I'm not entirely sure why I continue with these. I like Ruth, I think we could be friends, but I find the whole dithering about her relationship and Nelson to be tedious in the extreme. I also find the way that Ruth is forever ending up in danger due to case to be rather unlikely and repetitive. Having said that, this is entertaining enough if you're prepared to park the reservations at the front cover.
In this the book starts with a Guilty verdict for Ivor Marsh for the murder of two women. Nelson is sure that he also murdered two other missing women but there has been no confession. Ivor tells Nelson where to look for bodies, but does not confess and he insists that Ruth carry out the work. Into the mix throw in the legend of lanterns that lure you into the marshes and kill you and a very dodgy sounding retreat with the teachers/facilitators all entwined around each others' lives and you can see this gets complicated. Probably unnecessarily complicated. In some ways it is good to see Nelson's team moving on, Cloughie now heads his own team in Cambridgeshire, Judy is DI and wondering where to go next on the career ladder, Nelson is 50 and being nagged about it. I've come this far, I think I'll finish the series at this point. ( )

4.5* ( )

My first book by Elly Griffiths and I enjoyed it very, very much. It is a murder mystery with an ongoing cast of characters, set mostly in the marshes of Norfolk and partly in Cambridge. One of the main characters, Ruth Galloway, is now living and teaching archeology in Cambridge and happy with her new life. Her former lover, Harry Nelson, is working a case involving the murder of two women by Ivor March, who is found guilty at the start of the book.

Yet as Ruth is pulled into this case due to her previous work in Forensics in Norfolk, and more intrigue surrounds where the bodies were found (the garden of a former partner of Ivor March), there also comes to light additional bodies and March knows where they are buried. And at the center of all of the intrigue is the house introduced at the beginning, where Ruth finishes the manuscript of her third book at a writing retreat. A cast of characters seems to swirl around this house and its visitors, several of whom have wound up dead.

A very quick read, and easy to dance into this mystery series due to the author's skill at providing bits of the backstory of each character without sounding patronizing or repeating character stories too often told. ( )

Ruth Galloway 12

This felt like a stronger book than several of the last have been -- I enjoyed Ruth's break from the marshes and Cambridge life. Lots of red herrings, and it's good to see Clough and Judy's careers progress. ( )