Jon Morgan is a retired police Superintendent and francophile who, it is said, has consequently seen almost everything awful that people can do to each other. He relishes quality writing in all genres but advises particularly on police procedure for authors including John Harvey and Jon McGregor. Haunts bookshops both new and secondhand and stands with Erasmus: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I may buy food and clothes.”
Much has changed in Dr.
Ruth Galloway’s life; a new job, a new partner and a distance from police
cases, but the old tensions in her personal and professional tensions are still
present.
When a newly convicted murderer and
psychopath, Ivor March will only reveal the location of the bodies of two
missing women if she is in on the dig, the plot thickens considerably. The finding of a third woman’s body adds
geographical and investigative complexity.
Ruth’s ex-and father of her
daughter, conflicted ex-catholic Detective Chief Inspector Nelson brings her
back from her new life causing ripples and fractures across it, as she once
again puts herself in danger to assist the police in the hunt for (a possibly
copycat) killing of a young woman.
As ever the plot is thick with
plenty of twists and turns and forays into forensic archaeology and its arcana
as well as the myths and legends of East Anglia, hence the title. It is a satisfying, although not difficult,
read as with the others in the series, but much more than merely ‘cosy’ and the
denouement is signposted but in a manner that will have you looking in
completely the wrong direction.
A new Elly Griffiths, whether
featuring Ruth Galloway or Stephens and Mephisto, is always welcome, and with
it, her cast of familiar, flawed and sometimes oddball characters, set usually
in the Fens but in this case expanded to Cambridge and featuring some new,
minor, characters who may well feature again.
A couple of gripes, which start early
on. The High Court does not normally hear criminal trials…. Those are for the
Crown Court and in the most serious cases for the Central Criminal Court or
‘Old Bailey’. The Coroner’s inquest described in the book would be a much more
forensic process, although the Coroner herself is fun. The oath Dr Galloway
takes is not ‘humanist,’ it is an affirmation. These are niggles and probably
don’t matter much to an average reader and do not detract from the overall
enjoyment of the book.
