{"id":600,"date":"2012-06-26T20:46:44","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T02:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=600"},"modified":"2012-06-26T20:46:44","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T02:46:44","slug":"elly-griffiths-a-room-full-of-bones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/elly-griffiths-a-room-full-of-bones\/","title":{"rendered":"Elly Griffiths: A Room Full of Bones"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elly Griffiths has quickly become one of my favorite writers, and we sold so many copies of her first book, The Crossing Places<\/em>, that she\u2019s obviously a favorite not just of mine but of many readers.\u00a0 A big reason is her main character, the down to earth and very real\u00a0 Ruth Galloway, an archeologist, professor and single mother.\u00a0 But Ruth isn\u2019t the only reason these books are terrific.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Griffiths is a true mystery writer, and she\u2019s become more accomplished at plotting with each book, though all involve connections to history and spirituality of a sort (though a very unconventional sort).\u00a0 This one has perhaps the most traditional set-up \u2013 dead museum curator found next to the awaiting to be opened bones of a long-ago bishop.<\/p>\n

The family that owns the museum is an old one, actually relatives of the dead bishop.\u00a0 Though the patriarch has a title, he lives in a more or less ordinary house (the ancestral castle having fallen to ruins) and runs a racing stable with the help of his daughter, Caroline.\u00a0\u00a0 All the members of the family seem strangely disconnected from one another, helping to make the suspect pool a wide one.<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s Ruth who finds the body (she was meant to be in on the opening of the bishop\u2019s casket), she\u2019s thrown back into contact with police detective Nelson, the father of her nearly one year old daughter Kate.\u00a0 Complication:\u00a0 Nelson is married and has a family, and his wife has forbidden him all contact with either Ruth or Kate.<\/p>\n

Thrown into the mix are some aboriginal skulls long held by the museum (and somewhat carelessly stored in the basement), and the appearance of one Bob Woonuga next door to Ruth.\u00a0 He turns out to be a friend of Cathbad\u2019s \u2013 the series\u2019 druid in residence \u2013 and he\u2019s looking to reclaim the skulls of his ancestors, who he says belong back on their own soil so they can enter the \u201cdreamtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this sounds a bit complicated, the storytelling style of Griffiths, which is brisk and straightforward, makes it totally relatable and understandable at every point.\u00a0 The theme of this novel, brought forward in various ways, seems to be for both artifacts and people to find their true homes.<\/p>\n

While Griffiths weaves in various cultural traditions and world views to put across her point, the whole of the narrative, the characters, as well as the spiritual underpinnings are so nicely interwoven that the book reads simply as a good story.\u00a0 The meaning I\u2019m assigning to it came from thoughtful reflection after I finished the book.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the way it should be , in my opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elly Griffiths has quickly become one of my favorite writers, and we sold so many copies of her first book, The Crossing Places, that she\u2019s obviously a favorite not just of mine but of many readers.\u00a0 A big reason is her main character, the down to earth and very real\u00a0 Ruth Galloway, an archeologist, professor … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-british"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}