The Woman in Blue: A Mystery (Ruth Galloway, #8)

by Elly Griffiths

The murder of women priests in the shrine town of Walsingham sucks Dr Ruth Galloway into an unholy investigation.

When Ruth's friend Cathbad sees a vision of the Virgin Mary, in a white gown and blue cloak, in the graveyard next to the cottage he is house-sitting, he takes it in his stride. Walsingham has strong connections to Mary, and Cathbad is a druid after all; visions come with the job. But when the body of a woman in a blue dressing-gown is found dead the next day in a nearby ditch, it is clear Cathbad's vision was all too human, and that a horrible crime has been committed. DCI Nelson and his team are called in for the murder investigation, and soon establish that the dead woman was a recovering addict being treated at a nearby private hospital.

Ruth, a devout atheist, has managed to avoid Walsingham during her seventeen years in Norfolk. But then an old university friend, Hilary Smithson, asks to meet her in the village, and Ruth is amazed to discover that her friend is now a priest. Hilary has been receiving vitriolic anonymous letters targeting women priests - letters containing references to local archaeology and a striking phrase about a woman 'clad in blue, weeping for the world'.

Then another woman is murdered - a priest.

As Walsingham prepares for its annual Easter re-enactment of the Crucifixion, the race is on to unmask the killer before they strike again...

• ISBN10: 0544419324
• ISBN13: 9780544419322
• Publish Date: 3 May 2016 (first published 4 February 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Mariner Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Mystereity Reviews]

See the full review and more on my blog Mystereity Reviews

An ethereal vision of a woman in blue in a graveyard one night leads to the body of a beautiful young model found dead in a ditch. DI Nelson and his crew find themselves in a new investigation to find who is strangling blonde women in the medieval pilgrimage town of Little Walsingham. At the same time, Ruth is contacted by an old university friend who requests Ruth's help in tracking down the author of several threatening letters

I really enjoyed this latest installment in the Ruth Galloway series. The main plot, the murders of two blond women, tied in with the sub-plot of the threatening letters so well that it was impossible to see a connection at first. All the clues were there, neatly woven into the story so well that you didn't realize until much later how pertinent they were.

And just what did Nelson say to Ruth at the end?!