Category Archives: Elly Griffiths

Books of the Month – January 2012

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I struggled to choose a single book for the month, feeling like there were several books equally deserving of the title. But in the end I’ve decided on Sulari Gentill’s MILES OFF COURSE which I finished two weeks ago but which still puts a smile on my face when I think of it. There is something I particularly treasure about a book that makes me happy and this combination of whodunnit, exploration of a lesser-known part of our history and old-fashioned fun is an absolute delight.

I finished 12 books for the month and all the rest are  recommended reads (anything rated 3 or more)

The Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012

Two of the books were by Australian woman (counting towards the total of 10 I’m aiming for) and I managed two genres as well

I also kept up as best I could with what other challenge participants are saying about the challenge in these round-up posts

Other, non-review related posts this month

What about you…was January a good reading month? Did you have a favourite book? Or did you acquire anything you’re itching to read? Any issue you need to get off your chest?

If you want to see other people’s crime fiction picks of the month head over to Mysteries in Paradise for the Pick of the Month meme

Review: A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

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In the fourth book to feature forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway the mystery starts early on. Ruth has been asked to attend a local museum for the opening of a coffin which was found at a construction site and is thought to contain the remains of a medieval Bishop. She arrives to find the museum’s curator lying on the floor. Not being certain if the man is alive or not she phones an ambulance and the police. The man is pronounced dead on his arrival at hospital and the police investigation steps up a notch which introduces DI Harry Nelson to the action.

Of course anyone who has read the previous novels in this serious would have been waiting for this meeting as Ruth and Harry have a personal history which was left at a rather dramatic point at the end of The House at Sea’s End. I’m trying not to give spoilers to this or previous books so I won’t say much more, other than to reflect that I thought Griffiths did a good job of capturing the awkwardness realistically. She’s also done a good job of encapsulating the essence of the personal lives of Ruth, Harry and their friends and colleagues so this would be a decent place to start the series if you are interested in trying it out but don’t feel you have the time or energy to read the three earlier books.

The mystery element in this novel is stronger than has been the case in the previous novels which, while entertaining, were all fairly easy to stay ahead of, especially for seasoned crime readers. Here there are several threads that need to be sorted out including the very basic question of whether or not the museum curator was murdered or not. There do prove to be two potential motives including a possible connection to claims being made for the repatriation of Australian Aboriginal bones and skulls in the museum’s custody. Ruth’s old friend Cathbad is a member of a group which has requested the items be returned to Australia for a proper burial, as is her new next door neighbour who is an academic visiting from Australia. He is also a member of the same tribal group to which the bones belong so he has a personal stake in the repatriation of the items. The issue of such repatriation is becoming increasingly vitriolic in the real world but Griffiths handled its complexity and sensitivity well. In particular Ruth’s needing time to weigh up the pros and cons on a personal and professional level rang very true. I’m always a little wary of ‘foreign’ books which throw in Australian characters or tackle other subjects I am familiar with but Elly Griffiths has done well on both counts here.

It’s fair to say that most fans of this series are at least as interested in the personal stories of Ruth, Harry and friends as they are in the whodunnit aspects of the books and those fans will not be disappointed with this instalment. Ruth’s daughter has her first birthday in this book but Ruth still frets about her mothering skills and seems a little preoccupied at times so she is not quite the dominant character in this book as she has been in the past and Harry’s dry humour is also quiet for a while when he undergoes a particularly nasty trauma. While I did miss the presence of my favourite two people a little, there were many developments in the lives of the lesser characters to keep me interested. I have quite a soft spot for Cathbad who is a lab technician at Ruth’s university but is also a Druid and seems willing to participate in any vaguely spiritual ritual he thinks suitable for a given situation which often has unforseen circumstances.

I look forward with much anticipation to the arrival on my doorstep of the annual instalment of this series and, once again, the reading experience lived up to my expectations, providing a very enjoyable and satisfying read with just a hint of what might happen in the next book.. I read A ROOM FULL OF BONES in a single day (again the housework was neglected) and had a very contented smile on my face upon completion, you can’t ask for better than that.

