The Ghost Fields: A Mystery

By Elly Griffiths

The chilling discovery of a downed World War II plane with a body inside leads Ruth and DCI Nelson to uncover a wealthy family’s secrets in this Ruth Galloway mystery.

It’s a blazing hot summer in Norfolk when a construction crew unearths a downed American fighter plane from World War II with a body inside. Forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway determines that the skeleton couldn’t possibly be the pilot, and DNA tests identify the man as Fred Blackstock, a local aristocrat long presumed dead—news that seems to frighten his descendants. Events are further complicated by a TV company that wants to make a film about Norfolk’s deserted air force bases, the so-called ghost fields, which the Blackstocks have converted into a pig farm. As production begins, Ruth notices a mysterious man loitering at Fred Blackstock’s memorial service. Then human bones are found on the family’s pig farm and the weather quickly turns. Can the team outrace a looming flood to find the killer? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9780544330160

Elly Griffiths

Elly Griffiths is the USA Today bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway and Brighton mystery series, as well as the standalone novels The Stranger Diaries, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel; The Postscript Murders; and Bleeding Heart Yard. She is the recipient of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in Brighton, England.

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First Mariner Books edition 2015

First U.S. edition

Copyright © 2015 by Elly Griffiths

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

marinerbooks.com

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Quercus

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-544-33014-6 ISBN 978-0-544-57786-2 (pbk.)

Cover design by Martha Kennedy

Cover photograph © Joe Clark/Tetra Images/Corbis

Author photograph © Sara Reeve

eISBN 978-0-544-33016-0

v8.0921

For Sheila and Ian Lewington

I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood,

Its lips in the field above are dabbled with blood-red heath,

The red-ribb’d ledges drip with a silent horror of blood,

And Echo there, whatever is ask’d her, answers ‘Death.’

–Alfred Tennyson, Maud

Prologue

July 2013

---

It is the hottest summer for years. A proper heatwave, the papers say. But Barry West doesn’t pay much attention to weather forecasts. He wears the same clothes winter and summer, jeans and an England t-shirt. It’s sweaty in the cab of the digger, but he doesn’t really mind. Being a man is all about sweat; anyone who washes too much is either foreign or worse. It doesn’t occur to him that women don’t exactly find his odour enticing. He’s forty and he hasn’t had a girlfriend for years.

But he’s content, this July day. The Norfolk sky is a hot, hard blue and the earth, when exposed in the jaws of the digger, is pale, almost white. The yellow vehicle moves steadily to and fro, churning up the stones and coarse grass. Barry doesn’t know, and he certainly doesn’t care, that people have fought hard over this patch of land, now scheduled for development by Edward Spens and Co. In fact the Romans battled the Iceni on these same fields and, nearly two thousand years later, Royalist forces engaged in bitter hand-to-hand combat with Cromwell’s army. But today, Barry and his digger are alone under the blazing sun, their only companions the seagulls that follow their progress, swooping down on the freshly turned soil.

It’s hard work. The land is uneven—which is why it has lain waste for so long—pitted with craters and gullies. In the winter, these fissures fill with water and the field becomes almost a lake interspersed with islands of grass. But now, after a month of good weather, it’s a lunar landscape, dry and desolate. Barry manoeuvres the digger up and down, singing tunelessly.

It’s at the bottom of one of these craters that the digger scrapes against metal. Barry swears and goes into reverse. The seagulls swirl above him. Their cries sound caustic, as if they are laughing. Barry gets out of the cab.

The sun is hotter than ever. It beats down on his baseball cap and he wipes the sweat from his eyes. An object is protruding from the ground, something grey and somehow threatening, like a shark’s fin. Barry stares at the obstacle. It has a look of permanence, as if it has lain in the earth for a very long time. He bends down and scrapes some soil away with his hands. He sees that the fin is part of a larger object, far bigger than he imagined at first. The more earth he removes, the more metal is revealed. It gleams dully in the sun.

Barry stands back. Edward Spens wants this field cleared. Barry’s foreman stressed that the work needs to be done as soon as possible, ‘before the crazies get wind of it’. If he carries on, his digger will tear and crush the metal object. Or the unseen enemy will defeat him and the digger (property of Edward Spens and Co) will be damaged. Suddenly, unexpectedly, Barry remembers a book that was read to him at school about a vast man made of iron who is found in a junk yard. Just for a second he imagines that lying beneath the soil there is a sleeping metal giant who will rise up and crush him in its digger-like jaws. But wasn’t the Iron Man in the story a goodie? He can’t remember. Barry climbs into the cab and gets a spade. The ground is hard but the earth moves fairly easily. Barry labours away, his t-shirt sticking to his back, until he reaches something else, something even bigger. Breathing heavily, he puts the spade down and wipes away soil with his hands. Then he encounters something that isn’t metal. It’s glass, clogged with dirt and almost opaque. But Barry, driven by something which he doesn’t quite understand, clears a space so that he can peer through.

A scream makes the seagulls rise into the air. It is a few seconds before Barry realises that he was the one who had screamed. And he almost does so again as he stumbles away from the buried giant.

Because, when he looked through the window, someone was looking back at him.

---

Not far away, across the fields where the Romans marched in orderly lines and the Royalist troops fled in disarray, Ruth Galloway is also digging. But this is altogether a more organised process. Teams of students labour over neatly dug trenches, marked out with string and measuring tape. Ruth moves from trench to trench, offering advice, dusting soil away from an object that might be a fragment of pottery or even a bone. She is happy. When she started this summer dig for her students, she was aware of the area’s history, of course. She expected to find something, some Roman pottery maybe or even a coin or two. But, two days into the excavation, they made a really significant discovery. A body, which Ruth thinks might date from the Bronze Age, some two thousand years before the Romans.

