The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths (Review)

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

Blurb

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old they’re frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: They can travel back in time to look for evidence.

So far Ali has made trips only to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder that took place in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, a member of a sinister group called “The Collectors.” She arrives in the Victorian era during a mini ice age to find another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. But when her son is arrested, Ali attempts to return home only to find herself trapped in 1850.

Review

I’ve only ever read one book by Elly Griffiths that wasn’t a Ruth Galloway book so I was very excited to read something very different from Griffiths. This book was definitely something different and not what I was expecting at all.

This book revolves around the character Ali Dawson who is part of a cold case team who investigates old cases and these cases can be very old. However, there is something quite different from the way this team solves the crimes. This team uses time travel to look for evidence and this leads to Ali going further back in time than she has ever been before. Ali finds herself investigating a murder whilst stuck in 1850.

I loved the character of Ali as she is a strong independent woman who has fought the odds to better herself. Oh and she is also a cat owner. Ali worked cleaning jobs to provide for her son and at the same time she gained a degree in history. She then got a job with the police and she worked her way up the ladder. Ali works every problem she is faced with methodically and nothing seems to phase her. Whilst Ali is stuck in 1850 there is also a murder mystery happening in the present day which involves Ali’s adult son.

I really enjoyed this book and I would love to learn more about Ali’s team. John is a true gentleman who we do get to see more of and you can’t help but root for. Once I got over how different this book is from Griffiths’ usual work I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the concept fascinating. There were also some big questions left that I would love to get answers for so I really hope there will be a second book. The narrative of this book was quite busy and there was a lot going on. I will be honest and say that I actually enjoyed the Victorian sections more than the present day and preferred the Victorian characters. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.

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About the author

Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway novels take for their inspiration Elly’s husband, who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist, and her aunt who lives on the Norfolk coast and who filled her niece’s head with the myths and legends of that area. Elly has two children and lives near Brighton.

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Stacking the Shelves: 15/2/2025

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I have managed some lovely reading today and I am very close to finishing my first buddy read of the year.

I had one book arrive this week which was a book that I preordered last year. I love getting preordered books because I forget that I order the books and it is always a nice surprise when they arrive in the post. It is just like a surprise gift to myself!

My new book this week is by an auto buy author for me.

This is definitely going to the top of my TBR pile!

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths (Review)

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths

Blurb

In the next Ruth Galloway mystery, a vision of the Virgin Mary foreshadows a string of cold-blooded murders, revealing a dark current of religious fanaticism in an old medieval town.

Known as England’s Nazareth, the medieval town of Little Walsingham is famous for religious apparitions. So when Ruth Galloway’s druid friend Cathbad sees a woman in a white dress and a dark blue cloak standing alone in the local cemetery one night, he takes her as a vision of the Virgin Mary. But then a woman wrapped in blue cloth is found dead the next day, and Ruth’s old friend Hilary, an Anglican priest, receives a series of hateful, threatening letters. Could these crimes be connected? When one of Hilary’s fellow female priests is murdered just before Little Walsingham’s annual Good Friday Passion Play, Ruth, Cathbad, and DCI Harry Nelson must team up to find the killer before he strikes again.

Review

I love a Dr Ruth Galloway book and have now only one left to read from the series. Thankfully, this book did not disappoint and as usual I could not put this book down.

I’ve always loved Tudor history and I have seen so many references to pilgrimages to Walsingham so it was really fun to read a modern day book set around this place which has always been such a special place. There wasn’t really the archaeological link that most of the books from the series have but Griffiths came up with a very clever reason for Ruth being involved in these murder investigations and of course helping Nelson.

The shrines to the Virgin Mary at Walsingham are not the ideal place for Ruth who is an atheist and really not comfortable with anything Christian based due to her upbringing but because of an old university friend Ruth ends up in Walsingham quite a lot.

Hilary is Ruth’s old friend and she is receiving some rather nasty letters because she is a female priest. Due to Ruth’s past working with the police, Hilary decides to ask Ruth for advice but the situation soon escalates from threatening letters when one of Hilary’s fellow female priests is murdered. I really liked Hilary and it was nice to meet one of Ruth’s friends from her past. I like it when we meet Ruth’s friends from her past because it is quite clear that Ruth is not great at keeping in contact with people but I also love seeing how surprised she is when these people have changed. It makes me wonder whether Ruth thinks that she hasn’t changed at all and so always feels surprised when she sees others have. Ruth obviously has changed because we see it happening through the series.