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A Room Full of Bones has been reviewed at Euro Crime

I have reviewed the first three books in the series: The Crossing Places, The Janus Stone and The House at Sea’s End

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My rating 3.5/5
Publisher Quercus [2012]
ISBN 9781849163699
Length 344 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series #4 in the Ruth Galloway series
Source I bought it
Creative Commons Licence
This work by http://reactionstoreading.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Review: The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths

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Ostensibly The House at Sea’s End is about the discovery of the bones of six people in an isolated cove on the Norfolk coast, just beneath the house of the local MP whose house is, literally, crumbling into the sea. The bones are old but not ancient, less than one one hundred years old on first inspection, and it transpires they are likely of German origin given the chemicals found within them. These facts fit in with the war-time history of the area. It soon becomes clear that someone doesn’t want the secret of the bones revealed when a journalist who is investigating the find is found dead so official investigators have two mysteries to solve.

But for me the book is less about all this than it is about people. Funny, fearful, loving, sad, conflicted, imperfect ordinary, lovable people. Our heroine Ruth Galloway is a forensic archaeologist with the fictional North Norfolk University and is involved at the outset with the dating of and investigation into the discovery of the bones. This is her first big task, other than routine lecturing duties, since she came back to work from maternity leave and she is struggling with the demands of work and learning how to look after her new baby. Being Ruth she deals with it, at least in part, via an ever-present witty, self-deprecating internal monologue. Above this Ruth’s charm is her credibility: her conflicting hopes for her future and the haphazard way she deals with the strangeness her life throws up make her instinctively likable and someone who ‘the average person’ can identify with.

The hero of the novel, who is taking on an increasingly larger role as the series progresses, is DCI Harry Nelson, the main policeman who Ruth has worked with in all the investigations with which she has been involved. Harry is married to a glamorous hairdresser and in some ways has nothing in common with the overweight, unglamorous Ruth. However they share intellectual interests and they work together in a very complementary way. Harry is perhaps less likable for some, he is very sarcastic (which I happen to love) and his personal choices are not always to be admired but once again I think he’s a very realistic character and I enjoy him almost as much as Ruth.

Some of the minor characters in the series are taking shape nicely too, my favourite of these is the lab worker and practicing Pagan, Cathbad who seems to have appointed himself some kind of personal guardian for the Galloway family. He brings a hint of spirituality to the novel but he’s also quite practical at times and it’s rather delightful watching the relationship between him and Harry develop into something approaching friendship, regardless of how unlikely this might seem to both of them.

If you’re looking for complicated, extremely suspenseful crime fiction you’ll need to look elsewhere. The war-time mystery was pretty straight-forward, though unraveled well, and even the present-day intrigue was be fairly easily solved, though there was misdirection and we had a few tense moments worrying about key characters. The plot itself and the motivations are credible though, even if not terribly taxing for die-hard crime fiction fans. Griffiths has continued giving the books a sense of crime fiction history too, this time by incorporating a simple code to be broken in the form of a list of popular mystery novels (on a note of the “I think publishing might be in trouble” kind I can’t help but make a comment about the proofreading done here though, Omar Yuseff is the protagonist of The Fourth Assassin which was written by Matt Rees).

I read The House at Sea’s End in a single day, cobbling time from chores and family obligations, because I couldn’t not do so. I wanted to savour it slowly and eek out the experience of being surrounded by enjoyable, interesting people but in the end I could not stop until I got to the very end. I am a little sad that I’ll probably have to wait a whole year for another installment but I’m very happy that the book lived up to its predecessors and my own anticipation.

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The House at Sea’s End has been reviewed at Euro Crime

If you are going to read this series I strongly recommend you start at the beginning with The Crossing Places then The Janus Stone (which was one of my top ten reads of last year) (not bad in a year when I finished 162 books).

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My rating 4/5
Author website http://www.ellygriffiths.co.uk/
Publisher Quercus [2011]
ISBN 9781849163682
Length 356 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series Number 3 in the Ruth Galloway series
Source I bought it

Crime Fiction Alphabet: A is for Archaeology

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It seemed like an omen that the week I was deliberating over whether or not to participate in the crime fiction alphabet meme this year I would be reading two crime fiction books which both happen to feature an archaeologist. And so it was decided, I will participate in the meme (at least semi-regularly though I don’t promise to complete all letters) and I will write my posts about the themes, sub-genres and plot elements that crop up regularly in the crime fiction I love.

I have a sneaking suspicion that archaeologists are over-represented in crime fiction, given that I don’t run across them in real life nearly as often as I do in crime fiction. Why does the profession lends itself to inclusion in this genre far more than say laundrette manager or dentist? I guess it is because the profession itself already has an air of mystery and romance about it. What child hasn’t fantasized about getting dirty and digging things up for a living? Or is that just me?

