Review: THE CHALK PIT, Elly Griffiths

• first published in Great Britain 2017
• source: my local library
• #9 in the Ruth Galloway series
• ISBN 978-1-78429-680-5
• 362 pages

Synopsis (author)

Boiled human bones have been found in Norwich’s web of underground tunnels. When Dr Ruth Galloway discovers they were recently buried, DCI Nelson has a murder enquiry on his hands. The boiling might have been just a medieval curiosity – now it suggests a much more sinister purpose.

Meanwhile, DS Judy Johnson is investigating the disappearance of a local rough sleeper. The only trace of her is the rumour that she’s gone ‘underground’. This might be a figure of speech, but with the discovery of the bones and the rumours both Ruth and the police have heard that the network of old chalk-mining tunnels under Norwich is home to a vast community of rough sleepers, the clues point in only one direction. Local academic Martin Kellerman knows all about the tunnels and their history – but can his assertions of cannibalism and ritual killing possibly be true?

As the weather gets hotter, tensions rise. A local woman goes missing and the police are under attack. Ruth and Nelson must unravel the dark secrets of The Underground and discover just what gruesome secrets lurk at its heart – before it claims another victim.

My Take

Yet another excellent read in the Ruth Galloway series. I should emphasise that this is a continuing series: the characters grow and age and their relationships change and develop. And so my recommendation to readers is that you try to read the books in order.

here is the list from Fantastic Fiction
1. The Crossing Places (2009)
2. The Janus Stone (2010)
3. The House at Sea's End (2011)
4. A Room Full of Bones (2011)
4.5. Ruth's First Christmas Tree (2012)
5. A Dying Fall (2012)
6. The Outcast Dead (2014)
7. The Ghost Fields (2015)
8. The Woman in Blue (2016)
9. The Chalk Pit (2017)
10. The Dark Angel (2018)

In 2016 Elly Griffiths was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library for services to crime fiction and I think it is true to say that by having a forensic archaeologist as the central character she has broken new ground in the genre.  Dr. Ruth Galloway is both clever and intuitive. There are a range of characters both in the police and among their relatives and friends who are very well drawn and engaging.


My rating: 4.7

I've also read
4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END
4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES
4.8, DYING FALL- audio book
4.5, THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book
4.7, THE OUTCAST DEAD, Elly Griffiths - audio
4.7, THE WOMAN IN BLUE   

Review: THE WOMAN IN BLUE, Elly Griffiths

• this edition published 2016, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• source: my local library
• 356 pages
• #8 in the Ruth Galloway series
• ISBN 9-780544-417854

Synopsis (author website)

When Ruth’s friend Cathbad sees a vision of the Virgin Mary, in a white gown and blue cloak, in the graveyard next to the cottage he is house-sitting, he takes it in his stride. Walsingham has strong connections to Mary, and Cathbad is a druid after all; visions come with the job. But when the body of a woman in a blue dressing-gown is found dead the next day in a nearby ditch, it is clear Cathbad’s vision was all too human, and that a horrible crime has been committed. DCI Nelson and his team are called in for the murder investigation, and soon establish that the dead woman was a recovering addict being treated at a nearby private hospital.

Ruth, a devout atheist, has managed to avoid Walsingham during her seventeen years in Norfolk. But then an old university friend, Hilary Smithson, asks to meet her in the village, and Ruth is amazed to discover that her friend is now a priest. Hilary has been receiving vitriolic anonymous letters targeting women priests – letters containing references to local archaeology and a striking phrase about a woman ‘clad in blue, weeping for the world’.

Then another woman is murdered – a priest.

As Walsingham prepares for its annual Easter re-enactment of the Crucifixion, the race is on to unmask the killer before they strike again…

My take

I like the way the plot of this book makes use of a current contentious issue in the religious world: that of women priests in the Anglican Church.

Ruth's friend Hilary is visiting Walsingham for a conference which prepares women to become bishops. She has received a number of threatening letters related to her position as a priest and contacts Ruth to ask her advice. Ruth passes copies of the letters on to Harry Nelson.

