A Dying Fall: A Mystery

By Elly Griffiths

Forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway investigates a heart-stopping case: an old university friend and fellow archeologist murdered in an arson attack.

When Ruth Galloway learns that her old university friend Dan Golding has died in a house fire, she is shocked and saddened. But when she receives a letter that Dan had written just before he died, her sadness turns to suspicion.The letter tells of a great archaeological discovery, but Dan also says that he is scared for his life.

Was Dan’s death linked to his find? The only clue is his mention of the Raven King, an ancient name for King Arthur. When she arrives in Lancashire, Ruth discovers that the bones reveal a shocking fact about King Arthur—and that the bones have mysteriously vanished.

The case draws in DCI Nelson, determined to protect Ruth and their eighteen-month-old daughter, Kate. But someone is willing to kill to keep the bones a secret, and it is beginning to look as if no one is safe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9780547793696

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 U.S. edition

Copyright © 2013 by Elly Griffiths

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First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Quercus

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

ISBN 978-0-547-79816-5

Author photograph © Sara Reeve

eISBN 978-0-547-79369-6

v10.0821

For John Maxted and for Sarah and Michael Whitehead

‘That strain again! It had a dying fall:

O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound

That breathes upon a bank of violets

Stealing and giving odour! Enough, no more;

Tis not so sweet now as it was before . . .’

—Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Prologue

At first he isn’t even scared. Even though his room is full of smoke, and when he reaches the top of the stairs the heat makes him stagger backwards, eyes stinging. It’s only a fire and he knows what to do in a fire, he learnt it at Cubs some thirty years ago. Besides, he’s in a tiny two-storey house, not the Towering Inferno (a film that he must have watched at about the same time, come to think of it). He knows the bedroom window doesn’t open and the bathroom window’s too small but the front door is only a few steps away, just down those stairs. How hard can it be? Still calm, he goes back into the bathroom and soaks a towel, just like Akela told him. He wraps the towel round his face and starts to descend the stairs. It is hard, far harder than he thought possible. In the past he has read about people in fires being ‘beaten back by the heat’ and, deep down, he had always thought, ‘Wimps. It’s just hot air. Push through it.’ But this doesn’t seem like air any more, it’s solid, and he has to batter against it with his whole body. After three steps he is exhausted and the heat is just getting stronger. He can’t see much because of the towel, but he can hear the fire—a sort of dull rushing sound filling the whole of the downstairs. He can smell it too; it smells industrial and serious.

But he can hear something else. Sirens. Someone must have called the fire brigade. Hallelujah. He’s saved. He falls the last few steps, right onto the front door. The handle is so hot that it sticks to his hand but he holds on and turns with all his might, pushing against the door with his shoulders. The towel slips and suddenly he’s choking. The hall is full of dense black smoke and he’s gasping for breath. With his last atom of strength he hurls himself against the door. Only then does he realise that it’s locked. From the outside.

And now he’s scared.

1

The phone is ringing when Ruth opens the front door. She pauses on the threshold, wondering whether she should just let it ring. Her friends all have her mobile number. The landline can only mean her mother or someone trying to sell her double glazing, and even though the windows of her cottage rattle in the wind she likes it that way, thank you very much. Her mother will only be ringing to torment her (‘I saw Janice’s daughter the other day, she’s a GP, ever so slim and attractive, and she’s got three children and they all play the violin. How’s the diet going?’). She decides to ignore it but Kate, her eighteen-month-old daughter, runs past her yelling ‘Ring! Ring!’ Kate picks up the phone and says clearly, ‘Piss.’ Cursing Cathbad, Kate’s Druid godfather, who has taught her the all-purpose salutation, ‘Peace’, Ruth snatches the phone away.

‘Hello?’

‘Ruth?’ It’s a woman and she’s laughing. ‘Did someone just say piss?’

‘That was Kate.’ Ruth is rifling through her mental list of acquaintances. Who can this be? Someone from the university? A chatty window saleswoman? But she sounds familiar . . .

‘Ruth,’ says the voice, ‘it’s Caz. Carol.’

Carol. One of Ruth’s best friends from her university days. A fellow archaeology student, ex-flatmate, loyal drinking companion and repository of secrets. With a rush of guilt, Ruth realises that when she transferred her contacts onto her new phone last year she must have forgotten Caz. They haven’t spoken for almost three years.

‘I tried you on your mobile,’ Caz is saying, ‘but there was no answer.’

As Ruth’s old mobile is currently reposing at the bottom of the sea, or washed up like flotsam on some North Norfolk beach, this is hardly surprising.

‘I’m sorry,’ says Ruth. ‘I’ve got a new one. I’ve been a bit crap about updating it.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ says Caz. ‘It’s great to hear your voice.’

‘Great to hear you too.’ Ruth feels a rush of affection for Caz, cool spiky-haired Caz, expert exponent of drinking games, fan of explosive cocktails and dry-stone walls, anarchist and fearless beret-wearer. She’s an accountant now.

‘I’m really sorry, Ruth,’ Caz is saying, and all the laughter has gone from her voice. ‘But I’m ringing with bad news.’

