The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
I love Elly Griffith's Ruth Galloway Mysteries. In fact, they are what started me on reading mysteries. I'm still dipping my toes into the mystery world, but I'm finding myself looking at them more often than I used to-both at the library and at my local bookstore. Elly Griffiths has written other mysteries, but this is a stand alone contemporary mystery with a bit of a gothic feel to it. And yes, I'm terrible at figuring out who did it before the end. The Stranger Diaries takes place in Sussex, at a school. Clare Cassidy is a high school English teacher, divorced and living with her teen daughter Georgia. Her close friend and colleague Ella is found viciously murdered in her home, and everyone is shocked. Who could possibly want her dead? As Detectives Harbinder Kaur and Neil Winston begin investigating Ella's murder, suspicions swing to the head of the English Department at school: Rick Lewis. Clare knows a secret Ella shared with her: that she had a quick affa...