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

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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. The coffin is definitely a health and safety hazard. It fills the entrance hall, impeding the view of the stuffed Auk, a map of King’s Lynn in the 1800s and a rather dirty oil painting of Lord Percival Smith, the founder of the museum. The coffin’s wooden sides are swollen and rotten and look likely to disgorge their contents in a singularly gruesome manner. Any visitors would find its presence unhelpful, not to say distressing. But today, as on most days, there are no visitors to the Smith Museum. The curator, Neil Topham, stands alone at the far end of the hall looking rather helplessly at the ominously shaped box on the floor. The two policemen who have carried it this far look disinclined to go further. They stand, sweating and mutinous in their protective clothing, under the dusty chandelier donated by Lady Caroline Smith (1884–1960). DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Waitomo District Library for the loan of A Room Full of Bonesby Elly Griffiths for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

DCI Harry Nelson is called in to investigate, thrusting him into Ruth’s path once more. When threatening letters come to light, events take an even more sinister turn. But as Ruth’s friends become involved, where will her loyalties lie? As her convictions are tested, Ruth and Nelson must discover how Aboriginal skulls, drug smuggling, and the mystery of the “Dreaming” hold the answers to these deaths, as well as the keys to their own survival. I do love Ruth and so many old and new characters are particularly interesting. Some people and events seemed so real to me I had urges to look them up. I do love my genre fiction! I'm so glad that I discovered this series and I'm going to try to pace myself, not binge it. Just knowing that there's a new Ruth novel out there waiting is a pleasure in itself. Also the author seems to have a fetish with cheating since 99% of her characters are cheating on their partners and worst of all I as a reader can't feel the connections because the author does a poorly job writing about them! One of the characters that is married gets pregnant and just ends things with her lover and it doesn't cross her mind that it might be his or she is so unethical that wants to bestow the child to her husband even though it might not be his!Not copying the two diminutive bits of forensic archaeology information straight from wikipedia would help, too. I suppose it may not make a difference to most readers, but having started a biological anthropology course just 3 months before reading this book I had enough knowledge to get infuriated at how superficial Griffith's presentation of forensic archaeology is. I'm not expecting her to get a degree in forensic sciences or anything, but at least get your facts straight and don't simplify things for the sake of a plot twist.

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. As Ruth becomes further embroiled in the case, she must decide where her loyalties lie - a choice that her very survival depends on. A Room Full of Bones also develops ongoing character storylines and relationships, including that between Ruth and DI Nelson, who is the father of her one-year-old daughter, Kate. Nelson's wife, Michelle having become aware of this fact in the closing lines of the previous book has created inevitable complications in Ruth and Harry’s professional and personal relationship. Meanwhile, Cathbad’s covert love affair with married DS Judy Johnson also comes to Ruth's attention for the first time and revelations towards the end of the book indicate fraught times ahead for this couple also.There are some really fine red herrings in this book, including some mixed-up identities, and I found that entertaining. The story is deftly told. I have read and enjoyed the first three books in this series by Elly Griffiths, about forensic archeologist Dr Ruth Galloway. But this one was a disappointment. The storyline is ridiculous, the characters are stereotypes who behave in the silliest of ways, the writing is clunky and the pace is sluggish. It simply doesn't live up to its predecessors. If you're wondering if you need to have read the other books in the series, the answer is no: however if you haven't read them, they're better books than this one! A ROOM FULL OF BONES is a pleasing read, perhaps tending more to the "cosy" style of crime fiction than earlier instalments in the series, but is certainly exciting and with a more satisfying crime and detection element this time round as the plot is more clever and more robust. I could have done with reading more about Ruth's professional life and slightly less about her motherhood bliss and details of her domestic arrangements, but I am sure that as Kate gets older and more independent, Ruth will have more time for trouble. I look forward to finding out.

A second dramatic death draws together the curious results of Ruth’s archaeological examination of Bishop Augustine’s remains with the Slaughter Hill racing stables and a series of threatening anonymous letters that Lord Smith has received. The imagery of snakes is common to both medieval Christianity and Australian dreamtime stories and Elly Griffiths utilises this to full spooky effect has more than one character experiences terrifying hallucinations and portents of death. Are there paranormal elements in play, or is there a more prosaic explanation for what's going on?

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.