The skeleton, buried in the chalky ground, isn’t preserved as bodies found in peat are preserved. Five years ago, Ruth found the body of an Iron Age girl buried in the marshy soil near her house. That body had been almost perfect, suspended in time, hands bound with mistletoe rope, head partly shaved. Ruth had been able to look at that girl and know her story. This body is different and Ruth can’t be sure of its age (she has sent samples for carbon-14 testing, though even that can be skewed by as many as a hundred years) but the skeleton is in the crouched position typical of Bronze Age burials and there are fragments of pottery nearby which look like examples of so-called Beaker ware. Beaker burials, which date back about four thousand years, are often distinguished by rounded barrows but there have been examples of flat grave sites too. Besides, the mound could easily have been destroyed by ploughing.

She excavated the bones yesterday, after photographing the skeleton, drawing it in plan and filling in a skeleton sheet for every bone. From the pelvic bones she thinks that the body is female but she hopes to be able to extract enough DNA to make sure of this. Isotopic testing will indicate the woman’s diet; her bones and teeth will tell the story of any disease or periods of malnutrition. Soon Ruth will know some of the answers, but she already feels a link with the woman who died so long ago. Standing in the field with the air shimmering in the heat, she allows herself a moment’s satisfaction. It’s a good job this and not a bad life, digging up the past under this high clear sky. It could be a lot worse. Her parents had wanted her to be an accountant.

‘Ruth!’ Ruth recognises the voice but she’s in a good enough mood for it not to be dented by the appearance of her boss, Phil Trent. Even though he’s wearing safari shorts.

‘Hallo, Phil.’

‘Found anything else?’

Honestly, isn’t one Bronze Age body enough for him? It’s one more than he has ever discovered. But, despite her irritation, Ruth secretly shares his hope that there might be more bodies buried under this soil. The position of the skeleton and the presence of beaker pottery indicate that this was a formal ritual burial. Could this be a barrow cemetery? If so, there will be others.

‘Not yet,’ says Ruth. She takes a swig from her water bottle. She can’t remember a hotter day in Norfolk. Her cotton trousers are sticking to her legs and she is sure that her face is bright red.

‘Anyway,’ says Phil, ‘I’ve had a thought.’

‘Yes?’ Ruth tries not to look too excited at this news.

‘You know the English Heritage DNA project?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, why not get them to include our body? We could test all the locals to see if they’re any relation to him.’

‘Her.’

‘What?’

‘Remember I said I thought it was a woman’s skeleton?’

‘Oh yes. Anyway, what do you think? It could really put UNN on the map.’

Putting UNN, the University of North Norfolk, on the map is an obsession with Phil. Privately, Ruth thinks that it would take more than a bit of Bronze Age DNA. But it’s not a bad idea. The DNA project has been set up to discover if there are any links between prehistoric bodies and the local population. Norfolk, where the rural population is remarkably stable, would be an ideal testing ground.

‘It’s a thought,’ says Ruth. ‘Do you think they’d be interested?’

‘Well, I spoke to someone from English Heritage this afternoon and they seemed keen.’

It is typical of Phil that, while ostensibly asking Ruth’s advice, he has already set the plan in motion. Still, a hunger for publicity is not a bad attribute in a head of department.

‘Do you want to have a look at today’s finds?’ asks Ruth. Although she excavated the skeleton yesterday and bagged up the bones herself, there are still a few interesting objects emerging from the trench.

Phil pulls a face. ‘It’s awfully hot,’ he says, as if the weather is Ruth’s fault.

‘Is it?’ says Ruth, pushing back her damp hair. ‘I hadn’t noticed.’

Phil looks at her quizzically. He doesn’t always get irony unless he’s concentrating. Ruth is saved from elaborating by the buzz of her phone.

‘Excuse me.’

When she sees ‘Nelson’ on the screen, her heart beats slightly faster. It’s because I’m worried that it’ll be about Kate, she tells herself. You can believe anything if you try hard enough. But, of course, it’s a police matter. Ruth is seconded to North Norfolk’s Serious Crimes Unit as a forensic archaeologist. It makes Phil very jealous.

‘Ruth.’ Typically Nelson does not waste time on the niceties. ‘Where are you?’

‘Near Hunstanton.’

‘Oh good. You’re in the area. That’s handy.’

For whom? thinks Ruth but Nelson is still talking.

‘Some builder has found a plane buried in a field near there.’

‘A plane?’

‘Yes. Probably from the Second World War. There are a few old RAF bases around here.’

‘Well, you don’t need me to dig out a plane.’

‘The thing is, the pilot’s still inside.’

---

A few minutes later Ruth is driving along the Hunstanton road with Phil at her side. She can’t remember asking her head of department to join her but, somehow, there he is, wincing when Radio 4 blares out from the radio and asking her why she can’t afford a new car. ‘After all, your book was quite a success. Haven’t you got a contract for another one?’ Ruth’s book, about a dig in Lancashire, came out last year and has indeed attracted some praise in the scholarly journals. It was very far from being a best-seller though, and—after the advance has been earned out—her royalties will hardly contribute anything to her income. The book has made her mother proud, though, which is a miracle in itself.

‘I like this car,’ she says.

‘It’s a rust bucket,’ says Phil. ‘Why don’t you buy one of those cool Fiat 500s? Shona’s got one in ice blue.’

Ruth grinds her teeth. Fiat 500s are undoubtedly cool and Shona probably has one to match every one of her retro Boden frocks. Shona, Phil’s partner and another university lecturer, is probably Ruth’s best friend in Norfolk but that doesn’t mean that Ruth wants to hear how cool and chic she is. She’s quite happy with her old Renault, thank you very much. Who asked Phil to sit in it anyway?

She can see the field from a long way away. The digger perches precariously on a slope and next to it stand three men, one of whom is, unmistakably even from a distance, Nelson. Ruth parks the rust bucket by the gate and walks across the baked earth towards the group. Phil follows, complaining about the heat and people who are selfish enough to have cars without air conditioning.

Nelson sees her first. ‘Here she is. Why have you brought Phil with you?’

Ruth loves the way he puts this. Phil would undoubtedly believe that he brought Ruth with him.

‘He didn’t want to miss the fun. Is this it?’

Her question is superfluous. Three-quarters of a wing and half a cockpit lie exposed at the bottom of the shallow pit.

