Description

From the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries, an eclectic, thrilling collection of short stories, featuring many characters that readers have come to know and love.

Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume.

There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss.

In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk.

Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in “Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act.”

In “Justice Jones and the Etherphone,” a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary postwar London.

A flashback in time reveals Harbinder Kaur as a Detective Sergeant surviving her first day on the job at Shoreham DCI.

To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in “Flint’s Fireside Tale.”

And readers can armchair travel with stories set on the Amalfi Coast, in Capri, and in Egypt as Ruth and DCI Nelson experience their very own version of Death on the Nile.

The Man in Black illustrates the breadth and variety of Elly Griffiths’s talent for blood-chilling, page-turning stories all with her trademark humor and heart. 

About the Author

Elly Griffiths is the USA Today bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway and Brighton mystery series, as well as the standalone novels The Stranger Diaries, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel; The Postscript Murders; and Bleeding Heart Yard. She is the recipient of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in Brighton, England.

Praise For…

“Elly Griffiths is one of my flat-out favorite contemporary suspense writers.” — A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of End of Story

“Stunning…Jaw-dropping red herrings, headbanging twists and turns, and Rashomon-like alternating narratives add to the briskly paced plot, which builds to a reconstruction of the original crime and a bombshell revelation. Donna Tartt fans won’t be able to put this one down.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Bleeding Heart Yard

“A well-plotted procedural that can hold its own with the genre’s best.” — Wall Street Journal on Bleeding Heart Yard

“This droll romp is a latter-day Miss Marple.” — Washington Post on Postscript Murders

“This lively whodunit keeps you guessing until the end.”  — People on Stranger Diaries 

“Forensic archeologist and academic Ruth Galloway is a captivating amateur sleuth—an inspired creation. I identified with her insecurities and struggles, and cheered her on.” — Louise Penny, author of the best-selling Armand Gamache series

“Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series combines imaginative plotting, cleverly located in deepest Norfolk, with the everyday dramas of her case of regular characters . . . This is Griffiths on top form.” — Mail on Sunday