Library's review
Griffiths handles that conundrum with her usual skill, using the pandemic to explore the reactions of many of the familiar characters from past books to forced isolation. Of course the police, led by DCI Harry Nelson, are essential workers and not forced into lockdown, though they have to cope with social distancing and reduced opportunities for the whole team to gather. It's unusual for the central mystery not to revolve in some way around one of Ruth's excavations or examinations of discovered remains, but in this case Nelson and his team are faced with a series of apparent suicides whose details don't quite add up.
Social distancing also doesn't manage to prevent major developments in the relationship between Ruth and Harry, though once again we are left with a bit of a cliffhanger in this ongoing B-story even as the main case is tidily wrapped up. On the one hand, I kind of want this storyline to resolve sooner rather than later; on the other hand, Griffiths has so deftly invested all of the characters with nuance and complexity that I'm at a loss to know which resolution I would prefer.
This is one of my favorite series, and I'm happy that this entry lives up to expectations, even as some of the conventional methods of investigation are upended by the realities of the pandemic lockdown. Hopefully by the time the next book is published, the pandemic won't loom quite so large — in the real world as well as the fictional.
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Fiction. Mystery. HTML: Pandemic lockdowns have Ruth Galloway feeling isolated from everyone but a new neighbor�??until Nelson comes calling, investigating a decades-long string of murder-suicides that's looming ever closer, in USA Today Elly Griffiths' penultimate novel in the beloved series. Three years after her mother's death, Ruth is finally sorting through her things when she finds a curious relic: a decades-old photograph of her own Norfolk cottage�??before she lived there�??with a peculiar inscription on the back. Ruth returns to the cottage to uncover its meaning as Norfolk's first cases of Covid-19 make headlines, leaving her and Kate to shelter in place there. They struggle to stave off isolation by clapping for frontline workers each evening and befriending a kind neighbor, Zoe, from a distance. Meanwhile, Nelson is investigating a series of deaths of women that may or may not be suicide. When he links a case to an archaeological discovery, he breaks curfew to visit Ruth and enlist her help. But the further Nelson investigates the deaths, the closer he gets to Ruth's isolated cottage�??until Ruth, Zoe, and Kate all go missing, and Nelson is left scrambling to find them before it's too late. PRAISE FOR ELLY GRIFFITHS AND THE RUTH GALLOWAY SERIES Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award "Galloway is an everywoman, smart, successful and a little bit unsure of herself. Readers will look forward to learning more about her." �??USA Today "Elly Griffiths draws us all the way back to prehistoric times . . . Highly atmospheric." �??New York Times Book Review "Forensic archeologist and academic Ruth Galloway is a captivating amateur sleuth�??an inspired creation. I identified with her insecurities and struggles, and cheered he… (more)