There was one big inaccuracy in the book which annoyed me slightly. Ruth and Hilary are at the shrines where the monks used to live and they are judging the monks because of all the oyster shells you can see in the garden. Considering Ruth is an archaeologist and Hilary is also a trained archaeologist surely they know that in the monks’ time oysters were a poor man’s food. Yes, there was a lot of money in the church and some monks did live rather well but you can’t judge them for living well and privileged lives on the basis of oyster shells.

I was pleased that my favourite Cathbad was in this book more as I missed him in the previous book. He is such a good character who always brings a smile to my face.

I flew through this book and give it a big 5 out of 5 Dragons.

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Purchase Links

Bookshop.org | Waterstones | WH Smith

About the author

Etsy

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Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths (Review #42)

Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths

Blurb

Ruth’s old friend Dan Golding dies in a house fire. But before he died Dan wrote to Ruth telling her that he had made a ground-breaking archaeological discovery. Could this find be linked to his death and who are the sinister neo-Nazi group who were threatening Dan? Ruth makes the trip to Blackpool to investigate, wary of encroaching on DCI Harry Nelson’s home ground. Soon Ruth is embroiled in a mystery that involves the Pendle Witches, King Arthur and – scariest of all – Nelson’s mother.

There are forces at work in the town that that threaten all that Ruth holds dear. But, in the final showdown on Blackpool Pleasure Beach, it is Cathbad who faces the greatest danger of all.

Review

At the end of September I needed a comfort read and this usually means I pick up a Dr Ruth Galloway book. I still haven’t read all the books from the series but I am almost there.

I will be honest I did get a little bit annoyed with Ruth in this book. I thought her reaction to visiting Judy and the new born baby rather selfish and considering she was a mother and has been in Judy’s position she wasn’t very understanding. She is also constantly so down on herself which I think is sad because she is clearly a wonderful woman who has a lot to live for.

The thing I loved about this book was that we learn more about the characters we have come to love. We learn more about Nelson’s mom and sisters and the arguments they have and find fun. We learn more about Cathbad’s childhood in Ireland and his mother and grandmother. We also learn about Michelle’s mother and Nelson’s relationship with his mother-in-law. I honestly couldn’t get enough of the background information that was packed in this book. It really made me understand and appreciate the characters more.

Dan’s discovery that Ruth goes to investigate is fascinating and I found it really intriguing. As per usual the archaeological side and history and myth side were bang on and Griffiths had clearly done her research. I really wanted to know more about the discovery and I hope it might be mentioned more in the next book.

This book is packed full of events, we have arson, suicide, murder, kidnapping and more. The book is non stop and it was really interesting to have it mainly set in Blackpool rather than Norfolk. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.

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Purchase Links

Bookshop.org | Foyles | Waterstones | WH Smith

About the author

Elly Griffiths was born in London and began her career in publishing, she then turned to writing full time. In 2016 she won the CWA Dagger in the Library for her work. Griffiths lives in Brighton with her family.

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A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths (Review #16)

A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

Blurb

Set in Norfolk, England, A Room Full of Bonesembroils, once again, our brainy heroine in a crime tinged by occult forces. On Halloween night, the Smith 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 forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the curator, Neil Topham, dead beside the coffin. Topham’s death seems to be related to other uncanny incidents, including the arcane and suspect methods of a group called the Elginists, which aims to repatriate the museum’s extensive collection of Aborigine skulls; the untimely demise of the museum’s owner, Lord Smith; and the sudden illness of DCI Harry Nelson, who Ruth’s friend Cathbad believes is lost in The Dreaming — a hallucinogenic state central to some Indigenous Australian beliefs. Tensions build as Nelson’s life hangs in the balance. Something must be done to set matters right and lift Nelson out of the clutches of death, but will Ruth be able to muster herself out of a state of guilt and foreboding in order to do what she does best?

Review

I will be honest this was the first Dr Ruth Galloway book that didn’t have me completely gripped. I still loved the book but I didn’t find it as engaging as the other books I have read from the series. The storyline of this book was rather disturbing to me especially the room of bones and certain scenes at the riding stables.

I found the whole thing of Ruth being depressed about being overweight and struggling to be a mom and have a career rather repetitive from the previous book. And yes I know Ruth probably wouldn’t have changed her mind on these things from the last book but it almost felt copy and pasted sadly.

I also found it interesting how Ruth could identify the sex of the skeleton so quickly. I know there are ways to tell the sex of an adult skeleton but she was straight out with an answer having only had a cursory glance at the skeleton because she was on the phone whilst the lid of the coffin was lifted. Having studied some archaeology during my Masters I know that identifying the sex of a skeleton is nowhere near as easy. I also wonder how Ruth gets any work done at the university as she always seems to be dashing off to one thing or another.

