Book #18 Dying Fall

A Dying Fall: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 5 by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A change of location in Ruth Galloway number 5 when her long-time friend Dan Golding is killed in a house fire - in Lancashire. Is it a coincidence that Ruth receives a letter from Dan, written the day before he died? He had made a ground-breaking discovery and said he was scared. Ruth is compelled to head north to investigate further. So does DCI Harry Nelson who takes his wife on holiday to Blackpool. Ruth takes her daughter Kate with her and faces untold risks in another well paced mystery. I enjoy the continuity of this series, which includes her friend and Kate's godfather Cathbad (Michael Malone) - a druid and self-professed shaman. The eerie North Norfolk coast is replaced with the brooding landscape of the Pendle Forest and the windswept Lancashire coast....

So, five down, five to go....

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Book #77 The House at Sea's End

The House at Sea's End: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 3 by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This really is an excellent series; Elly Griffiths has pulled off another gripping mystery featuring her protagonist Dr. Ruth Galloway and the impatient and quick-tempered DCI Harry Nelson. Apart from the intriguing plot there are threads running through this series (this is #3) that are tantalising; but I cannot mention them for fear of spoiling the ongoing drama for anyone who has not yet embarked on this journey set on the eerie landscape of the Norfolk coast.

Bones unearthed at the foot of a north Norfolk cliff; the skeletons might have lain there since the Second World War - has a dreadful crime been concealed all these years? As events unfurl it becomes evident that someone wants the truth of the past to stay buried when a body washes up on the beach. Does the owner of Sea's End House know something, or a member of his family?

The characters already seem like old friends: Michelle Nelson, wife of Harry and a dedicated wife and mother; Michael Malone (aka Cathbad), born in Ireland, raised as a Catholic and now thinks of himself as a Druid and shaman; Shona Maclean, one of Ruth's closest friends and a lecturer in English Literature and Phil Trent, Ruth's head of department at the University of North Norfolk.

The ending once again is unbearably tense and that last, short paragraph - another cliffhanger - a real teaser! Guaranteed to make you read on in the series. I am waiting for numbers 4, 5 and 6 to arrive from Waterstones....

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Book #76 The Janus Stone

The Janus Stone: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 2 by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is fast becoming one of my favourite series. OK, I've only read two so far! Which leaves six to go...

Clever and intelligent murder stories with likeable characters. Dr. Ruth Galloway is vulnerable and engaging. As a forensic archaeologist she finds herself embroiled in police investigations almost by accident. At the request of DCI Harry Nelson. As in #1, bones have been found, on this occasion at a Victorian house in Norwich, which is being demolished by builders to make way for a luxury apartment development. The skeleton appears to be that of a young child - minus the skull. How long has it been there? Could it be hundreds of years old or much more recent? The house was once a children's home and Nelson learns from the priest who used to run it that two children did go missing forty years ago - a boy and girl who have never been found.

As the investigation gathers pace sinister events occur; someone wants to put Ruth and Nelson off the scent, the scent of a long forgotten crime, events that put Ruth's life in danger.

Superstition and myth, Druid worship, Roman gods, forensic archaeology woven into a superb crime story set in the wild and bleak area of North Norfolk and another breathless and gripping climax that had my pulse racing once again. And that signature Elly Griffiths' cliffhanger of an ending. I am well and truly hooked. Number 3 it is then....

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