‘American,’ says Nelson. ‘I can tell by the markings.’

Ruth shoots him a look. She thinks that Nelson would have been just the sort of boy to collect models of Second World War fighter planes.

‘There was an American airbase near here,’ says one of the other men. ‘At Lockwell Heath.’ Ruth recognises him as Edward Spens, a local property developer whom she encountered on an earlier case. Spens is tall and good-looking; his air of authority is only slightly dented by the fact that he’s wearing tennis clothes. The third man, dressed in jeans and a filthy football top, stands slightly aside as if to imply that none of this is his fault. Ruth guesses that he must be the digger driver.

She looks at the exposed soil. It has a faintly blue tinge. She kneels down and scoops some earth in her hand, giving it a surreptitious sniff.

‘What are you doing?’ asks Phil. Clearly he’s terrified that she’s going to embarrass him.

‘Fuel,’ she says. ‘Can’t you smell it? And look at the blue marks on the soil. That’s corroded aluminium. Did you have any idea that this plane was here?’

It is Edward Spens who answers. ‘Some children found some engine parts in the field long ago, I believe. But no one had any idea that this was buried here, almost intact.’

Ruth looks at the cockpit. Although dented and corroded it looks remarkably undamaged, lying almost horizontally at the foot of the crater. She’s no geometry expert but wouldn’t you expect the prow of a crashed plane to be at a steeper angle?

‘Where’s the body?’ she asks.

‘Sitting in the cockpit,’ says Edward Spens. ‘It gave Barry here quite a turn, I can tell you.’

‘Still got his bloody cap on,’ Barry mutters.

Ruth kneels down and peers through the cockpit window. She can see exactly why Barry had such a shock. Sitting in the pilot’s seat is a ghastly leathery figure, still dressed in the remnants of uniform, like some terrible joke about a delayed flight. Perched on the skull is a cap; the material has almost rotted away but the peak remains.

Ruth sits back on her heels.

‘It’s odd,’ she says, almost to herself.

‘What’s odd?’ asks Nelson. Alone of the men he doesn’t seem to be suffering from the heat, though he is wearing his usual working clothes of blue open-neck shirt and dark trousers. Ruth, who hasn’t seen him for a few weeks, thinks that he looks almost insultingly well, as if finding a body entombed in a plane is the ideal way to spend a summer day. She wonders if he’s going away on holiday this year. That’s the other part of his life; the part she can never really know.

‘The soil is loose,’ says Ruth. ‘As if it’s been disturbed recently.’

‘Of course it’s been disturbed,’ says the driver. ‘I drove a bloody digger through it, didn’t I?’ Spens makes a move as if to disassociate himself from the bad language but it takes more than that to offend Ruth when she’s in her professional mode.

‘The layers have been disturbed lower down,’ she says. ‘It’s hot, not much rain; you’d expect the particles to be packed close together. And that’s another thing. The topsoil is clay but there are chalk layers below. Chalk preserves bone but this body still has some skin on it. Look.’

Nelson leans forward. ‘It’s like that other body you found. The one on the Saltmarsh.’

Ruth looks at him. ‘Yes. The skin preservation’s typical of bodies found in bogs, not in chalky soil like this. The way the pilot’s sitting too, hands on the joystick, it’s almost as if he’s been posed.’

Ruth leans in closer. She doesn’t want to touch anything until they can do a proper excavation. Behind her, she can hear Nelson telling Spens that the field is now a crime scene.

‘The thing is,’ says Spens in his most confidential voice, ‘we’re rather up against it here. There’s been a bit of ill-feeling about this location and I’d like to get the land cleared as quickly as possible.’

‘I can’t help that,’ says Nelson. ‘I have to get a SOCO team here and Doctor Galloway will need at least a day to excavate the body. Isn’t that right, Ruth?’

‘Scene of the Crime team?’ says Spens. ‘Isn’t that going a bit far? I mean the poor chap obviously crashed his plane into this field during the war, seventy years ago. Must have landed in the chalk pit and been covered by a landslide or something. It’s not as if there’s been a crime or anything.’

‘I’m afraid you’re wrong,’ says Ruth, standing up.

‘What do you mean?’ says Spens, sounding offended.

‘I think a crime may have taken place.’

‘What makes you think that, Ruth?’ asks Phil implying, by his tone, that he is likely to side with the local captain of industry rather than his colleague.

‘There’s a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead,’ says Ruth.

1

September 2013

---

‘Just one more picture.’

‘For God’s sake, Nelson, she’ll be late for school on her first day.’

But Nelson is focusing the camera. Kate stands patiently by the fence, neatly dressed in her blue school sweatshirt and grey skirt. Her dark hair is already escaping from its plaits (Ruth isn’t very good at hair). She holds her book bag in front of her like a weapon.

‘First day at school,’ says Nelson, clicking away. ‘It doesn’t seem possible.’

‘Well, it is possible,’ says Ruth, though she has lain awake half the night wondering how on earth she can entrust her precious darling to the terrors of education. This from a person with two degrees who works in a university.

‘Come on, Kate,’ says Ruth, holding out her hand. ‘We don’t want to keep Mrs Mannion waiting.’

‘Is that your teacher?’ asks Nelson.

No, she’s the local axe-murderer, thinks Ruth. But she leaves it to Kate to tell Nelson that Mrs Mannion is very nice and that she gave her a sticker on the taster day and that she’s got a teddy bear called Blue.

‘We take it in turns to take Blue Bear home,’ she informs him. ‘But we’ve got to be good.’ She says this doubtfully, as if it’s an impossible condition.

‘Of course you’ll be good,’ says Nelson. ‘You’ll be the best.’

‘It’s not a competition,’ mutters Ruth as she opens the car door for Kate. But she has already had enough rows with Nelson about league tables and private schools and whether it’s absolutely necessary for a four-year-old to learn Mandarin. In the end, Ruth had her way and Kate is going to the local state primary school, a cheerful place whose mission statement, spelt out in multicoloured handprints above the main entrance, reads simply: ‘We have fun.’