To be honest I guessed what was happening with the random people dropping down dead or being really ill and I found how Griffiths was dragging it out with the Australian mysticism rather dull.

The thing that saved this book for me was of course Cathbad. Cathbad is the best character in this series and as long as he is in the books I will be a fan. I love how he is there to support Ruth and Kate. He is always there for people no matter what and doesn’t care a fig what people think of him. Due to Cathbad I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.

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Purchase Links

Bookshop.org | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

About the author

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths (Review #13)

The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths

Blurb

Ruth Galloway has just returned from maternity leave and is struggling to juggle work and motherhood. When a team from the University of North Norfolk, investigating coastal erosion, finds six bodies buried at the foot of the cliff, she is immediately put on the case. DCI Nelson is investigating, but Ruth finds this more hindrance than help – Nelson is the father of her daughter, Kate. Still, she remains professional and concentrates on the case at hand. Forensic tests prove that the bodies are from Southern Europe, killed sixty years ago. Police Investigations unearth records of Project Lucifer, a wartime plan to stop a German invasion. A further discovery reveals that members of the Broughton Sea’s End Home Guard took a ‘blood oath’ to conceal some deadly wartime secret. The more information they uncover, the more elusive any explanation becomes. When a visiting German reporter is killed, Ruth and Nelson realise that someone is still alive who will kill to keep the secret of Broughton Sea’s End’s war years. Can they discover the truth in time to stop another murder?

Review

I am working through the Ruth Galloway series and this was my latest read and the first one that isn’t a reread for me. So far with all the Ruth Galloway books I have read, once I start them I can’t put them down and this was exactly the same.

This book shows Ruth coming to terms with being a mother, juggling work, motherhood and another murder investigation. Amongst all of this Ruth also has a friend from her past staying with her and this friend also brings memories of her experience excavating war graves all those years ago.

Though Ruth is doing her best to juggle everything she does have a support network of friends to help her and also a very generous childminder. Ruth’s biggest problem is actually asking for help when she needs it.

As we watch Ruth learning to cope we also watch Nelson trying to cope and work out how to be a father to a child he can’t own up to having. Nelson finds himself wanting it all, both Michelle and Ruth and his three daughters but he also knows this is not possible. Amongst all of this he is riddled with guilt for his affair. To be honest I’m surprised he has enough mental capacity to solve a crime with all of his emotional problems.

This book like all the Ruth Galloway books is very character driven and I love learning new things about the characters and seeing them develop. My favourite character is still Cathbad, he is such a free spirit and definitely has a particular brand of magic.

I will be honest Ruth did get a little on my nerves at times in this book and I found myself shouting be a mother and stop dashing off to see random things. Ruth put herself in a lot of danger at times and I kept thinking about little Kate who would be left alone if anything happened. I know it was all part of Ruth trying to be a mother and also not lose part of herself to motherhood but I did get frustrated with her.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and flew through it and will soon be reading book 4 of the series. I give this book another 5 out of 5 Dragons.

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Purchase Links

Bookshop.org | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

About the author

Etsy

Stacking the Shelves: 18/02/2023

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far.

I thought I would join in with Stacking the Shelves this week because I actually bought some books this week. I am making an effort to buy less books this year and read the ones I own and so far I have been doing quite well.

I have decided to read the Dr Ruth Galloway books from the beginning because I haven’t read them all. This has also meant buying some of the books I don’t own and discovered this lovely book set and although I do own a couple of these books I just couldn’t help myself with the lovely book set.

I have already started reading The Crossing Places and absolutely loving it.

Have you added any new books to your bookshelves recently?

Happy Reading

Etsy

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (Review #9)

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths

Blurb

When builders discover a human skeleton while renovating a café, they call in archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be modern–the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily’s Cambridge tutor and also on another archeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared–Ruth’s friend Cathbad.

As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archaeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily’s bones were found. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. The trail leads Ruth a to the Neolithic flint mines in Grimes Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?

Review

In 2019 I discovered Elly Griffiths and her wonderful Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries and since then I have been hooked. I will be honest I still haven’t read all the books but I plan to read them all this year. I had this book preordered for months so I was so excited when it arrived in the post.

As usual there is a lot going on in this book. Poor Ruth is worried about the threatened closure of her beloved archaeology department, she isn’t sure what her relationship with DCI Nelson’s going to come to and now she has a body to excavate. Plus she also has added worries about friends and work colleagues.

Nelson finds himself finally making up his mind about Ruth and Kate but then not getting the response he was looking for from Ruth. Added to this he now has a murder investigation to run and it is anything but simple. He also has to find Cathbad who has gone missing and who is also connected to the murder case.