There seemed to be less of an archaeological emphasis in the plot than usual, although Walsingham is noted for its reliquaries and Ruth does some research about them.

Threads from earlier novels are further developed, particularly Nelson's marriage and his relationship with Ruth. I really enjoyed the latest episodes in the continuing story, as well as the mystery of who the madman is who is threatening Hilary.

Highly recommended, but I also recommend that if you haven't read any in the series, that you start from the beginning.

My rating: 4.7

About the author
Elly Griffiths recently was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library for services to the genre and for her popularity with readers.

 
I've also read
4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END
4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES
4.8, DYING FALL- audio book
4.5, THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book
4.7, THE OUTCAST DEAD, Elly Griffiths - audio  

Review: THE OUTCAST DEAD, Elly Griffiths - audio book

• audio book from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Clare Corbett
• Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins 
• Series: Ruth Galloway, Book 6
• Unabridged Audiobook

Synopsis (Audible.com) 

Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway has excavated a body from the grounds of Norwich Castle, a forbidding edifice that was once a prison. She believes the body may be that of infamous Victorian murderess Jemima Green. Called Mother Hook for her claw-like hand, Jemima was hanged in 1867 for the murder of five children in her care.

DCI Harry Nelson has no time for long-dead killers. Immersed in the case of three infants found dead, one after the other, in their King’s Lynn home, he’s convinced that a family member is responsible, though others on his team think differently. Then a child goes missing. Could the abduction be linked to the long-dead Mother Hook? Ruth is pulled into the case, and back towards Nelson.

From the author's website

Digging in the grounds of Norwich Castle, Ruth finds bones that date from the days when the building was a prison. She soon suspects that she has discovered the remains of Mother Hook, Norfolk’s most notorious murderess, a Victorian ‘baby farmer’ who killed her charges and sold their bodies to the so-called ‘resurrection men’.

Before long, a TV company is also interested and Ruth finds herself involved in a programme called ‘Women Who Kill’. The only consolation is the presence of a handsome American historian called Frank Barker. 
Meanwhile Nelson is dealing with the case of a young mother accused of killing her children. Then children in Norfolk start to go missing and the only clue is a note signed by ‘The Childminder’.

Could these disappearances possibly be linked to the long-dead Mother Hook?

My take

My incentive for reading this book was that I have already read the other 6 books in the 7 book series.
All of the audio books have been really well produced and this one was no exception.

The current case which DCI Harry Nelson is investigating concerns a family in which three young children have died and I was reminded of a non-fiction book that I read last year, MOTHERS WHO MURDER by Xanthe Mallett. In the story comparisons are drawn between this case and that of Mother Hook.

Ruth becomes involved in the making of a television program about Mother Hook, focussing on an excavation at Norwich Castle. During this time she meets American historian and television presenter, Frank Barker.

There is plenty of action in this novel and it was an enjoyable read.

My rating 4.7

I've also reviewed
4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END
4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES
4.8, DYING FALL- audio book
4.5, THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book 

Review: THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book

• available from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Clare Corbett
• Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
• Series: Ruth Galloway, Book 7
• Unabridged 
• Published 2015

Synopsis (Publisher)

Norfolk is experiencing a July heat wave when a construction crew unearths a macabre discovery - a buried World War II plane with the pilot still inside. Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway quickly realizes that the skeleton couldn't possibly be the pilot, and DNA tests identify the man as Fred Blackstock, a local aristocrat who had been reported dead at sea.

When the remaining members of the Blackstock family learn about the discovery, they seem strangely frightened by the news. Events are further complicated by a TV company that wants to make a film about Norfolk's deserted air force bases, the so-called Ghost Fields, which have been partially converted into a pig farm run by one of the younger Blackstocks. As production begins, Ruth notices a mysterious man lurking close to the Blackstocks' family home. Then human bones are found on the family's pig farm.

Can the team outrace a looming flood to find a killer?

My Take

These audio books make perfect listening and really present this series well.

Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist from North Norfolk University, is excavating a Iron Age dig when the buried World War II plane is discovered in Devil's Hollow, land that used to be part of the Blackstock Estate, now being "developed". Ruth is called to the site by her friend DI Harry Nelson. She quickly comes to the conclusion that the body in the cockpit was not only murdered but, although it has been dead for decades, has only recently been moved there from its original burial site.

There is quite a lot going on in this novel, including personal developments in Ruth's life.  It does help to have read earlier novels in the series, particular for appreciating the development of recurring characters. A DNA project reveals that one of Nelson's team has Blackstock blood, and then two people are attacked, presumably because they are connected to the Blackstock family.

English weather plays a major part in events too as the July heat wave comes to an end with rain storms and high tides. Blackstock Hall is cut off from the main roads by rising water, and Ruth hears a murderer's confession that puts her in real danger.

Good reading.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END
4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES
4.8, DYING FALL- audio book

Review: DYING FALL, Elly Griffiths - audio book

• Book 5 in the Ruth Galloway series
• published 2012
• format - audio book available through Audible
• narrator Clare Corbett
• Length: 10 hours 26 mins

Synopsis (Audible)

Ruth Galloway receives a phone call that bears shocking news. A friend of hers from college, Dan Golding, has been killed in a fire at his Lancashire home. Her shock turns to alarm when she gets a letter from Dan. He has made a discovery that will change archaeology forever but he needs Ruth's advice. Even more alarming, he sounds vulnerable and frightened.

DCI Harry Nelson is also rediscovering his past. Up north for a holiday, he meets his former colleague Sandy MacLeod, now at Blackpool CID. Sandy tells him there are strange circumstances surrounding Dan Golding's death. Many of those who worked with Dan seem to be afraid.

Many have secrets to hide. Ruth is drawn deep into the mystery, and where she goes, so does her toddler daughter, Kate. This time, it's not just Ruth's life at risk.

My take

This book ticked all the boxes for me. It wasn't just that Clare Corbett's narration was excellent, but so was the plotting.

Ruth's friend Dan, whom she hasn't seen since they were students together, contacts her because he wants her to help him to verify the most significant archaeological find of his life. By the time Ruth decides she will go to Blackpool to see what he is talking about, Dan is dead. She goes to Blackpool taking Druid friend Cathbad and her daughter Kate with her. And then she starts to get messages of discouragement, even threats to her welfare.

I like the way the author manages to keep Ruth and Kate's father Harry Nelson meeting up. Their paths     in Blackpool inevitably cross when Dan's death is verified as a murder. There is high degree of tension and suspense in the later stages of the novel.

Excellent reading.

My rating : 4.8

I've also reviewed

4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END
4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES

Review: A ROOM FULL OF BONES, Elly Griffiths -audio book

• Narrated by Jane McDowell 
• Published 2012, released by Audible
• Length: 9 hours 44 mins
• source: I bought it
• #4 in the Ruth Galloway series

Blurb (from Audible) 


It is Halloween night, and the local 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 Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the museum's curator lying dead beside the coffin. It is only a matter of time before she and DI Nelson cross paths once more, as he is called in to investigate. Soon the museum's wealthy owner lies dead in his stables, too. These two deaths could be from natural causes - but Nelson isn't convinced.

My Take

If I wanted to be picky about this book I could say that Elly Griffiths has recently discovered Australian Aboriginal archaeology and anthropology. If you didn't know anything about 19th and early 20th century collection of indigenous artefacts and bones and their transportation to colonial "mother countries", and the consequent recent struggles to have these items returned for burial in their homelands, then you will after reading A ROOM FULL OF BONES.  For me as an Australian reader it is interesting to find this as a topic running through the book. I thought it was good too that Elly Griffiths points out for us one of the issues that archaeologists debate: the conundrum of what to do with bones once you have disinterred them.

One comment that I recently read inferred that the story line is "more of the same", i.e. that the reader didn't feel satisfied that the content of the story was sufficiently different to earlier books in the series. I think that criticism was a little unjust. I have read the series from the beginning and I think I enjoyed this one as much as each of the earlier ones.