‘You’re exactly the sort of person who’s against competition,’ says Nelson, putting away his camera.

‘What sort of person’s that?’

‘The sort of person who does well in competitions.’

Ruth can’t really deny that this is true. She has always loved learning and positively enjoyed exams. This is why she wants Kate to have fun and play with potato prints for a few years. Plenty of time for formal learning later. Nelson, who hated school and left as soon as possible, is anxious that his children should waste no time in scaling the slippery academic slope. He and Michelle sent their daughters to private schools and both went to university. Job done, though Laura is currently a holiday rep in Ibiza and Rebecca has no idea what she wants to do with her Media Studies degree beyond a vague desire to ‘work in TV’.

‘Say goodbye to Daddy,’ says Ruth.

‘Bye, Daddy.’

‘Bye, sweetheart.’ Nelson takes a last picture of Kate waving through the car window. Then he puts away his camera and goes back to have breakfast with his wife.

---

Ruth takes the familiar road with the sea on one side and the marshland on the other. Bob Woonunga, her neighbour, comes out to wave them goodbye and then there are no more houses until they reach the turn-off. It’s a beautiful day, golden and blue, the long grass waving, the sandbanks a soft blur in the distance. Ruth wonders if she should say something momentous, tell Kate about her own first day at school or something, but Kate seems quite happy, singing a jingle from an advertisement for breakfast cereal. In the end, Ruth joins in. Crunchy nuts, crunchy nuts and raisins too. Yoo hoo hoo. Raisins too.

It still sounds funny to refer to Nelson as ‘Daddy’. When Kate was three and asking questions, Ruth decided to tell her the truth, or at least a sanitised version of it. Nelson is her father; he loves her but he lives with his other family. Does he love them too? Of course he does. They all love each other in a messy twenty-first-century way. Nelson had been appalled when Ruth had told him what she was going to say. But he realised that Kate—a bright, enquiring child—needed to know something and, after all, what else could they say? Nelson’s wife, Michelle, also took the agreed line, which Ruth knows is more than she deserves. She’s glad that Kate has Michelle in her life as Michelle is a proper homemaker, good at all the mother things. She would have done those plaits right, for a start (she’s a hairdresser).

They drive past the field where the Bronze Age body was found in July. English Heritage have agreed to fund another dig and they will also include the project in their DNA study. There’s even a chance that the dig might be filmed. Two years ago Ruth appeared in a TV programme called Women Who Kill and, while the experience was traumatic in all sorts of ways, she didn’t altogether dislike the feeling of being a TV archaeology expert. She’s not a natural, like Frank Barker, the American historian who fronted the programme, but the Guardian did describe her as ‘likeable’, which is a start.

‘Mummy might be on TV again,’ she says to Kate.

‘I hope Blue Bear does come to our house,’ says Kate.

She’s right too. Blue Bear is more important just now.

Ruth had been scared that Kate would cry, that she would cry, that they would have to be prised apart by disapproving teaching assistants. But in the end, when Kate just waves happily and disappears into the sea of blue sweatshirts, that somehow feels worse than anything. Ruth turns away, blinking back foolish tears.

‘Mrs Galloway?’

Ruth turns. This is an altogether new persona for her. She likes to be called Dr Galloway at work and she has never been Mrs anything. Mrs Galloway is her mother, a formidable born-again Christian living in South London, within sight of the promised land. Should she insist on Ms or would that blight Kate’s prospects on the first day?

‘Mrs Galloway?’ The speaker is a woman. Teacher? Parent? Ruth doesn’t know. Whoever she is, she looks scarily at home in the lower-case, primary-coloured environment of the infant classrooms.

‘I’m Miss Coles, the classroom assistant. I just wondered if Kate was having school dinners or packed lunch.’

‘Dinners,’ says Ruth. She doesn’t feel up to preparing sandwiches every day.

‘Not a fussy eater then? That’s good.’

Ruth says nothing. The truth is that Kate is a rather fussy eater but Ruth always gives her food that she likes. She dreads to think of Kate’s reaction when presented with cottage pie or semolina. But surely school dinners are different now? There’s probably a salad bar and a wine list.

Miss Coles seems to take Ruth’s silence for extreme emotion (which isn’t that far from the truth). She pats the air above Ruth’s arm.

‘Don’t worry. She’ll settle in really quickly. Why don’t you go home and have a nice cup of tea?’

Actually I’ve got to give a lecture on palaeolithic burial practices, thinks Ruth. But she doesn’t say this aloud. She thanks Miss Coles and walks quickly away.

---

Nelson, too, finds it hard to stop thinking about Kate. He wishes that he had been able to take her to school but it was generous enough of Michelle to agree to the early morning visit. The late breakfast together was meant to be Nelson’s attempt to say thank you, but when he reaches the house, Michelle is on her way out of the door. There’s a crisis at the salon, she says, she needs to get to work straight away. She kisses Nelson lightly and climbs into her car. Nelson watches as she performs a neat three-point-turn and drives off, her face set as if she’s already thinking about work. Nelson sighs and gets back into his battered Mercedes.

But, when he gets to the station, there is some compensation. Amongst all the rubbish in his inbox, one email stands out: ‘Dental records on skull found 17/7/13’. This is the American pilot, the one found in the summer in the cockpit of his buried plane. After Ruth had excavated the skeleton, an autopsy had found that death probably occurred as a result of the bullet wound in the temple. Here the investigation would probably have stalled without the generosity of the American Air Force, who had offered to fund DNA tests and extensive forensic investigations. Even so, the laboratories had taken their time. In August, Nelson had rather reluctantly accompanied Michelle on holiday to Spain (far too hot) and had returned to find that no progress had been made. Well, it looks as if they have a result at last. Nelson clicks open the email, still standing up.

‘Cloughie!’ he calls, a moment later.

DS Clough appears in the doorway, a half-eaten bagel in his hand.

‘Look at this. We’ve got a positive match for our American pilot.’

Clough peers over his boss’s shoulder. ‘Frederick J. Blackstock. Who’s he when he’s at home?’

