In 2020 I discovered a series of books that brought me great distraction during the harrowing months of lockdown and the ensuing bizarreness of 2020. I have since read them through twice, and this month I got to read the final installment. They have been of great help to two years’ worth of Goodreads now! The Dr. Ruth Galloway series is a 15-volume cozy crime saga penned by Elly Griffiths. If I am honest with myself, I was probably drawn to this series mostly by the amazing artwork on the US covers and the delightful spines that compose the series. But I was drawn in by the incredible Dr. Galloway, some amazingly written storylines, and a wonderful geographical setting. I am now a converted sucker for a cozy mystery, all because of Dr. Ruth Galloway. I have no regrets.
Set in current-day Norfolk, the series principally follows Dr. Ruth Galloway, a senior archaeologist and professor at the fictional University of North Norfolk. Ruth has a handful of love interests across the 15 books, and a career change or two, but these never detract from her amazing character. DCI Harry Nelson is Ruth’s counterpart in this series in many ways. She is an academic, he is from the old-school police force in Blackpool (think New Jersey). She thinks everything through, while Harry relies mostly on instinct. Throughout the series, they are drawn to each other and pulled away again, in love, in work, in bed.
There is little need for character development in this final book, so there is not much development there, though Nelson’s relationship to his location is resolved in an incredibly satisfying way. This book does contain a lot of in-between language around COVID and lockdown guidelines; the UK had a very different experience than the US, and at times this can get trying. However, Elly Griffiths does a wonderful job, in this book and its precursor, in navigating the new world of lockdown whilst maintaining a gripping pace and story build-up.
In this final installment, several long-standing storylines come full circle, and we are drawn back into so many long-forgotten things. The story and sentiment of the first book come back in several ways and are artistically rendered by Griffiths. She manages to combine nostalgia from previous books within this new story in an utterly delightful and satisfying finale. The story begins, as with the others, with the discovery of a body. This time Dr. Ruth Galloway is seriously distracted. With the threat of the closure of the Archaeology Department at UNN, and the imminent final decision concerning her relationship with DCI Nelson, everything in Ruth’s life is at a turning point. The bones turn out to be a young archaeology student who went missing over 20 years earlier, a student who had been loved by Ruth and Nelson’s close friend Cathbad. The discoveries made along the way are a complicated web of relationships and deceit, and very soon they are in a race to save Cathbad’s life and prove his innocence.
This may be the longest series of books I have ever read outside of Sweet Valley High or The BabySitter’s Club. I have not read anything else that more accurately captures the feeling of the phrase “cozy crime.” It is hard not to love each and every one of the characters presented to us, even when they are conflicted about each other. Judy’s storyline in particular was heartbreaking and wonderful all at the same time. Morals are not gray in these books, but love is complicated and nobody shies away from that for long.
Alongside Ruth, Cathbad, and Nelson, a fourth main character can be found in the geographical landscape itself, and this is a big draw for me. For the majority of the books, Ruth lives in a cottage on the edge of the salt marsh in Norfolk. It is described by Ruth as comforting and stilling and by everyone else as eerie and solitary. It is fairly inaccessible except by one road, and with only two other houses next to her, neighbors are rare. The settings invoked throughout each book play a great part in each story. Griffiths’s skill in self-reflecting the atmosphere of location and plot is incomparable. It brings to mind the location and storyline of Wuthering Heights, although I much prefer the Norfolk saltmarsh to Bronte’s moors. Norfolk is an interesting place, with desolate beach sides, historic buildings, and a bustling university life. There is always the sense that history and bones lurk beneath every footstep. I grew up visiting the area with my Grandfather and Great Uncle. I remember drives across flat fields in the night and around inaccessible wetlands. I have vivid memories of old churchyards and airfields. One of the Great Uncles we were visiting had been stationed in the RAF there and enjoyed pointing all kinds of places out to me as we drove from sparse location to sparse location.
While some of the earlier books are easy enough to read out of order, these books are best enjoyed in succession. I had a hard time early on finding a good listing, so here is my gift to you:
The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway, No.1). 2009
The Janus Stone (Ruth Galloway, No.2). 2010
The House at Sea’s End (Ruth Galloway, No.3). 2010
A Room Full of Bones (Ruth Galloway, No.4). 2012
Ruth’s First Christmas Tree (Ruth Galloway, #4.5). 2012
A Dying Fall (Ruth Galloway, No.5). 2013
The Outcast Dead (Ruth Galloway, No.6). 2014
The Ghost Fields (Ruth Galloway, No.7). 2015
The Woman in Blue (Ruth Galloway, No.8). 2016
The Chalk Pit (Ruth Galloway, No.9). 2017
The Dark Angel (Ruth Galloway, No.10). 2018
The Stone Circle (Ruth Galloway, No.11). 2019
The Lantern Men (Ruth Galloway, No.12). 2020
The Night Hawks (Ruth Galloway, No.13). 2021
The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway, No.14). 2022
The Last Remains (Ruth Galloway, No.15). 2023
I was excited to read the final installment in this series, and not at all disappointed in it. This time I read in luxury, as the arrival of the book coincided with a planned “staycation” day and I was able to take a day at home with no one around and indulge myself in reading the book. While I enjoyed the luxury of this, these are also books that I can easily pick up and read in snippets everywhere. A word of warning, however, usually by about a third to halfway through, you will be unable to put the books down.
I am not at all upset that the series is over because I will happily re-read this entire run again and again in the future. Then, of course, there are the other series from Elly Griffiths that I’ve barely started.
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