If you are wondering, this really is a series you should read in order. There is terrific character development and persistence of quite a large number of interesting characters from one book to the next. The books peek into Ruth Galloway's life at intervals, and central to it all is Ruth's relationship to DI Harry Nelson. The sleuthing combination of a forensic archaeologist and a detective is excellent.

In previous reviews I have commented that the story was often written in the present tense which was a little disconcerting. I didn't notice that so much in A ROOM FULL OF BONES, or perhaps if it was there, it didn't not impinge on my reading in quite the same way.

This series capitalises on our interest in the past: there are passing references to Time Team and to tv shows like the Antiques Road Show.

Elly Griffiths is a terrific story teller and I am looking very much forward to #5 in the series.

My rating: 4.5

Other reviews to check

• Reactions to Reading
• Maxine Clarke on EuroCrime
• CrimePieces
• Novel Heights

Other Elly Griffiths books reviewed on MiP


4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES (2009)
4.6, THE JANUS STONE (2010)
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END (2011)

Review: THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END, Elly Griffiths

• Paper version published 2011
• Audible version released 2011
• Narrated by Jane McDowell 
• Length: 10 hrs 48 mins
• source: I bought it 
• #3 in the Ruth Galloway series

Synopsis (Audible)


A team of archaeologists, investigating coastal erosion on the north Norfolk coast, unearth six bodies buried at the foot of a cliff. How long have they been there? What could have happened to them? Forensics expert Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are drawn together again to unravel the past. Tests reveal that the bodies have lain, preserved in the sand, for sixty years. The mystery of their deaths stretches back to the Second World War, a time when Great Britain was threatened by invasion. But someone wants the truth of the past to stay buried, and will go to any lengths to keep it that way... even murder.

My take

I hope you read the synopsis quickly because for me it reveals just a bit too much much of the plot.
The Fantastic Fiction blurb is not much better.

This is #3 in the Ruth Galloway series, and some threads of the story are continuous, so if you haven't read the first two then I really would recommend you don't start with this one. On the other hand, there is probably enough back story given so you won't feel you've missed out on too much.

There are a few themes brought together in THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END: the idea that war crimes are committed on both sides of a conflict; coastal erosion that is quite a hot topic among conservationists (I saw a Time Team TV programme about it recently); and then the ongoing relationship between Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson. Ten years earlier Ruth had been on a forensic expedition to Bosnia to track down war crime burials.
"Coastal protection" is treated in two ways: what the Home Guard did during the war to protect citizens, as well as the rather inevitable coastal erosion by the sea. World War II is a long way in the past now and the last members of the Home Guard are in nursing homes. One of them just happens to be the grandfather of Harry Nelson's boss and at first it is assumed that he has simply died of old age. But Archie Wycliffe had something on his mind, a blood oath he took seventy years before, a ghastly secret he has kept all that time.

I thought the plot got a bit tangled in places, but nevertheless enjoyed it.
My rating: 4.6..

Other Elly Griffiths books reviewed on MiP

4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE

Review: THE JANUS STONE, Elly Griffiths

Publisher:         Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pub Date:         01/21/2011
ISBN:         9780547237442
Source: Review copy from NetGalley.com
Available as a Kindle e-book

Publisher's Blurb
Ruth Galloway’s expertise is called upon when builders, demolishing an old house in Norwich, uncover the bones of a child – minus the skull – beneath a doorway. Is it some ritual sacrifice or just plain straightforward murder?  DCI Harry Nelson investigates. The house was once a children’s home. Nelson traces the Catholic priest who used to run the place. He tells him that two children did go missing forty years before – a boy and a girl. They were never found. When carbon dating proves that the child’s bones predate the home and relate to a time when the house was privately owned, Ruth is drawn ever more deeply into the case. But as spring turns into summer it becomes clear that someone is trying hard to put her off the scent by frightening her to death …

My take:

This is #2 in Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series. I was looking forward to it as I really enjoyed #1, THE CROSSING PLACES

Ruth Galloway is Head of Forensic Archaeology at the University of North Norfolk, an acknowledged expert – on bones, decomposition and death. In THE JANUS STONE she works again with Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, and her old friend the Druid Cathbad plays a strong role, as well as a new friend Max Grey. Nelson is in charge of the Serious Crimes Unit. The investigation of discovered bodies comes under his brief, and of course when they are part of an archaelogical investigation, then Ruth is also called in. In addition, in THE JANUS STONE, the discovery of a child's body in a building site is particularly poignant for both Ruth and Nelson.