‘Come on, Cloughie. You’re from Hunstanton way. Don’t you recognise the name?’

‘Blackstock. Oh, those Blackstocks. Do you think he’s related?’

‘I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.’

‘Why would a Yank pilot

Reviews for The Ghost Fields

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When a digger clearing land for a new bunch of luxury beach homes discovers a buried airplane with the pilot still on board, both DCI Nelson and Forensic Anthropologist Ruth Galloway are called in. Ruth is quick to note that things aren't as they appear. Besides the fact that the condition of the remains isn't right, there is a gunshot wound in the body's temple. Nelson isn't sure that a death that occurred during the Second World War is a high priority, but he sends samples for DNA testing to identify the body.Once the identity comes back indicating that the DNA matches that of the prominent Blackstock family, the case gets more interesting. Fred Blackstock was supposed to have died over the sea with his body lost at sea. How did this tail gunner wind up in the cockpit of a plane buried in a chalk pit?The investigation raises a bunch of questions and the Blackstocks aren't all that forthcoming. Some of them are eager when a US television company wants to do a program about American flyers in Britain during WWII and wants to include Fred Blackstock's story since he moved to the US but came back to fight for Britain. Of course, the TV company includes Frank - the historian with whom Ruth had a brief relationship in an earlier book in the series which adds some romantic complications in Ruth's life.Then another body is found. This one was eaten by pigs on Chaz Blackstock's farm leaving only a few bones and teeth. DNA indicates that he too is related to the Blackstocks and research finds that he is the son of the long-lost oldest brother who disappeared shortly after WWII. Along with the mystery, there are some romantic complications. Ruth and Nelson share a five-year-old Kate but have an undefined relationship. He's married to Michelle who seems to be working her way into a relationship with one of Nelson's subordinates. Then there is Clough, another of Nelson's subordinates, who falls in love with the Blackstock daughter who is set to inherit the estate. This was another entertaining and intriguing episode in the Ruth Galloway series. The romantic complications were as much of the plot and as interesting as the mystery.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A WWII plane, complete with pilot, is unearthed during excavation of a dummy airfield now destined to become a housing development. The only problem is, the body has a bullet hole in the forehead, and turns out to be the scion of a prominent local family, a man reportedly lost at sea during the war in another plane entirely. What can explain all this? Well, Ruth and Nelson, with help from their colleagues and friends (a motley crew, if ever there was one) are going to figure it all out, as we know. A most engaging vacation read.

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A solid outing for Ruth Galloway. I enjoyed the mystery and I thought this one has particularly well developed characters.

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pleasingly creepy and convoluted. Glad there was a 2 year gap in the lives since last we heard from Ruth Galloway, because my god, how many times can 1 character nearly get murdered? I may have to slow down on the series again, because I'm starting to slip back into the frustrations of the early books, in which I loved the characters, but it seems like Ruth always has to end up as the focus of the murderer at the denouement. In any case, I enjoyed it and I'm surprised to find myself as a fan of Clough.

[the7ken7petersen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

She's done it again: all the clues were there... why didn't I tag the murderer during the early chapters? Elly Griffiths always plays fair: there are no characters introduced in the penultimate chapter who turn out to be the murderer. Still she fools me on a regulars basis; and I love it!Always a great way to end the day.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am becoming intrigued by this series, and wonder how long Elly Griffiths can maintain the high quality. In too many other series that I have initially enjoyed, the writer seems to have run out of steam or fallen back on simples rehashing of the interplay between characters, leaving me frustrated after a few volumes. Certainly this book, which I believe is the seventh in the sequence, is just as gripping and enjoyable as its predecessors. Once again, she manages to achieve a joyous blend of strong characters, vivid settings, engaging plot and what I presume is accurate archaeological context (and if it isn’t then I suppose she earns more marks for convincing fabrication!).The ghost fields of the title are the disused airfields from the Second World War that were strewn all over East Anglia and the fens. When a tract of open and is bought by a local property developer, the initial land clearing work uncovers an almost intact American fighter plane from the War. More surprisingly still, the plane contains a body, but it soon transpires that, firstly, it is not the pilot, and secondly that, rather than dying from wounds sustained in the crash landing, he had been shot at fairly close range.As a consequence of her occasional consultative work with the local police, Dr Ruth Galloway, lecturer in archaeology at the University of North Norfolk, is called in to look at the remains, with a view to dating them. Meanwhile, she is engaged in a more conventional archaeological dig which has uncovered an ancient body. Intriguingly, a DNA check as part of a much wider project shows that the old body shares a significant amount of genetic material with the long-established local family on whose land the more recent body has been found. Similar tests on the body in the plane throw up more unexpected results.As always with the Ruth Galloway books, much of the enjoyment derives from Elly Griffiths’ management of the various tensions between the central characters. New twists emerge on that front, as well, and I was pleased to find Cathdbad, local Druid leader, still playing his part, turning up when least expected, despite falling prey to a degree of domesticity arising from his complicated family positionI am looking forward to the next instalment.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The next in the Ruth Galloway series. IN this one, a digger driver uncovers a WW2 plan in a field being prepared for housing. He stopps to investigate and gets the fright of his life when he finds the pilot inside. Only it's not quite as simple as that. Turns out that it's not the pilot, it was atail gunner of a bomber who had been shot down over the sea a week before this plane crashed, and the dental records & DNA prove that. So where's the pilot been all these years? Especially when Ruth comes along and excavates, discoveing that he hadn't been in the plane for almost 70 years, but had been buried somewhere else first. The plane is on land that used to belong to the Blackstock family, a down at heel branch of the landed gentry who have owned the hall since, well, forever. It all gets complicated, as these things do. The story of who the pilot is and where he has been in the meantime is followed by a family funeral that draws Blackstocks from near and far and results in an attack on one of them. That's fillowed up by a couple mnore attacks, only it is fortunate that our attacker is more ethnusuastic than efficient.There's a lot going on in here. Kate starts school, Ruth generally frets about her, teh delctable frank make a re-appearance and there's some dodgy dealings that are a bit close to home (saying no more). The downside of this one if that it does rely on confession to seal the deal. Nelson may have his gut tell him who dun it, but it takes a went night and a confession to bring it to the open. It's all great fun.

