Thursday, March 23, 2017

The Chalk Pit

Title: The Chalk Pit
Author: Elly Griffiths
Published: February 23rd 2017 by Quercus UK;
May 30th 2017 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt US
Format: ebook, Hardcover 384 pages
Genre: Suspense
Series: Ruth Galloway #9

I think that I am having my own version of a love affair with this series. A new book in the Ruth Galloway series forces me to put everything else aside and devote the day to nothing but reading. I love the people and the places that Elly Griffiths takes us to and there is just something about Ruth that makes you want to cheer her on even though her outside relationships tend to lead her only to troubles and heartache.

Ruth, a forensic anthropologist who loves a good intellectual puzzle, is called in when bones are discovered after an architect starts excavating for a new underground restaurant. The bones look old and possibly pot polished. Turns out that the bones are newer than she thought and with local rough sleepers going missing or being murdered, there are too many questions being asked and not enough answers.

With a shakeup at the station, DCI Harry Nelson is battling his own hell on earth with a new woman boss. Superintendent Jo Archer seems to be under the misguided belief that Nelson is ready to sit in an office and do paperwork instead of joining his investigative team. How can he do that when bones have been discovered at the restaurant site and there are well-used tunnels branching off? Tunnels that seem to be running all over town and one has recently caved in due to a sinkhole.

When it comes to investigating DCI Harry Nelson and his team are being pulled in many directions. What does Archer want them to do? Follow the tunnels, find the missing women who may have gone underground, figure out who is killing the men living on the street that seem to have too much information or find Clough’s partner that has just gone missing.

This book is nonstop from the beginning. Dealt a devastating blow, Ruth once again is questioning her relationship with her parents. She has tried to do the best that she can but raising a daughter on her own and having parents that have their own views has never been easy. It is on a narrow ledge that she walks and seeking comfort in Nelson has its own drawbacks. Little does she know that Harry was about to make her life easier only to discover that his own life just got more complicated.

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