The thing I loved about this book was how it kept moving. From the first page there is something going on. The murder investigation keeps moving and more and more leads are found and more suspects and some very complicated relationships. There is the story of Ruth’s professional life and where her career is heading. We also follow Ruth make decisions regarding her personal life and see her love for her friends as she tries to help find Cathbad.

Norfolk is as usual heavily featured in this book and I have an even longer list of places I want to visit there. My best friend lives in Norfolk and I am constantly asking her where such and such place is as I want to visit all these places. I also want to visit Ely cathedral because of this book.

I loved this book so much and I couldn’t put it down. It was a fantastic book to end the series with and I will really miss these wonderful characters. The book has detailed and beautiful descriptions and a brilliantly written story. I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.

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Purchase Links

Book Depository | Bookshop.org | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

About the author

Elly Griffiths is the bestselling author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries and the Brighton Mysteries. She has won the CWA Dagger in the Library, has been shortlisted five times for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and long listed for the CWA Gold Dagger for The Lantern Men. Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband.

Etsy

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths (Review)

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths

Blurb

The night hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach. DCI Nelson believes that the dead man might be an asylum seeker, but he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison.

Review

I do love a Dr Ruth Galloway novel so I was very happy when I finally got my hands on a copy of this book.

Ruth has moved back to Norfolk and is back living in her little cottage in the middle of nowhere. However, not everything is the same because she is now head of the department she used to work for and that means she has staff working for her and she has hired a new lecturer.

Ruth is called out to examine a site of interest that the metal detectorists were digging when they found a body on the same beach. This means that Ruth is back working with DCI Nelson and even though she tries to not think about him her mind is always drawn to him and wishes to see more of him. Nelson on the other hand does not know what to think but knows his life can not go on the way it is and he needs to make some decisions but one thing is for sure and that is he is not retiring!

As the story unfolds more bodies are discovered some new, some old and one not even human and Nelson and Ruth start to unpick the threads of the case. The one frustrating thing for me was the room that looked like a doctors surgery, why did Nelson not investigate it immediately? Surely it was suspicious to the police because it certainly was to me. The other thing that I found frustrating was the massive clue that Ruth ignored regarding the text messages, as a reader it was obvious so I was screaming at the book at this point.

The character that most annoyed me was David the new lecturer, he was rather rude at times and forced his company on people. Overall, I think he was socially awkward and struggled with people but considering his background it was to be expected. Towards the end though he came across as rather sweet.

I really enjoyed this book but the reason it did not get the full five Dragons and only four from me was due to the characters ignoring alarmingly obvious things which frustrated me whilst reading.

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Purchase Links

Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

About the author

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The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths (ARC Review)

The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

About the author

Blurb

PS: thanks for the murders.

The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should absolutely not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka’s account of Peggy Smith’s death.

But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her…

And that Peggy Smith had been a ‘murder consultant’ who plotted deaths for authors, and knew more about murder than anyone has any right to…

And when clearing out Peggy’s flat ends in Natalka being held at gunpoint by a masked figure…

Well then DS Harbinder Kaur thinks that maybe there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.

Review

This is my first non-Dr Ruth Galloway book from Griffiths and I was so excited when I discovered I had been granted my request to read it on NetGalley.

Peggy Smith has died but has she been murdered? Peggy is also a ‘murder consultant’ who helps authors with the crime writing. As the story goes on more murders happen and the mystery thickens.

I’m not sure why but I struggled to get into this book and it just did not move along as I would have liked it to. I really liked the characters Harbinder and Neil and really liked their working relationship. However I disliked her repeatedly comparing Neil to a type of animal and thought it was unnecessary and rather mean of her. I also enjoyed the fact Harbinder still lived at home with her parents and the family dog Sultan.

The character that really grated on my nerves was Natalka. She really drove me insane. I found her very arrogant and self centred. I didn’t mind Benedict and Edwin and thought that they were both interesting and rather endearing characters, especially Benedict who was once a monk and now owns a coffee shop. But the whole concept of Natalka, Benedict and Edwin running off trying to solve the crime just came across as ridiculous and really they should have been arrested for meddling in a murder case. I think it was the whole storyline of this book that put me off as it did just come across as all a bit fanciful.

I still liked elements of this book and will admit I did not see the conclusion of the book at all. I will read the first book with Harbinder in and give the series another shot but sadly this book was just not for me. I only give the book 3 out of 5 Dragons.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for allowing me to read and review this book.

Purchase Links

Waterstones • Book Depository