‘Oh God.’ Again Ruth rifles through her list of friends. Is anyone dead, sick? She has just reached the age when her friends start to seem mortal. She watches as Kate staggers into the room carrying Ruth’s cat, Flint. ‘Ahh! My Flinty.’

‘Put him down, Kate.’ Flint is giving her martyred looks over Kate’s shoulder.

‘What?’ says Caz.

‘Sorry. Just talking to Kate.’

‘Oh, I forgot you had a child. How old is she now?’

‘Nearly two.’ She feels stupid saying eighteen months and thinks that Caz, who has three children of her own, doesn’t sound particularly interested.

‘Cute,’ says Caz briefly. ‘The news. It’s Dan. Dan Golding.’

‘Dan? Dan the Man?’

Dan Golding. Dan the man. The coolest archaeologist ever. The Indiana Jones of UCL. Ruth hasn’t heard from him for years but she has always imagined that he’s doing impossibly exciting things, finding the Lost Ark of the Covenant, starring in a Hollywood film, marrying Angelina Jolie.

‘What’s happened to him?’ she asks.

‘He’s dead,’ says Caz. ‘I read it in the paper. He was working at Pendle University and he died in a fire.’

‘Jesus.’ In all her imaginings, Ruth never thought of anything like this. Dan Golding the victim of something as simple and devastating as a fire. And Pendle University? It’s one of the new ones, like North Norfolk, the university where Ruth works. Nothing wrong with that, just that she’d always imagined Dan working at Cambridge or Harvard. Or diving for pearls off some South Sea Island.

‘I didn’t know he was working at Pendle,’ she says stupidly.

‘Nor did I. It’s just round the corner from me.’ Of course, Caz lives up north.

‘It was awful,’ Caz is saying, ‘I just read it in the local paper. Archaeologist Daniel Golding found dead in his Fleetwood cottage. I didn’t even twig at first because I’ve never thought of him as Daniel.’

‘How did the . . . what happened?’

‘The article just said that he’d died in a house fire. The place was completely gutted apparently. They think it was caused by faulty electric wiring.’

Faulty electric wiring. Could Dan the Man really be destroyed by a bit of flex, a badly earthed plug, a few pluses and minuses going the wrong way? It just doesn’t seem possible.

‘Are you sure it was him?’ asks Ruth with sudden hope. ‘Our Dan?’

‘Yes,’ says Caz sadly. ‘I rang his sister. You remember his sister Miriam, two years above us?’

Ruth dimly remembers a darkly glamorous presence at some of their parties. Miriam Golding. She had heard rumours that she became a model.

‘How did you track her down?’

‘It was easy enough. She’s on Facebook.’

Ruth has never got to grips with Facebook. It’s another aspect of the modern world that seems beyond her. She can’t understand why you’d want to update your friends every time you make a cup of tea. In any case, her friends are a small select group. Smaller now.

‘The funeral’s tomorrow,’ Caz is saying.

‘So soon?’

‘It’s the Jewish tradition, Miriam says.’

Ruth had never even realised that Dan was Jewish. They didn’t talk much about religion when they were students—the meaning of life, yes, everyday beliefs, no. In any case, Ruth had been in full-scale flight from her parents’ evangelism. The G-word would have sent her running for cover.

‘I wish I could be there,’ she says, meaning it.

‘I know. I don’t know if it’s appropriate to send flowers or not, but if I do I’ll send them from both of us.’

‘Thanks, Caz.’

‘Good to speak to you, Ruth. It’s been too long.’

‘Yes, it has.’

‘Maybe you’ll come up to Lytham some time?’

Ruth laughs. ‘Maybe.’ Secretly she’s thinking that, after the events of the past few years, she needs to take Kwells if she goes further afield than the Chinese takeaway.

‘Maybe you’ll come to Norfolk,’ she says.

Now it’s Caz’s turn to laugh. ‘You never know. Take care, Ruth.’

As Ruth makes supper she thinks about the fact that Caz, in the north of England, seems further away than her neighbour, Bob, who’s currently in his native Australia. It’s more than distance, surely. The truth is that when Caz got married (to Pete, another university friend) and had her children, she began to move away from the single, childless Ruth—just as, some eight thousand years ago, the sea levels rose and Britain was separated from the European landmass, the channel river widening into a sea—so that, now Ruth feels herself almost a different species from her erstwhile friend. True, Ruth now has a child of her own (interesting that Caz had forgotten, but then Ruth herself sometimes still finds it hard to believe) but she still doesn’t feel that she is a Mother (capital letters) and certainly she’s never been a Wife. She has her work but Caz, along with most of Ruth’s other classmates, long ago abandoned archaeology for a more lucrative career.

There is something quixotic, almost eccentric, about carrying on digging and sifting and lecturing on flint hand-axes. Come to think of it, Dan was probably the only other member of the class of ’89 still involved in archaeology. Ruth and Dan were the only two students in their year to get firsts but Ruth feels now that she wasn’t really passionate about archaeology until she did a post-graduate degree and met the brilliant and charismatic Professor Erik Anderssen, Erik the Viking. Well, Erik is dead now, and though he still haunts her dreams he does so less and less. But Ruth is still plugging away at archaeology. It is just a surprise that Dan was doing similar badly paid, unglamorous work. And now he, too, is dead.