[siri51 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another mystery in a gloomy setting - archaeology, family history, recent murder. Just the thing for reading on a gloomy beach, cold showery weather like in Norfolk?

[lauralkeet · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The seventh Ruth Galloway mystery finds Ruth once again in the TV spotlight. A body is found while digging on a building construction site, and the circumstances result in Ruth being called in to analyze the remains. The body turns out to be a member of the Blackstock family, local landed gentry, who was believed to have died in a WW II airplane crash at sea. The story attracts the attention of an American TV production company. They are interested in Ruth’s archaeological perspective, and sparks fly again when Frank returns as the documentary’s host. While the details were different, this basic framework was a little repetitive. Fortunately side plots kept the story moving along. Judy Johnson is very pregnant, so you know she will go into labor at the most inopportune moment. David Clough learns he has an ancestral relationship with the Blackstock family. And Elly Griffiths lets readers in on a secret concerning DCI Harry Nelson that could have serious consequences. The mystery wraps up with a race against time to keep the baddie from committing further crimes, and then leaves a few loose ends to be enjoyed in the eighth book, which I’m sure I’ll be reading soon.

[lisa2013_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed and was grateful for the family tree at the start of the book. I like that this series has this sort of extra information and sometimes maps. I also appreciate the author’s note at the end which explains which places, events, etc. are real and which are fictional.I liked the mystery. It did get really complicated at the end but I didn’t get annoyed the way I have in another couple of books regarding certain people unnecessarily running into danger.It’s the main recurring and sometimes new/recurring characters that keep me coming back. Even with love triangles and other soap opera like components I want to keep reading. Even with one or two characters seeming to behave out of character in this book I still really liked it. I like that one character was uncharacteristically wrong about two things.I appreciated the two year gap between book six and this seventh book. I like Kate even more, now that she’s older and more talkative, and I liked hearing some of what has happened with Ruth without having to read everything in real time. I like that Kate’s parentage is now out in the open. I like Kate and think the kids in these books make them better.4-1/2 starsI’m eager to keep reading. I love this series. I am reading these with Hilary and we’re planning to read book 8 later this month.

[sandyamcpherson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A mystery that relies on DNA analyses to reveal surprising family connections amongst the Norfolk inhabitants. I was (as usual) immediately drawn into the story by Griffiths' excellent opening chapter. The continuing antics of Ruth's child, Kate, are very genuine and throw the characters into likeable, human scenarios. There were a few developments in Ruth's love life that seemed a bit unstable but in keeping with the persona that the author is evolving for the protagonist. I had a sense that I could "see" where the whole castle of cards was going... some of this was a mildly disappointing romance development.A further disappointment was how Ruth starts off in the story at a Bronze Age excavation, but nothing much develops from there. I am a particular fan of the ancient history that Griffiths weaves into her stories, so having this opening scenario play no part of the ensuing more recent find (a WW II connection) gave the novel an unfinished feel. Perhaps the author was 'world-building' for the next book.

[ameise1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is another good Ruth Galloway thriller. While Ruth is at a Bronze Age excavation site, a WWII plane is found buried in the neighborhood. In the cockpit sits a corpse from the same time, only Ruth has to realize that this body was recently placed in the cockpit. With the help of modern technology, it quickly becomes clear that he is dead. The question that needs to be clarified is how did he get to this place?It was a fun read from the first to the last page.

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The mystery in this one was a bit complex, and I had to keep reminding myself of the family tree and how all the men (and it was all men) were related to each other. Not much for Ruth on the archeology front, although the story was funny on the way the television producers wanted a good story even though it bore no relation to reality. I did not see Tim's relationship coming...

[pennykaplan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

During constructions in Norfolk a WW2 plane is uncovered with the pilot inside. But Ruth feels this is a recent burial. Investigation leads to complicated family relationships, and a family member willing to murder.

[patriciau-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This most recent entry in Griffiths' series featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway is just as entertaining and engaging as her earlier work. This time, Ruth is called in to investigate the body of a WWII airman found in an old plane unearthed during a construction project. Ruth is partnered once again with Harry Nelson, the gruff policeman who also happens to be the father of her daughter. Ruth and Harry encounter all sorts of mysterious incidents as their investigation links the body to the Blackstock family, landed gentry who have inhabited Norfolk for hundreds of years. Family secrets combine with some interesting developments in the Ruth-Frank-Harry-Michelle-Tim relationship mess to make Ghost Fields a good read.

While the story was solid and moved along nicely to an unexpected surprise, I found it somewhat unsatisfying. I really wanted to see more of the Michelle-Tim subplot developed, but I am sure that will happen in future entries in the series. Overall, a fun read. Recommended for most mystery collections.

[ffortsa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A local set of landed gentry, a World War II plane in a chalk field by the sea, and a Bronze-Age dig all feature in this episode of the Ruth Galloway series. Along with the mystery, there's plenty of romance here, although not quite where the reader might expect it. Kate is 5 years old and starting school(!), Judy is living with Cathbad and heavy with her second child, and things are not all they should be in Nelson's happy marriage. When the plane is unearthed in a building site, with a body inside, Ruth is called in to apply her forensic skills, and determines that the body has been recently planted, although not recently dead. Identified as a member of the U.S. Air Force as well as a member of the Blackstock family, this corpse brings U.S. television interest and Frank Barker back to Norfolk. And when members of the family get attacked, it becomes urgent to ask where the body came from, and why?

[jillcurrie_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book.

[catzkc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very solid 3-3.5 stars. It took a while for this one to really get going, but I thought it was well worth the wait!

[olivermagnus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ghost Fields is the seventh book in the Ruth Galloways erie Ruth is a 45 year old self described overweight forensic archaeologist who works primarily for the University of North Norfolk. She and Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson have teamed up on several occasions to help solve crimes. They also have a five year old daughter, Kate, despite Harry's marriage to the beautiful Michelle. Michelle allows Harry to see Kate but insists that Harry only see Ruth in a professional capacity.