These are the archaeologists I can remember meeting in my crime fiction reading, please leave a comment with the names of any more you know of that I might need to investigate.

The first archaeologist I came across in crime fiction was Amelia Peabody, who since 1975 has starred in 19 adventures set in Egypt/Africa/the Middle East. The books by Elizabeth Peters are a mixture of historical fiction, amateur sleuthing and the discovering of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Crocodile on the Sandbank introduces us to the force of nature that is Amelia Peabody, (recently orphaned and now independently wealthy) and her soon-to-be husband. The series is still going strong with the release last year of A River in the Sky which places Amelia and friends in Palestine just prior to the outbreak of the first world war.

Jessica Mann, who studied archaeology herself and is married to an archaeologist, published a series of six books featuring Tamara Hoyland who was an agent of the British secret service and an archaeologist . The first of these, published in 1981 is Funeral Sites and though I think I’ve read them all (in the days before my wonderful spreadsheet so I can’t know for sure) the only one I can remember much about is the fourth book, Death Beyond the Nile, in which Tamara joins an archaeological tour of Egypt in order to thwart the dastardly schemes of a woman who is threatening British security. I remember the book being full of fun characters and lots of dastardly plotting. A teensey bit of googling tells me that Mann also has a series of three earlier books starting with The Only Security (1971) which feature an archaeology professor as the heroine.

While Lyn Hamilton‘s Canadian heroine Lara McClintock is not herself an archaeologist she is an antiques dealer who specialises in archaeological objects and the books, starting with 1997′s The Xibalba Murders take us on adventures all over the globe looking at a fascinating range of ancient cultures including the Mayans, the Celts, the Etruscans and even the people of Easter Island.

Beverly Connor wrote about the first forensic archaeologist I can remember reading about, in 1996′s A Rumor of Bones. Her heroine is Lindsay Chamberlain who in this first novel discovers that the bones police believe belong to a missing girl they have been searching for belong to a different child who appears to have been sexually abused. Eventually they work out there are bones of more than one missing child on the site which is when things take an extremely grim turn.

I can attest to the fact that Erin Hart‘s 2003 novel Haunted Ground, about a well preserved head discovered in the peat bogs of Ireland, is a book you don’t forget quickly. The hero of the novel, Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire, works with an American anthropologist to solve both a historic crime and a present-day one. This is a very dark and atmospheric book set in a closed community.

And of course last year I became besotted by the Elly Griffiths novels featuring Dr Ruth Galloway who is a forensic archaeologist at the fictional North Norfolk University. Both The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone were great books, full of wonderful characters, lots of atmosphere and curious mysteries. The third book in the series, The House at Seas End, was one of the two books that prompted this post (I finished it yesterday, review to come later this week).

The other book I am reading (via audio) this week is Kate Ellis‘ A Perfect Death in which the protagonist, who is a policeman, has a best friend who is an archaeologist and whose investigations seem to always involve the subject. In this book there is a grizzly murder on the site of an ancient one and records of the site’s excavation have vanished! I stumbled across this book on special at audible but now realise the whole series (this is book 13 of what is soon to be 16) features things archaeological so there’s a backlog for me to trawl.

Are there more archaeological mysteries you’ve read? Why do you think this profession is so highly represented in crime fiction? Do you know any real-life archaeologists who lead such exciting, dangerous lives?

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week.

This is the second round of the meme which was first run from late 2009 to early 2010. My contributions that time were discussions of books with one word titles.

Books of the Month – November 2010

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That Was Then

November was another good reading month for me as I finished 14 books. My favourite was the second installment of the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths: The Janus Stone. Happily the third book by Griffiths is due in January and I have pre-ordered my copy.

Honourable mentions for the month go to My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sigurdardottir whose heroine, Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, shares some very enjoyable similarities with Ruth Galloway and to one of my favourite books from this year’s Global Reading Challenge, Luis Alfredo Garcia-Roza’s Southwesterly Wind.

New Additions

My acquisition of printed books has slowed a little but I have only replaced it with eBook purchasing. One day I’ll learn self control. Or not. Anyway, among this month’s new friends are two books set in Sweden, one in Los Angeles, one in Canada and one that seems to take place all over the globe.

Challenge Progress

I finished the extreme level of the 2010 Global Challenge in November and enjoyed it so much I have already signed up for the 2011 version of the challenge which I hope to complete from my existing TBR collection.

