Very often, a series has a single focus – it’s a mystery, it’s a thriller, etc. This is the 9th entry in the Ruth Galloway series, and they just keep getting better. As usual, their relationship ups and downs drive the story forward. And, as if their already complicated personal situation wasn’t complex enough, Griffiths introduces two major life experiences here – a death and an impending birth. Clearly they want to be with each other, but both have misgivings or other commitments. The chalk mining tunnels take center stage, as Ruth searches for the answer to the human remains, which appear to have been boiled, while Nelson and his team pursue a villain who has kidnapped three women and “taken them underground.” Wrapping around all the mystery is the continuing unrequited relationship between Ruth and Nelson. Griffiths skillfully blends in well-researched pieces of history and interesting facts about the King’s Lynn-Norwich area to her books, with the Chalk Tunnels being the star here. It’s typical of Griffiths to introduce several story strands in the first couple of chapters, so it’s no surprise when all of those stories come together into a single fat braid. At the same time, Ruth’s quasi partner DCI Harry Nelson and his police squad are dealing with several incidents: a hungover student reporting a man who appeared and disappeared in front of her car in the middle of the night, a homeless man reporting the disappearance of a fellow street dweller, and a sink hole that suddenly opened in the middle of a busy road. This time, we find Ruth preparing to head underground to examine human remains uncovered during a routine soil sampling process. As usual, there’s a lot going on in King’s Lynn.

Anthropologist Ruth Galloway is back in the latest from Elly Griffiths, The Chalk Pit.

The chalk pit by elly griffiths