Ruth is digging at a Bronze Age burial site when she gets a call from Harry that there’s a plane buried in a field nearby. Probably from the Second World War, the aircraft still holds the body of the pilot When Ruth notices a bullet hole in the middle of the pilot's forehead the plane becomes a crime scene. It also looks like someone has been digging in a local pet cemetery recently and Harry begins to wonder if the skeleton has been recently moved.

There are plenty of suspects, especially those from Blackstock Hall, where we meeting Old George, his son Young George, his wife, Sally, and his grandchildren, Chaz and Cassandra. When the body is identified as Old George's brother, Fred, we also bring in American Nell Blackstock and her husband. A television crew is interested in filming a story about the lost hero found in the plane and that brings Frank Barker back into Ruth's circle.

I really like this series, with its well-drawn characters who seem very much like real people. Druid Cathbad now married to Judy, Dave Clough and Tim all have their own stories to tell, which adds an interesting dimension to the story. As always, the book grips from the beginning and draws the reader into a fascinating blend of crime and history. I'm a huge fan of this series but wouldn't recommend this as the first one you read. Many of the recurring characters have stories that would be better if you've read a few of the previous book.

[labdaddy4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A relatively light story about murder & mystery in England. This is the 7th in a series by the author with archaeologist Ruth Galloway as the primary character. There was little character background or development as is often typical in a series with repeating cast of characters. The story line had many twists and turns with the general plot becoming "muddied" as a result.for a murder mystery there really was not much action - overall rather "gentle".

[andrew1theqm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another very good outing for Elly Griffiths in this seventh book in the Ruth Galloway Series. Certainly a series worth reading if you haven't already tried it. 

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Ghost Fields by Elly GriffithsRuth Galloway series Book # 75&#9733'sA construction worker near University Professor and Forensic Archaeologist Ruth Galloway's home on the coast of Norfolk, England, discovers a buried WWII-era fighter plane with the pilot still inside....or it is assumed that the body is that of the pilot. Ruth is called to investigate along with DCI Harry Nelson who just happens to be the father of Ruth's 5 year old daughter.The discovery of the grisly human remains ignites a series of mysteries that all seem to evolve around the Blackstock's...a family of nobility who has lived in the area since the Bronze Age and who may have a few more skeletons stashed in the closet and elsewhere. Soon Ruth and Harry Nelson's team are investigating throughout the countryside, from the developer’s digging site to a derelict WWII American airfield—one of many known as “ghost fields”. The success of this wonderful series is due to the intriguing and ever developing cast of characters that readers of this series look forward to meeting again and again. Characters like Ruth and Harry...Kate the 5 year old...Judy, Cloughie and Tim...Harry's sometimes bumbling but competent team of investigators..and Cathbad the ever lovable and not always right Durid, whose presence the story would just not be the same without. There is no need to say that I really enjoyed The Ghost Fields. Long may the series run.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway finds a World War II aviator buried in a crashed fighter plane. The only problem is that the pilot in the cockpit is not the pilot who was supposed to be flying the plane — indeed, he was supposedly lost at sea in an earlier crash. So how did he end up buried in a plane not his own, and with a bullet hole in his skull? That's for the murderer to know and Ruth to find out, and she does eventually, with the help of Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson and his squad. Even more than most of the books in this series, The Ghost Fields provides a very evocative image of Norfolk, with thunderstorms, torrential rains, floods and more all emphasizing the tenuous hold that humans have on the land along the British coast. Highly recommended series.

[justacatandabook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Archaeologist Ruth Galloway is back again, this time called on by Detective Chief Inspector Nelson to investigate a skeleton found in a World War II plane. Once Ruth realizes the dead man sitting in the plane couldn't actually have been the pilot (oh and he's been shot, too), things unfold quickly from there. Ruth and Nelson become ensnared with the upper class Blackstock family, who somehow become enmeshed in all aspects of Nelson's case and investigation. Further, a TV company decides to make a film about the case. This means a return of actor Frank Barker, who was looking to start a relationship with Ruth in the previous novel.

As I've said before, I absolutely love the Ruth Galloway series. I completely identify with Ruth, and I love the way Griffiths writes her - she's a smart, funny, modern woman and mother. This book in the series (#7!) doesn't disappoint. The mystery plot is snappy and intriguing, as we meet various Blackstocks and uncover their diverse motives. In much of the book, the weather is its own sub-plot, and it's done well. We get more character development/advancement with Ruth, Nelson, Nelson's wife Michelle, and Frank, along with the funny tidbits I've come to expect from Ruth (and Kate, who is growing up!). The entire book is cozy and familiar (I love how Ruth identifies with her car, for instance - so me!), yet propelled by a completely enjoyable and thrilling mystery. Can't go wrong with this one. I'm so looking forward to #8.

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

These audio books make perfect listening and really present this series well.Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist from North Norfolk University, is excavating a Iron Age dig when the buried World War II plane is discovered in Devil's Hollow, land that used to be part of the Blackstock Estate, now being "developed". Ruth is called to the site by her friend DI Harry Nelson. She quickly comes to the conclusion that the body in the cockpit was not only murdered but, although it has been dead for decades, has only recently been moved there from its original burial site.There is quite a lot going on in this novel, including personal developments in Ruth's life. It does help to have read earlier novels in the series, particular for appreciating the development of recurring characters. A DNA project reveals that one of Nelson's team has Blackstock blood, and then two people are attacked, presumably because they are connected to the Blackstock family.English weather plays a major part in events too as the July heat wave comes to an end with rain storms and high tides. Blackstock Hall is cut off from the main roads by rising water, and Ruth hears a murderer's confession that put her in real danger.Good reading.

