to live near the Canadian border for that sort of horrible winter, Harry. My husband and I were in the UK from mid-March to mid-April last year, and were late getting to Inverness because our hire car couldn't make it through the snow on the lane outside our Yorkshire cottage. It seems as though horrible winters are striking everywhere!
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