The Crossing Places

25. Pearl Ruled: [THE CROSSING PLACES] by [[ELLY GRIFFITHS]]

Rating: 1.875* of five (p126)

The Book Description: When she’s not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in a remote area called Saltmarsh near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants - not quite earth, not quite sea.

When a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help. Nelson thinks he has found the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing ten years ago. Since her disappearance he has been receiving bizarre letters about her, letters with references to ritual and sacrifice.

The bones actually turn out show more to be two thousand years old, but Ruth is soon drawn into the Lucy Downey case and into the mind of the letter writer, who seems to have both archaeological knowledge and eerie psychic powers. Then another child goes missing and the hunt is on to find her.

As the letter writer moves closer and the windswept Norfolk landscape exerts its power, Ruth finds herself in completely new territory – and in serious danger.

THE CROSSING PLACES marks the beginning of a captivating new crime series featuring an irresistible heroine.

My Review: Hell, damn and BLAST!! I love the idea for this series. I am a fiend for archaeological settings in novels. I am a fan of tart-tongued women. (Look at my friends list and tell me that's exaggerated.) And I am always down for another series, since that makes the spaces between discoveries of books fuller and more bearable.

But it's just not good.

When he has gone, Ruth sits on the sofa, at the opposite end to the place where there is a faint bloodstain on the faded chintz. She looks at the remains of her meal with Shona and wonders, dully, how long ago it was that they sat at this table talking about men.

(p126, US hardcover edition)

And that is where my patience snapped. The rest of that paragraph floated past me like poop down the john. A huge sucking sound was heard, the bowl of my mind filled up with clear water, and there was no more interest to be found by me in this book. This writing is what, politely (yes, I do know what the word means), I would characterize as “serviceable.” But laddies and gentlewomen, I am over 50 and the days ahead number fewer than the days behind. What am I doing mucking about with “serviceable” when so much that's GOOD awaits discovery?

So no more Mr. Nice Guy. You don't cut the mustard, writer dear, you're on the scrapheap of history. show less

I picked up "The Crossing Places" in an audible book sale offering first-in-a-series books. I half expected it to be Temperance Brennan / Kay Scarpetta with an English accent. It turned out to be something much more orginal and engaging than that:a thriller seasoned with a strong sense of place, revolving around a normal English woman who finds herself at the centre of events she has no control over.

"The Crossing Places" is set in the desolate salt marshes in Norfolk on the east coast of England. The whole novel is encrusted with the smell of sea and dominated by the vast sweep of the treacherous marsh and the brooding sky it stretches out to meet.

Ruth Galloway fell in love with the desolate beauty of this landscape ten years earlier, show more while on a dig to find a bronze-age sacred circle of wooden posts buried in the treacherous mudflats at the furthest point that the marsh meets the see. She stayed when the dig finished, becoming a member of faculty, specialising in forensic anthropology, at the local university. choosing to live in relative isolation at the edge of the Saltmarsh.

Ruth is the anchor of the book. A large part of the appeal of this book is that Ruth is not the typical kick-ass heroine I've grown used to reading about in these kinds of books. She's the kind of woman I might meet and like in real life. Ruth sees herself as an over-weight, no-longer ambitious woman, a year away from being forty, single and likely to stay that way, living alone with two child-substitute cats, comfortable with her own company and bespelled by the mercurial spirit of the Saltmarsh.

Ruth is counterpointed by DCI Harry Nelson, who hates the Saltmarsh in particular and Norfolk in general, is haunted by his failure to find a little girl abducted ten years earlier and driven by the need to bring closure for the family and himself.

The two are brought together by the discovery of bones in the Saltmarsh, which Harry asks Ruth to attest to the age of. Ruth becomes entangled in reviewing the circumstances of the old abduction and what has happened since and then in the search for another girl, recently abducted and perhaps linked to the first.

"The Crossing Places" sustains an atmosphere of brooding menance from both the characters and the location. I was kept guessing until the end about who would be guilty of what. I found the tension was more effective than usual because the people affected by the events were so normal.

