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. Ruth is depressed and overweight and she doesn't feel she's a good mother and she loves the depressing saltmarsh where she lives and she likes her job and blah blah. Yes, we get it. Like its predecessors, this is a wonderfully rich mixture of ancient and contemporary, superstition and rationality, with a cast of druids, dreamers and assorted tree-huggers as well as some thoroughly modern villains: a welcome addition to a great series' Guardian. * Guardian * Ruth Galloway is a remarkable, delightful character...A must-read for fans of crime and mystery fiction." -- Associated Press

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. I am hooked on this series. I am finding it like a box of chocolates that I can't put down. I am thinking about creating a new shelf for the Galloway series - "coronavirus escapes," which will include anything I have read since March 2020 that helps me avoid the present reality. A Room Full of Bones is another engrossing instalment in Elly Griffiths' series featuring archaeologist Ruth Galloway. The book opens tantalisingly with the planned opening of a recently unearthed medieval coffin in a Norfolk museum, although before the festivities can get underway an unexpected modern death occurs!

Publication Order of Ruth Galloway Books

I've read a stand-alone by this author and she did a decent job but this series of hers is just terrible and I can't believe her publisher continues with it! There are two ways out of Lord Smith's study. One says 'New World Collection' and one 'Local History'. She pauses, feeling like Alice in Wonderland. A slight sound, a kind of whispering or fluttering, makes her turn towards Local History. She feels in the mood for a soothing collection of Norfolk artefacts. She hopes there are no more waxworks or embalmed animals. 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. It is Halloween in King's Lynn, and forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway is attending a strange event at the local history museum - the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But then Ruth finds the body of the museum's curator lying beside the coffin. 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.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 thought the parts about Michelle's reaction to Harry's affair where realistic and sad, it's obvious they both care a lot for each other but perhaps they married too young and have little in common. I'm glad that Harry is going to see Kate now, not seeing her felt very sad. It's great Ruth has someone in her life but I fear for people getting hurt here too. In this book I was so worried about the mystical and magical re curses and such and was so glad that eventually a scientific explanation was provided as a possible probably probable explanation. I was also fine with the cause(s) being left open. As an Australian reader, I found much of the archaeological content of A Room Full of Bones particularly fascinating, as the retention of indigenous human remains and other significant items within both Australian and international museum collections is an ongoing controversy. Ruth is asked to attend the opening of a recently discovered Bishop's coffin. When she gets to the museum holding the event, however, she finds the curator dead by the coffin. Although on the face of it his death is by natural causes, Nelson and Ruth have their suspicions.

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. The Ruth Galloway Series is a one of a kind piece of art. The pieces of writing are interesting and intriguing and they will touch the heart and mind of any individual that decides to dive into them. 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! The dialogues and thoughts of the characters are repetitive, the characters are boring and selfish, the relationships between them shallow and the situations most of the time ridiculous!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? You do NOT establish the sex of a skeleton based on a single characteristic, and you definitely don't do it with one look. You're not good at suspense anyway, you might as well have written that Ruth spent hours squinting at the skeleton like serious professionals do and then came up with the answer.

I have become so fond of this group of characters. Griffiths does a great job of making you care for them all, even the secondary characters like Judy, who steps more front and center this time. And I love Cathbad. He’s always in the middle of every murder investigation and always finding an excuse to light a bonfire. As she has done in the other three books, Griffiths also left us on a cliffhanger at the end of the book regarding the Ruth/Nelson relationship. And of course I need to rush out and start the next book because of this. As I said, Griffiths is killing me. Percival, Lord Smith 1830 - 1902,adventurer and taxidermist. Most of the exhibits in this museum were acquired by Lord Smith in the course of a fascinating life. Lord Smith's love of the natural world is shown in his magnificent collection of animals and birds, most of which he shot and stuffed himself.Halloween night, and the dead are closer than ever for Dr Ruth Galloway. She is used to long-dead bodies, but a fresh corpse in the middle of a museum is a new challenge. The book's strengths are, as ever, Griffiths' ability to conjure up thoroughly believable people and to ensure that the myths and legends which steep the story never spill over into woo-woo' Reviewing the Evidence. * Reviewing the Evidence * 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.