I only read one book for the Canadian Book Challenge this month, Gail Bowen’s A Colder Kind of Death, bringing my total for the challenge to 8. I still have 7 months to read 3 more books (all of which are on my TBR shelves) so I am confident of success.

My newest challenge is the Good Reads Aussie Readers Summer Reading Challenge which should see me read at least 9 books from my TBR over what will undoubtedly be a long, hot summer.

Reading Now and Next

On the go at the moment I have Lindy Cameron’s Redback which has sat on my TBR for too long (it’s an Aussie thriller with a good dose of humour which is due for re-release shortly I believe) and am dipping in and out of Discount Noir, the flash fiction anthology about terrible things happening in giant supermarkets (thank heavens for online shopping is all I can say). Keeping my company while I walk at the moment is Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes.

Towards the end of the year I always seem to need to wind down with some lighter fare so I think some more thrillers and a cosy whodunnit or two are on the cards. I recently bought a couple of old Dick Francis novels for $5 a pop in Audible’s audio book sale so I’ll have some entertaining (if predictable) listening in the next few weeks.

 

Chart of the Month

As I may have mentioned I feel my TBR is a little out of control at the moment, standing at 197 books if I count orders that will trickle in over coming months. As that’s about 18 months worth of reading it feels like the right time (or possibly ever so slightly past the right time) to try to address the issue by doing things like signing up for challenges I can complete from my existing stockpile. I know myself well enough to realise I won’t completely reign in my acquisitiveness but I am hopeful that my new strategy will help me to slow down a little at least. Currently my TBR pie looks like this

Review: The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths

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My reading fairy godmother sent me her copy of this book several months ago and yesterday, as I remembered how much humour there had been in the first book, I decided it was time for a laugh.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Elly Griffiths’ first novel in this series, The Crossing Places, about six months ago I looked upon this second novel with an equal mixture of delicious anticipation and ‘second book trepidation’. Thankfully the trepidation was unnecessary as the book is a delight.

The story is told in the present tense which is an unusual choice but it suits the pacing and two strong voices from whose perspective the story unfolds. The first of these is Ruth Galloway, head of forensic archaeology at the fictional North Norfolk University, who occasionally becomes involved in police investigations which require her expertise. Here she is called in when some bones are discovered on the site of an old house which is being turned into what the developer calls 75 luxury apartments and the rest of us would probably call dog boxes. Ruth is simply wonderful. Her intelligence, personal strength and lack of political correctness shine through her actions and her ever-present internal monologue. Although she can be acerbic she can also be gentle, kind and even a little fragile and these different facets of her personality are all depicted realistically. There is a significant element of her personal life that has continued from the previous book which is expanded with heart and humour here but I’m not going to share any more details in case you haven’t yet read The Crossing Places.

The other major voice of this story is DCI Harry Nelson who appeared in the first book but seemed to me to have more presence in this story. He too is an engaging, realistic character. He loves his job, his wife and his two teenage daughters and he respects and admires Ruth. At one point he reflects on his different capacities for forming relationships with men and women which provides a good example of the way Griffiths manages to quickly but cleverly reveal a lot about the people and places she writes about.

I guess it is one of those first-world problems that I should feel guilty for even raising but the page-long description of the play that several of the characters attend was only one of the passages in the book that made me laugh out loud (I have sat through more than my share of equally pretentious twaddle in my time). It begins

The play is as bad as Nelson fears. A man in a mask appears in front of the curtain and drones on about January. Then he puts on another mask and drones on about lottery choices and whatnot. At least this reminds Nelson that he hasn’t bought his ticket for Wednesday’s draw yet. Then the curtain goes up and there are these people in togas having an orgy, only they can’t have much of one because the production obviously can’t stretch to more than four actors.

The book is full of such wry, observational humour.

I have hardly touched on the story itself which was an enthralling tale involving missing children, loyalty, family and secrets. The many historical and archaeological details are incorporated seamlessly and enrich the story while the cast of characters that support Ruth and Harry offer terrific depth in terms of perspective and variety.  In short, there’s not much I didn’t like about The Janus Stone and can even forgive it for including one of my pet peeves, passages in italics which depict a killer’s voice, as these are few and mercifully short.

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The Janus Stone has been reviewed by my aforementioned godmother at Petrona who was equally circumspect as I have been in sharing details of events from the first book. It’s also been reviewed at DJ’s Krimiblog and Euro Crime (Rik and Pat) but from these you might learn more than you wanted to know about the first book.