I did struggle from time to time with the slightly clumsy use of first person present tense. I don't mind the technique, but even in the audiobook version, it was occasionally distracting.

Overall, this is an above-average crime novel which I hope is a stong start to a good series.

I was a little intimidated when I saw "The Crossing Places" listed as a debut novel because the writing seemed too accomplished to be a first effort. It turns out that Elly Griffiths was created by an editor when, after writing three novels about Italian families, Domenica de Rosa's fourth novel, "The Crossing Places", took a new direction. The editor believed that a crime novel required a crime name and so Ely Griffiths was summoned into being. You can find out more at Ely Griffith's website. show less

Originally on my blog.

Cover Talk: I love how the cover is exactly how I picture Ruth’s homeland. Homesea? Homeplace. The cover is what caught my eye while browsing through a list of British mysteries on Goodreads because it didn’t try to obnoxious.

First Line: “They wait for the tide and set out at first light.”

Why I Read It: I have been in the mood for a good British mystery lately and when I read that the main character is an archaeologist I knew it was something I desperately needed to read.

Characters: Ruth is not the typical female heroine that I have grown accustomed to. She’e definitely better. I lovingly call her an “academic spinster.” She has two cats, not much of a social life outside of her digging and her show more lectures, and is fascinated by dead and buried things. When she is asked to used her archaeological skills to help shed some insight into a murder investigation, she accepts and becomes a wee bit obsessed. Obsessed and intelligent are how I like my amateur detectives.

Nelson, or Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, is a serious, broody, workaholic. Ten years have gone by since Lucy has gone missing, and another child has just been kidnapped. Not a chapter or scene goes by when he’s not working hard at trying to solve these kidnappings. He is incredibly dedicated and is a lot smarter than he would have anyone believe.

As for the secondary characters, I was really surprised by how well they all fit into this mystery and into Ruth’s life. Shona, her friend and colleague, is that friend you want to hate because she’s so beautiful, but is hard to resist because she’s just so nice. Erik, Ruth’s friend and mentor, is incredibly charming, alluring, and is a wonderful story teller. I loved his character. Cathbad is a druid/New Ager and I absolutely want to see more of him in the next book. And as for her neighbor, David, his character is definitely an interesting one. He is so quiet and is a bit of a loner. Oh, and has a thing for birds.

Plot/World-building: I am such a sucker for British mysteries. I have never stepped foot outside of North America, but in my mind, I live in England, also Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. So reading this book and being submerged in British culture and landscape was simply amazing. The descriptions that Griffiths provides are beautiful, eerie, and evocative.

Ruth and Nelson make such a brilliant team. They are both obsessive, smart, and love their jobs more than anything else. I loved seeing Ruth think things through while Nelson is already speeding away to follow leads. Their relationship also takes a turn that I didn’t really see coming and am interested to see what happens with them in the next books.

My biggest enjoyment in The Crossing Places is the archaeological bits. I loved reading the discovering of bones, artifacts, and henges. And on top of that there is great attention to myths, history, and some New Age ways of thinking that made me want to be there to experience it all first hand.

The ending I absolutely did not see coming. I’m still amazed at how everything came together and who was involved. I am definitely looking forward to reading the rest of this series and seeing more of Ruth.

Final Thoughts: I devoured this book in two days. It was so difficult to put down. I didn’t want to leave the characters or the marshes, and I certainly wanted to solve this damn case. Elly Griffiths is a great weaver of mysteries and I cannot wait to see what else she has in store for Ruth. show less

At the rate that I had been reading lately, I think it is safe to say it has been a while since I finished a book in 2 days. Yet here I was, wrapped up in Ruth’s world, wondering who was murdered these young girls, developing a mild interest in archeology, and yes, I have added North Norfolk England to my bucket list of places to visit. I was as enamored with the Saltmarsh as the woman who lived there.

