A Room Full of Bones: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 4

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In this thrilling mystery, “brilliant, feisty, independent” forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson investigate a seemingly cursed collection of Aboriginal skulls that are causing people to die from a mysterious fever—and the next person to fall ill is Nelson himself ( Richmond Times-Dispatch). 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 … Ruth Galloway teams up again with Harry Nelson and they do some deep and extensive research. They find out that the house where the construction project took place was once an orphanage. Going forward, Ruth and Harry get in touch with the priest that was in charge of the orphanage. The priest does in fact remember the disappearance of two children.

Some other books include: The House At Sea’s End, A Room Full Of Bones and Ruth’s First Christmas Tree. These are only a few books among many within the Ruth Galloway Series.

Books Multibuys

A Room Full of Bones is probably the strongest in the series thus far when it comes to the mystery plot. It introduces quite a lot of interesting crime/mystery aspects, all seemingly unrelated until Griffiths quite cleverly weaves them together. DS Judy Johnston and Cathbad again play a major part in the book. In fact, when we weren’t reading about the crime/mystery from one of the Smiths, it was Judy who was investigating. Nelson played a much smaller role when it came to carrying out actual police work. *sniff* Any issues with the book list you are seeing? Or is there an author or series we don’t have? Let me know!

A wonderfully rich mixture of ancient and contemporary . . . A welcome addition to a great series.” Lovers of well-written and intelligent traditional mysteries will welcome [Griffith’s] fourth book . . . A Room Full of Bones is a clever blend of history and mystery with more than enough forensic details to attract the more attentive reader.”— Denver Post Yes, instead of Nelson and Ruth being on the job, the book had a lot of focus of the owners of the museum, the Smith family. Many many scenes were written from their point of view. I’m not saying they were boring, I’m just saying I would have rathered reading these things from Nelson or Ruth’s point of view. Ruth is in London clearing out her mother’s belongings when she makes a surprising discovery: a photograph of her Norfolk cottage taken before Ruth lived there. Her mother always hated the cottage, so why does she have a picture of the place? The only … But one of the biggest draws is the whole theme of spirituality that is a pronounced undercurrent in each volume. Ruth's parents, the born again Christians, have provided Ruth something to rebel against and she has become a materialist. Show the proof or go away. Harry is Catholic and desperately wanted Kate christened, so much so that he made arrangements for the ceremony. In everyday life however, he's a hard headed pragmatist with no patience for mystical goings on. But both Ruth and Harry have Cathbad the Druid in their lives. Cathbad, who often seems to show up at just the right time to prevent disaster, who has an undying love of ceremonies around bonfires, and an annoying tendency to know just the detail that his friends are searching for.A coffin containing the remains of Bishop Augustine Smith is being moved into the Smith Museum from its original burial place outside the walls of St. Mary's Church. In the past the Bishop was thought to have been buried inside Norwich Cathedral. Lord Danforth Smith couldn't be more pleased to welcome his long deceased ancestor to his museum but it seems he is alone with these feelings for he has a growing number of those in opposition to this transference and more than this...much more. When builders renovating a café in King’s Lynn find a human skeleton behind a wall, they call for DCI Harry Nelson and Dr Ruth Galloway, Head of Archaeology at the nearby University of North Norfolk. Ruth is preoccupied with the threatened closure of h … These two deaths could be from natural causes but DCI Harry Nelson isn't convinced, and it is only a matter of time before Ruth and Nelson cross paths once more. The curator was a drug dealer and a group demanding the return of the remains of Indigenous Australians, taken be force to England in Victorian times, for proper burials could also be involved.

Meanwhile, there's a heated stoush brewing over the retention by the Smith family of several Australian Aboriginal skulls, other remains and artifacts, that are currently poorly cared for in the museum's basement. Ruth finds herself embroiled both professionally and personally in the fight to have the remains surrendered for repatriation to Australia. In her capacity as a forensic archaeologist, with a particular specialty in bones, she's asked to assess the boxed remains in situ at the museum - the titular “room full of bones”. Meanwhile, charismatic Australian indigenous poet and academic Bob Woonunga has become her new neighbour on the Saltmarsh. Woonunga is associated with Ruth's friend Cathbad and several others in an organisation called the Elginists, who are concerned with the location and return of indigenous artefacts held within the vaults of British museums. Reading Paulette Jiles' revenge western Chenneville, it's easy to remember she's a poet. She plays ...When Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop, she finds the museum’s curator lying dead on the floor. Soon after, the museum’s wealthy owner is also found dead, in his stables. Don't know what happened to the first review I wrote probably did something while playing with my phone!

Griffiths applies a light touch, her Norfolk setting is admirably gloomy and Galloway is appealingly unglamorous.” MY THOUGHTS: I love Ruth! She is intelligent, passionate about her work, and decidedly unglamorous. How refreshing to have a realistic and relatable main character. She mightn't have the most wonderful life skills - like most of us she is just stumbling through - but I love that too. She does things, mostly in her personal life, and I think 'Oh, Ruth!'; but then, I don't know if I would have done any different. Ruth and Detective Inspector Nelson are forced to cross paths once again when he's called in to investigate the murder, and their past tensions are reignited. This book had so many different scenarios and plot lines going on that I marveled that Griffiths was able to tie them up so seamlessly at the end. She has a gift for that. I love that she faces dilemmas and is human and fallible when making her choices. She gets tired, and grumpy, and irritable. She occasionally says things she later regrets. She 'believes' she is being a good mother by eating the chocolates from her daughter's advent calendar, thereby saving Kate's teeth. Sounds like something I would do!

Diaries & Calendars

Judy Johnson and Dave Clough, who loves the Godfather films and frequently intones 'I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse' when alone with a mirror, play larger roles in this book, and Cathbad continues to both intrigue and infuriate Nelson. As always, the Norfolk setting is seamlessly integrated into the plot and used by author Elly Griffiths to add to the tension as the narrative nears conclusion.