[kathy89_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ghost Fields are the abandoned WWII airfields and during a construction project an old plane is unearthed. There's a body in it with a mysterious bullet hole in the skull but after DNA analysis it's the wrong body and introduces the Blackstock family who had been notified of their missing relative. Figuring out who that is while updating the lives of Ruth, Nelson, Michelle, Frank Cathsbad, judy and Clough made this a page turner.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Apparently 'ghost' is still a keyword that will trigger my interest in any novel, but I genuinely enjoyed this archaeological/police procedural mystery (after working out all the characters - Ruth has a daughter with Nelson who is married to Michelle who is having an affair with ..someone.. who works with Clough and Ruth who is having a baby with Cathbad. I think.) I'm also really intrigued by the idea of the 'ghost fields', or abandoned World War Two airfields in Norfolk, and might have to read further. One day.Ah, the dysfunctional upper class family - where would British murder mystery novels be without them? When a mummified pilot is found in an old fighter plane buried beneath land being prepared for redevelopment, forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway is called in by her former lover and father of her daughter, DCI Harry Nelson, to investigate. What she discovers only causes further problems for the Blackstock family who once owned the land - the body of the pilot, a local man, was not killed in a crash landing. He was murdered.I took a while to get all the character names straight - the Blackstocks were actually easier to untangle than Ruth and the police - and didn't really gel with any apart from Ruth and - randomly - Sergeant Clough, but the mystery is solid and based on interesting historical fact. The Norfolk setting and crazy weather also proved very atmospheric. Might be tempted to read on - or read backwards through Elly Griffiths' other Ruth Galloway mysteries - but definitely only borrow and not buy.

[librarian1204 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good series with an interesting MC. I liked the back story of WWII US air fields now left as ghost fields in England. Easy read but with enough character interest to keep this series going.

[twink_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My power went out this past Sunday - which was the perfect opportunity to sit by a window most of the day devouring the latest in Elly Griffith's wonderful Ruth Galloway series - The Ghost Fields. I've been eagerly awaiting this seventh entry.Forensic anthropologist Ruth is on a dig in Norfolk, when she is called on by the local police to consult on a rather unusual call. A World War II plane has been uncovered by a developer clearing a field. Why call Ruth? Well, the pilot is still inside. And when Ruth determines that the body isn't that of the original pilot, but rather the son of a wealthy local family reported as killed in action, it becomes a murder case. Murder? Uh huh - there's a bullet hole in the skull and evidence the body has been placed in the plane.Great premise as always from Griffiths. Her mysteries are well thought out and plotted with lots of possibilities as to the end result. I was quite sure of whodunit this time, but was proven wrong in the last few chapters.But what draws me to this series are the characters. I adore the character of Ruth. I think it's because she isn't a 'cookie-cutter' protagonist. She's become a single mother later in life, she's hard on herself, generous with her friends, is highly intelligent, but shuns the spotlight. She's not beautiful in a conventional sense, but has that something that draws people to her. Griffiths has not endowed her with super sleuth abilities, rather she comes off as an actual person - unabashedly and happily herself. The evolution of Ruth's relationship with Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson has been a constant from the first book. Indeed, this thread is just (if not more) as engaging as the mystery in each book.There are many supporting players that I've come to enjoy (and dislike) as well. Griffiths has also fleshed them out with rich, full personal lives. Ruth's boss Phil's pronouncements are always good for a chuckle. Judy and Clough, who work with Harry, are part of Ruth's life as well. This is what I enjoy so much - Griffiths doesn't let her characters be - their lives are evolving as they would in real life. There were a few unexpected developments this time out with one of the Detectives. But my personal favourite is the enigmatic Cathbad, self proclaimed Druid.I've learned something from every book in this series as well. Griffiths' cases use history as a basis. The Ghost Fields are abandoned air fields in Norfolk. The reasons and results from Ruth's archaeological investigations are always informative and interesting.Setting is also a character in Griffiths' books. The Norfolk area, while seemingly bleak, is beautiful in Ruth's eyes. I think I would enjoy living in her little cottage in the Saltmarsh, 'where the sea and the sky meet.'I highly recommend this character driven mystery series. You could certainly read this book as a stand alone, but do yourself a favour and start with The Crossing Places, the first book.

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Elly Griffiths' Dr. Ruth Galloway series is one of my must-buys, and it just keeps getting better with each new book. In The Ghost Fields, the weather plays an integral part in the action, first with unrelenting heat and then with endless rain and flooding. Griffiths makes Norfolk come to life, and her choice of title is particularly evocative. This book talks not only of the abandoned air fields of World War II, but other "ghost fields" from centuries past. Ruth is dealing with a Bronze Age burial when the book begins, and there have also been battles fought in the exact same area during the English Civil War. No, Norfolk is not short of ghost fields, and further questions arise once we're introduced to the Blackstock family. They live in a drafty, ramshackle manor house barely holding its own against the water around it, and the family is just as strange as the ancestral home. A batty grandfather. A pleasant but distant father. A welcoming mother who's filled with unrealistic schemes to turn the house into a moneymaker. A handsome, charming pig farmer of a son who values his privacy. An incredibly beautiful daughter who's determined to make her name as an actress. Each Blackstock is odd in his or her own way, and trying to gather them together is like trying to herd cats. When DCI Harry Nelson throws up his hands and growls that there are too many Blackstocks, you just have to smile ruefully and agree.But family is an important theme in The Ghost Fields, and it's not just the Blackstocks. Ruth's daughter Kate is five and now in school. Being a good mother is even more important to Ruth than the work she is so passionate about. Nelson has issues with both his family at home and his co-workers. He even realizes that he considers Clough and Judy to be family. Griffiths knows how to keep her readers completely involved with her characters. The mystery and the characters rely on each other.There's history. There's danger. There's plenty of family feeling, and contrary to a visiting American's belief that "there's never bad weather in England," there's plenty of that as well. By book's end, we may even have sorted out all those Blackstocks.The only bad thing about finishing The Ghost Fields is knowing that I have to wait for the next book. This series is superb, and this book is the best so far. If you've never met Ruth Galloway, treat yourself. Start at the beginning with The Crossing Places and read each one. You'll be as hooked as I am.