One of the reasons I really enjoyed Ruth’s company is I can relate to her. I know nothing of archeology, but I know what it is like to push 40 as a childless woman. I know the feeling of being left out of the mother’s club, of being told I will never appreciate my mother because I don’t have children of my own. Like Ruth, I had a show more life changing moment that made me realize that last criticism is a bunch of malarkey. I can’t write enough about how much I liked Ruth. Through all that happened to her, she never played the victim. She was smart, fearless, quick-witted and sincere. She was passionate about her work and not afraid of the choices she made and the woman she is. To Ms. Griffiths’ credit, she created a woman whom I will continue to follow. I want to know what happens to her next.

Ruth Galloway isn’t the only enjoyable character in The Crossing Places. I quite enjoyed Harry Nelson. Okay, fine, I have a mad literary crush on him. And thanks to his wife, I can only picture him being played by George Clooney. He is rough around the edges, but he’s resilient and he doesn’t give up. My other favorite character in this novel is Cathbad. Oh, man, he made me laugh. I can only hope that he comes back in future books. Is he a geek? Oh yes. Is he intelligent? Yes again. Is he the comic relief in this novel? Absolutely. He brought a touch of humor when one was needed.

The story moves quickly. There were a couple of plot twists and turns I did not expect. In the same token, there were a couple I guessed in advance. Even so, this didn’t deter me from absolutely loving this the novel. I must commend Ms. Griffiths’ for the way she handled the story of child abduction and murder. She wrote the perspectives of the girls’ parents, Ruth and Nelson with compassion, caring, and understanding. I felt it was earnest and touching.

Thanks to Jenn and Elly Griffiths, I am now a Ruth Galloway fan and look forward to reading more. show less

A friend sent me 4 books from this series. This is the second book I've read recently that mentioned bog bodies (though I can't tell you what the other one was without searching through my reading list). Thankfully with this book, you didn't have to know many particulars about bog bodies.

There seem to be a lot of lonely characters or characters dissatisfied with their lives.
*Ruth prefers her lonely life on the saltmarsh
*Peter seems to think the grass is greener on the side of what he doesn't have--either that or he's yearning to relive the past.
*Erik and Magda seem to love each other in some way but that doesn't seem to keep them faithful to each other.

I did figure out who the culprit was but only slightly before the author revealed show more it.

I would have had a hard time staying friends with Shonda, I think, after she revealed her part in misdirecting the attention of the detective who was assigned to find the missing girls. But then again, I've done some uncharacteristic things at times I thought I was in love, so maybe I shouldn't judge her too harshly. show less

The Crossing Places is the first in a mystery series I'm really enjoying (I'm on the third). Ruth Galloway is the head of the forensic archaeology department at an eastern England university, and when she's not teaching or on a dig, she happily lives alone in a stark, remote area called Saltmarsh, a crossing place between the sea and solid ground. She loves the mood and look of the expanse, and it hides its own sacred Iron Age treasures.

This story is triggered by a child's bones being found on a desolate beach nearby. Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson asks Galloway to help, thinking this may be a child named Lucy Downey who went missing ten years ago. He has been tormented by letters, apparently from the kidnapper, during those show more years.

The bones turn out to be two thousand years old, and of archaeological rather than current interest. But the teaming up pulls Ruth into the Lucy Downey case and questions about the letter writer. Then another child goes missing, and the hunt is on.

Ruth is, in her own view, overweight and not very attractive, but Nelson and other men are drawn to her, perhaps in part because of her wit and strength of mind. When danger appears, she is believably brave but human. Like Fiona Griffiths, she is a three-dimensional, continually interesting character whose adventures I want to follow. show less

Ruth Galloway is a forensic archeologist who enjoys her solitude. She lives alone (OK...with cats) on the edge of the Saltmarsh in Norfolk, a place most people find desolate and uninviting, if not downright terrifying. In this first of a long-running series of her adventures, she is drawn into the police investigation of a missing child when some bones are found in the marsh. Naturally, it isn't a straightforward case of "Yup, these are the bones of the child that's lost", as older mysteries are pulled from the muck to complicate the lives of Ruth and her new acquaintance, D. I. Nelson...a man with his own set of complications. Good stuff.