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My rating 4.5/5
Publisher Quercus [2010]
ISBN 9781849161589
Length 327 pages
Format hardcover
Source my reading fairy godmother

Books of the Month – June 2010

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That Was Then

I only finished 11 books in June and formally consigned one to the DNF pile. It’s hard to pick my favourite book for the month as both

were terrific. Having read Theorin’s previous book I fully expected The Darkest Room to be excellent whereas I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Bauer’s debut. It’s always particularly exciting to find a great new author.

Honourable mentions for the month go to a couple of top quality police procedurals from opposite sides of the planet

It’s marvellous to see this sub-genre being so well represented by relatively new authors as some of my old favourites have kinda lost their shine of late.

New Additions

Of the 18 books that made their way into the house this month highlights include

  • Andrea Camilleri’s August Heat (I’ve already started this one, it’s the 5th of 6 books on the shortlist for the CWA International Dagger Award that I want to read before the winner is announced later this month)
  • Elly Griffiths’ The Janus Stone (which I received from my reading fairy godmother and will leave on the shelves for a while as I like to leave it a few months between books in a series and I’ve only read the first book in May)
  • Stuart Neville’s The Ghosts of Belfast (I’ve read a couple of reviews of this that made it sound very, very tempting)

What to Read Next?

In July you’re likely to be seeing reviews for

  • Linda Castillo’s Pray for Silence (I finished it on this morning’s walk to work in 2°C, I read the first of Castillo’s mysteries last year )
  • Deon Meyer’s Thirteen Hours (the last book on the CWA International Dagger shortlist which I need to read before the winner is announced later this month)
  • Adrian Hyland’s Gunshot Road (my copy has been despatched from the UK and I await its arrival eagerly, having thoroughly enjoyed Diamond Dove)
  • Mario Vargas Llosa’s Death in the Andes (thanks to a recommendation from Jose Ignacio at The Game’s Afoot I tracked this one down for the 2010 Global Reading Challenge as it’s set in Peru)
  • Mystery Man by (Colin) Bateman (the subtitle is murder, mayhem and damn sexy trousers and I have Mack of Mack Captures Crime to thank for this funny recommendation)
  • John Hart’s The Last Child (this one’s next up on my audio book playlist, it’s won a bunch of awards so hopefully I enjoy it – a book needs to be especially good to take my mind of chattering teeth these winter mornings)

Chart of the Month

I’ve felt too busy to read as much as I wanted to this month and this chart of how many pages my eyes have scanned and hours my ears have absorbed shows it’s true: June has been my second lowest month of the year for printed pages and the lowest for hours listened :(

What about you? What did you really enjoy in June? What are you looking forward to reading in July?

Books of the Month – May 2010

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That was then

I finished 15 books in May and, thankfully, had no DNFs (though I might have done had I not been too warm and lazy to get out bed and find a book other than this one). Only four of these were audio books though that was enough for me to achieve the obsessed level of the 2010 Audio Book Challenge (1 challenge down, 3 to go).

My pick of the month is Simon Lelic’s A Thousand Cuts which I read in print. It’s a very sad book but beautiful in its way and I found it extremely difficult to put down. It blurs the genre boundaries too and I’ve already recommended it to people who don’t normally read crime fiction.

Honourable mentions for the month go to

  • Shona MacLean’s debut historical mystery The Redemption of Alexander Seaton for transporting me virtually to a fascinating version of 17th Century Scotland
  • the latest installment of Reginald Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe series Midnight Fugue for being one of the most cleverly plotted books I’ve read in ages
  • Elly Griffiths’ The Crossing Places for introducing me to someone I think will become one of my very favourite characters, Ruth Galloway

I didn’t realise it until after finishing the list but the three honourable mentions are all audio books.

New Additions

It’s pretty easy to tell when my life is a bit pants because there is a correlation between the amount of books I acquire and my crankiness level. This month’s acquisition of 28 books should make most of you very glad you only know me virtually. My frenzy of buying, mooching, dowloading and saying yes to an unprecedented number of ARCs has gone part way to mitigating my bad mood. Among my new treasures are

Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s My Soul to Take which I am very much looking forward to reading, having enjoyed Last Rituals.

Imogen Robertson’s Instruments of Darkness because it seems I haven’t had my fill of historical crime fiction and am continuing to try new authors in this genre.

Affairs of State by Dominque Manotti is one of only a handful of books I’ve bought in an Australian bookstore this year as most books I buy these days make their way here from Book Depository with its cheaper prices and free shipping down under

What to read next?

