A Dying Fall: A Mystery: 5 (Ruth Galloway Mysteries)

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Firstly, her main detecting figure, Ruth Galloway, is a forensic archaeologist, a discipline I find fascinating. I think the author is trying to show the unusual influences in Kate's life but it doesn't work for me.

Set along England's northern coast, the story brings Ruth, an archaeologist whose work with old bones has involved her in several police cases, to a back-water university in Lacashire, where one of her old school friends has been murdered.

Despite Elly Griffiths knowing how many fans admire the overweight, insecure and wonderfully ordinary modern woman, and the goings on outside of her work, she never neglects the mystery element managing to furnish her readers with a satisfying level of archaeological knowledge along the way. Griffiths' books, well plotted and riveting until the last paragraph, leave the reader wanting more.

Or is she so full of herself, so wrapped up in the World of Ruth, she can't find room to be understanding, patient, or even consider that others might have a thought worth listening to? For another, the job she turns out to have been hired for—leading an investigation her new boss doesn’t feel he can entrust to his own force—makes her queasy.When someone from Dan’s university asks her to look at the bones, Ruth, Kate and her druid friend Cathbad all head to a rented cottage in the north of England, where Nelson is visiting his mom in Blackpool. And this time, we get to learn a little more of everyone’s family stories - Cathbad’s single mom, Nelson’s family back in Blackpool and their “pyrotechnic” fights. She and Ruth have settled into a comfortable routine and her godfather Cathbad has bonded with this little dyad.

I like that new characters are introduced and we see new layers in all the characters as the books go on. Ruth travels to Lancashire–the hometown of DCI Nelson–with both her eighteen-month-old daughter, Kate, and her druid friend, Cathbad, in tow. In this prison, which is closed to international observers, the detainees are locked in near-total darkness, and blindfolded or made to cover their eyes, and it is estimated that, since 2011, some 13,000 of them have been executed. This book is a mystery that pertains to the legend of King Arthur, or the Raven King and his supposed bones.Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man.

The characters are strong and believable, the plot intriguing and well developed, and there is plenty of atmosphere. In this book her interventions have been brief, and I have the impression that she is not very happy. The main characters become more real with each book, but the setting here moves from Norfolk to Blackpool and Lytham with Ruh getting involved in what maybe the discovery of King Arthur's skeleton and the murder of an old friend. Griffiths seamlessly weaves Ruth's personal life into the plot--a daunting task that many author's cannot do--without being distracting.Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U. I particularly like Cathbad - his eccentric character really shouldn't work but he's good fun and provides a contrast to Ruth and Harry's logical minds. I did get irritated by the fact that so much was made of the Lancashire, Yorkshire divide yet the accent that was used was Yorkshire NOT Lancashire. He was murdered in his home when Sam Elliott locked him and pushed petrol-soaked rags through the mail slot and set the house on fire.