Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Monday, 13 October 2025

"Bleeding Heart Yard" by Elly Griffiths

An audio book.

In the prolog we learn that a policewoman (Cassie, married to Pete) committed a murder.

Harbinder, a 38 year old Sikh lesbian from Shoreham, has started a new detective job in London, living in shared accommodation with 2 women (including Metta, a 6ft blond). Cassie is her DS. At a school reunion attended by Cassie, an out-spoken, married, right-wing MP, Garfield (Gary) Rice, was murdered. He'd been receiving messages saying "Bleeding Heart". His wife is Italian. Other people in the year are Henry (left, shadow cabinet minister, with a husband), Simona (now school head), Izzy (actress), Anna (back from years in Italy to support her dying mother) and Chris (in a band). Gary and Izzy were sweet-hearts at school and had recently started an affair.

At the end of the A-levels, the gang had decided to punish David for raping Cassie and being bad to Annie. They'd intended to scare him at an unused station. In the end, only Cassie was with him. When he approached her, she pushed him away and he died under a train. Nobody was accused. Henry and Gary saw the incident.

Anna heard Simona talking by the scene of the crime though Simona says she was eating out with her family then. Gary died of an insulin overdose. Cassie and Chris are diabetics. An empty syringe with Cassie's prints is found near the school. Gary had told Izzy that he knew who had killed David.

There's a club called "The Bleeding Heart" in "Bleeding Heart Yard". The right-wing climate-change denyers called themselves the Bleeding Hearts.

Henry tells Anna that she was by the station when David died. She doesn't recall it. Not long before, Chris had split with her.

Chris (single with 2 children) takes Anna to Brighton for the day. Henry is killed.

Handwriting analysis shows that Gary's wife wrote the notes to him. Cassie confesses to Harbinder that she pushed David.

Chris spends the night at Anna's. He's arrested. Anna looks through her old diaries. Chris is released. Izzy suggests a re-enactment at the station. Harbinder's there. She's threatened with a gun by Cassie's husband Pete. Metta (who we'd been led to think might be the culprit) saves her. Pete had shot David (to save Cassie) and had committed the other murders. Cassie realises that he's always been over-protective. Matte and Harbinder start going out. Harbinder takes Matte to meet her family.

Some of the vocabulary doesn't match the speaker - "without rancour", "solicitous", "like a diorama the day spooled in front of me". Many of the facts of the case (especially about the overheard conversation at the reunion) are repeated.

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