The Outcast Dead / Elly Griffiths

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2021 I really enjoy this series by Elly Griffiths and was delighted to be able to shoe horn a volume into my Halloween reading. I've been depleting my self restraint, trying not to binge read these books, to dole them out gradually and savour them. Ruth Galloway is a very independent woman, despite her occasional longings for a male partner. She realizes that she probably couldn't live with her baby's father and she's sent her last male friend packing (much to her religious parents' dismay). In addition to her job as a forensic archeologist, she's got a book coming out and is involved in a TV program, so she can hardly be called unsuccessful. Her daughter, Kate, is as strong willed as her mom (and dad for that matter) so it's no surprise that donkeys seem to be Kate's spirit animal. Griffiths takes the modern fear of a missing child and turns it into a gripping plotline. As a mother herself, she intuits how the affected parents would feel and react. To echo this modern crime, Ruth finds herself involved in a dig which has seemed to reveal the remains of a notorious woman, Jemima Green, who kept abandoned children, some of whom died in her care. An amputee, she is reviled as Mother Hook, the child killer. Now Ruth and the handsome American historian on the TV shoot have to determine whether Jemima was a horrible murderess or an unfortunate victim of injustice. The only kind of off note is how beautifully the old and the new crimes interact. What are the chances of that kind of synchronicity in real life? I know the truth is stranger than fiction, but this correspondence was just a little too neat and perfect for me. However, I am delighted that Cathbad the druid has returned to Norfolk—he hasn’t been gone for long, but I missed him. This remains a favoured series for me and I'll look forward to my next visit with Ruth & Kate to see what they get up to next.