This is a novel with mystery on a number of levels. Add to that some really well drawn characters including Father Hennessy and Sister Immacolata who both worked at the site when it was a children's home.

The structure of the novel is interesting. Each chapter is prefaced with what seems to be a diary entry, beginning at the beginning of June. Here is a taste:

1st June, Festival of Carna The house is waiting. It knows. When I sacrificed yesterday, the entrails were black. Everything is turned to night. Outside it is spring but in the house there is a coldness, a pall of despair that covers everything. We are cursed. This is no longer a house but a grave. The birds do not sing in the garden and even the sun does not dare penetrate the windows. No one knows how to lift the curse. They have given in and lie as if waiting for death. But I know and the house knows. Only blood will save us now.

The diary entries continue on Roman feast days throughout the month of June, detailing sacrifices made to various Roman gods. There are several candidates in the story for who the writer could be, and the entries add to the sense of an impending climax.
When the climax comes it brings great danger to Ruth.

There isn't the sense in THE JANUS STONE of Ruth and Nelson working together as they did in THE CROSSING PLACES. However the story is still a very satisfying one. I like the development of the main characters and look forward to finding out where their ongoing relationship takes us in the next in the series, already published, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END.

One of the odd features of Elly Griffith's style is that the narrative is almost always written in the present tense.

On impulse Ruth goes over to the box containing the other evidence bags from the site.

The tactic of always narrating in present tense has a peculiar effect. It makes the reader feel like a bystander listening to stage directions, as if the author is watching her characters and describing their actions for us in real time.

My rating: 4.6

Elly Griffith's website

The Ruth Galloway series
1. The Crossing Places (2009)
2. The Janus Stone (2010)
3. The House at Sea's End (2011)

This review is my 400th on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.
I'm including THE JANUS STONE in my lists for various challenges: Cruisin' thru Cosies Reading Challenge, e-book challenge, and British Books Challenge

Review: THE CROSSING PLACES, Elly Griffiths

Published by Quercus 2009
ISBN 978-1-84724-726-1
303 pages

Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives on the flats of Saltmarsh near where the sky meets the sea. It is an isolated place, a tidal place where the sea moves in at speed of horses. It also has a well documented henge circle that had been excavated a decade before. When a walker discovers some bones near this ancient site in the marshes Ruth is asked by the police to date them. DCI Harry Nelson is hoping the bones will turn out to be those of Lucy Downey, missing for 10 years. But the bones are ancient, not Lucy's at all. And then another little girl goes missing....

THE CROSSING PLACES is a blend of police procedural and archaeology, and in it we have the beginnings a new detective duo. Both Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson are interesting and quite well developed characters. They are attracted to each other, but both come with baggage, and yet they work well together. It seems to me that Ruth is the deductive, thinking one, while Harry is the police muscle and action.

Despite the fact that it is a debut novel THE CROSSING PLACES is an enthralling read, and I liked this duo enough to want to read more. Here is your chance to get in on the ground floor of a new detective series that has the feel that it is going places.

My rating: 4.6

THE CROSSING PLACES was shortlisted this year for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel for the year, which is how it came to my attention. The fact that it was shortlisted speaks volumes.

Elly Griffith's website

See other reviews at Petrona and Reactions to Reading.
Mark Thwaites interviews Elly Griffiths.

The Ruth Galloway series
1. The Crossing Places (2009)
2. The Janus Stone (2010)
3. The House at Sea's End (2011)