Combine a splash of Alan Bradley with a pinch of Kathy Reichs and you have a gripping new Ruth Galloway Mystery -- a good-hearted mystery series with a dark edge.
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Set in Norfolk, England, A Room Full of Bonesembroils, once again, our brainy heroine in a crime tinged by occult forces. On Halloween night, the Smith Museum in King's Lynn is preparing for an unusual event -- the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But when forensic archaelogist Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the curator, Neil Topham, dead beside the coffin. Topham's death seems to be related to other uncanny incidents, including the arcane and suspect methods of a group called the Elginists, which aims to repatriate the museum's extensive collection of Aborigine skulls; the untimely demise of the museum's owner, Lord Smith; and the sudden illness of DCI Harry Nelson, who Ruth's friend Cathbad believes is lost in The Dreaming -- a hallucinogenic state central to some Indigenous Australian beliefs. Tensions build as Nelson's life hangs in the balance. Something must be done to set matters right and lift Nelson out of the clutches of death, but will Ruth be able to muster herself out of a state of guilt and foreboding in order to do what she does best?
From the Hardcover edition.
Review
Praise for other Ruth Galloway Mysteries:
"Bone-chilling stuff..."
Π²ΠβTimes (U.K.)
"A heady brew of classical lore and psychopathic revelations ... the setting is enticingly atmospheric: very flat Norfolk may be, but it also has mysterious fogs and waterways that lead to a gripping chase, excellently interwoven with the Latin quotations and carbon-dating.... I closed the book...feeling the satisfaction that a really intelligent murder story can give."
Π²ΠβThe Independent
"In this gripping series the central characters... have the allure of old friends, and it's great to find that the third title is just as enthralling as it's predecessors...."
Π²ΠβThe Guardian
"Gripping. . . . [Ruth Galloway] is solitary and plump and smart and self-assured, and very, very likeable."
*Π²Πβ*Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
Review
'The characters are constantly engaging - particularly the vulnerable Ruth - the writing is perceptive, as well as wryly humorous ... this is recommended' Spectator. 'Griffiths' excellent series is well-informed and original, and its setting in one of the bleaker corners of East Anglia is vividly evoked' Literary Review. 'Griffith's novels occupy a world where modern science and new age mysticism coexist but her characters' flights of fancy are leavened by common sense and humanity' Sunday Times. 'Like its predecessors, this is a wonderfully rich mixture of ancient and contemporary, superstition and rationality, with a cast of druids, dreamers and assorted tree-huggers as well as some thoroughly modern villains: a welcome addition to a great series' Guardian. 'Arriving to supervise the opening of a coffin, forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway finds the museum curator dead. With DI Nelson, she is drawn into a sinister, life-threatening mystery that grips to its end' Woman & Home. 'a pleasing read ... exciting and with a more satisfying crime and detection element this time round as the plot is more clever and more robust' Eurocrime. 'I became utterly absorbed as the story unfolded ... Another wonderful entry in this justifiable highly acclaimed series' Promoting Crime Fiction.