I’ve still got three challenges to complete for this year but with 7 months to go I’m not panicking. Before the winner is announced on July 23 I also want to read the four remaining books that are on the shortlist for the Crime Writer’s Association International Dagger (an award for books translated into English). So in June expect to see reviews for

Rob Kitchin’s The White Gallows (its official publication date is 12 June and I want to have it read and reviewed around that date) (plus I’m itching to get to it)

Johan Theorin’s The Darkest Room (one of the six International Dagger hopefuls)

Petros Markaris’ Zone Defence (which I’m going to use for the final European leg of my global challenge)

The Uncomfortable Dead by Paco Ignacio Taibo II (a Mexican novel that I had to work hard to find so I could have a third country represented on the North American leg of my global challenge)

Hopefully there’ll be a whole lot more besides these but I don’t like to be too prescriptive about what I’m going to be reading as I never know where my mood might take me.

Chart of the month

Review: The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

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The 19th book to count towards my 2010 Audio book challenge is the first crime novel by this author and I was tempted to read it by this review at Petrona (where Maxine posts what amounts to my personal reading guide)

When some bones are discovered in marshland at Norfolk DCI Harry Nelson calls on the expertise of forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway to date them. Nelson is hoping they are the bones of a child who disappeared 10 years previously in a case that still haunts him. Disappointingly for Harry, though excitingly for Ruth, the bones turn out to be of an Iron Age girl and she is able to initiate a new archaeological dig in the marshes. Based on his assessment that Ruth is smart and probably knowledgeable about the academic references within them Harry asks Ruth to take a look at some taunting letters he received relating to the girl’s disappearance. Before much headway can be made though another young girl goes missing and both Ruth and Harry are caught up in the events.

There are dual standout characters in this book. The first is Ruth Galloway who is simply delightful. When we meet her she is getting ready to go to work as a lecturer at the (fictional) North Norfolk University and we get the first glimpse of her internal monologue

…She answers the ever-present sardonic interviewer in her head. ‘OK, I’m a single woman on my own and I have cats, what’s the big deal? And OK sometimes I do speak to them but I don’t imagine that they answer back and I don’t pretend that I’m any more to them than a convenient food dispenser’

This sets the tone for the lively, funny, clever, brave despite her insecurities character who is revealed over the course of the story. I adored her.

I know there are people who take issue with places being referred to as characters but I’m going to do it anyway because the other strong presence in this book is the marshlands in which most of the action takes place. Ruth lives in an isolated cottage on the edge of the same marshland in which the bones were discovered and on the same morning that we meet her she sits at her kitchen table and looks out the window

Beyond her front garden with its wind-blown grass and broken blue fence there is nothingness; just miles and miles of marshland spotted with stunted gorse bushes and criss crossed with small treacherous streams. Sometimes at this time of year you see great flocks of wild geese wheeling across the sky their feathers turning pink in the rays of the rising sun. But today, on this grey winter morning, there is not a living creature as far as the eye can see. Everything is pale and washed out; grey-green merging to grey-white as the marsh meets the sky. Far off is the sea, a line of darker grey, seagulls riding in on the waves. It is utterly desolate…

This is a landscape perfectly suited for the kind of mystery that unfolds there.

The rest of the characters are intriguing also, though not as substantial as Ruth and the marshland, and include Ruth’s former boyfriend and an old lecturer of hers who were both, along with Ruth, involved in an archaeological dig at about the time the first girl disappeared in the area. Although a surly Northerner without much time for academics, Harry Nelson proves to be an intelligent and sympathetic Officer and his relationship with Ruth becomes one of mutual respect.

Unfortunately the mystery part of this crime fiction is not quite as well-developed as the characters. It wasn’t particularly difficult to spot the culprit early on and there was probably one too many coincidental connections between Harry and Ruth and their respective pasts. But I have to say I forgave this more easily than I normally would do because I was enjoying the experience of meeting these people and being lost in this place. Jane McDowell’s superb narration, in a voice I now think of as Ruth’s, added a wonderful element to this very pleasurable reading experience.

All that remains is to decide whether to buy the second book, The Janus Stone, in print form or wait a little while to see if it is released in audio format. I shan’t be able to wait long.

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My rating 3.5/5

Narrator Jane McDowell; Publisher BBC WW [2009]; ISBN N/A (audio download); Length 8hrs 26mins

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The Crossing Places has been reviewed at DJs Krimiblog, Euro Crime (Pat) and Petrona (thanks again Maxine),