The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway, #1)

by Elly Griffiths

Discover one of the most popular crime series in Britain, from the bestselling author of The Stranger Diaries.

A child's bones are discovered on the windswept Norfolk marshes. Believing them to be ancient, the police call in Dr Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist. But this is no prehistoric grave. A cold missing person case has now become a murder investigation.

'I've never before read a crime novel in which [archaeology and detection] blend as successfully as in The Crossing Places' Shots

Dr Ruth Galloway is called in when a child's bones are discovered near the site of a prehistoric henge on the north Norfolk salt marshes. Are they the remains of a local girl who disappeared ten years earlier - or are the bones much older?

DCI Harry Nelson refuses to give up the hunt for the missing girl. Since she vanished, someone has been sending him bizarre anonymous notes about ritual sacrifice, quoting Shakespeare and the Bible. He knows that Ruth's expertise and experience could help him finally to put this case to rest.

But when a second child goes missing, Ruth finds herself in danger from a killer who knows she's getting ever closer to the truth...

• ISBN10: 0547229895
• ISBN13: 9780547229898
• Publish Date: 1 January 2010 (first published 5 February 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 28 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 303
• Language: English

Reviews

This book is strangely compelling. I hated the writing style to start with and the constant references to her weight but this book drew me in and kept me hooked. The mystery was thoroughly engaging and kept me guessing - I thought I knew who it was but then I kept changing my mind. The reveal at the end had me dumbfounded. I'm not really impressed by it. The character drama throughout was a bit much - I didn't see the purpose of Peter her ex boyfriend at all - but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Solid 3.5 stars, rounded to 4.

[wyvernfriend]

This should have been a perfect fit for me, Archaeologist, female, gets caught up in a murder mystery when a body found is actually not new but historical. I got the actual murderer earlier and found it quite obvious.

It's not a bad read but it didn't quite satisfy.

[Mystereity Reviews]

Really enjoyed this. Although I figured out whodunit fairly early on in the book, it didn't detract from it at all. Love the characters, the setting and the mystery itself was very entertaining. Looking forward to reading this series.