Ruth makes pasta and they eat at a plastic table in the front garden, a sensible precaution given Kate’s predilection for smearing food over all surrounding surfaces, but also a real joy on evenings like this. It is still light but there is a soft, diluted feel to the air. Beyond Ruth’s fence the long grass is tawny and gold, with the occasional flash of dark blue water as the marsh leads out to the sea. In the distance the sand glimmers like a mirage, and further still the sea comes whispering in to shore, heralded by the seagulls flying high above the waves. Ruth has lived here for thirteen years now and she has never tired of the view, the lonely beauty of the marshland, the high-arching wonder of the sky. The situation is isolated in the extreme; just three cottages perched on a road to nowhere. One neighbour, Bob Woonunga, is an Indigenous Australian poet who spends much of the year on the other side of the world. The other cottage is a holiday home owned by a couple who seem to have forgotten its existence, although their son and his university friends sometimes come down for noisy weekends of surfing and partying. Ruth finds herself quite looking forward to these weekends, although Flint hates the smell of dope and Kate is kept awake all night by N-Dubz remixes.

Bob will be back in July but Ruth knows that this June is probably as good as it will get. By August the sky will be grey and the streets of King’s Lynn full of bored schoolchildren looking for distraction. But now, in term-time with exams in full swing, the unfeeling sun shines for day after unbelievable day. Ruth feels sorry for the children but the good weather has come at the perfect time for her. June is the month of their annual university dig which, this year, is taking place at a Roman site near Swaffham. Ruth teaches forensic archaeology, her students are mainly postgraduates from overseas, and it seems unfair to expose them to Norfolk in the winter or even the spring. So the June dig will be their first practical assignment. For Ruth, too, it’s her first dig for a while and one which is close to her heart. The Roman remains, which promise to be part of a sizeable settlement, were first discovered by Max Grey, an archaeologist at Sussex University and Ruth’s . . . But, as ever, at the thought of defining her relationship with Max, Ruth’s mind skitters away in a panic.

Kate has finished throwing her pasta around and she totters off to look for Flint. Ruth follows, glancing at her watch. Seven o’clock. If she can keep Kate busy for another half hour, she’ll sleep well tonight. Ruth feels pretty tired herself. It’s been a long time since she’s spent the whole day in the open air. She enjoys teaching archaeology but her real love is digging. She loves the mixture of painstaking order and backbreaking work, hauling earth about like a navvy one minute and dusting the sand away from a shard of bone the next. She loves the sight of a neat trench, its sides perfectly straight, the soil below exposed in clear layers. She remembers the moment, here on the Saltmarsh, when she found the body of an Iron Age girl, a bracelet of grass still around one wrist. That was the day when she first met DCI Harry Nelson.

Kate discovers Flint in the back garden and chases him through the blackberry bushes. Ruth sits on the grass and watches them. She thinks of Max and Nelson and Dan. She was never in love with Dan but, right now, their friendship seems sharper and sweeter than any love affair. She can picture Dan’s face perfectly whereas she would have difficulty recalling the features of Peter, the man she lived with for almost ten years. Similarly, her university years suddenly seemed bathed in a light much brighter than the dusky twilight glow in the garden. She thinks of Gordon Square, the University of London Union, beer at a pound a pint, the night bus, Bilal’s kebab shop, the sound of a radio playing on a still afternoon, Sonia singing ‘You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You’. Why hadn’t she kept in better touch with Dan? She knows that as a working-class girl from South London she had always felt slightly in awe of him, the son of wealthy Islington intellectuals. She remembers that Dan had played the piano to almost concert standard, had been able to tell off-colour jokes in several languages, had spent a year teaching English in Japan. They had been friends and classmates, but in other respects they were worlds apart. When did she last see Dan? She thinks it was at Caz’s wedding. She recalls Dan jamming on a piano with a glamorous girl draped around him like a stole. ‘Keep in touch’, he’d said, scribbling his number on a page ripped from a cheque book. She’d kept the page for years (cheque book! who writes cheques now?) but had never dialled the number.

Kate starts to cry because she has been scratched by a bramble and Ruth takes her upstairs for her bath. Flint follows. Ruth has noticed before that, though the cat spends most of his time running away from Kate, he seems keen to stay in her vicinity. He always comes upstairs for the bath and the story and usually sleeps on the landing outside Kate’s bedroom. The strict night-time regime is a fairly recent innovation and Ruth is determined to stick to it. By insisting on bed at half-seven and lights out at eight she has eventually managed to claw some of the evenings back for herself. All day she has been looking forward to sitting downstairs with a glass of wine, limbs pleasantly heavy, watching crap TV and thinking about the dig. Except that now she knows that she will think about Dan—about the time that he dressed up as Margaret Thatcher to heckle a visiting dignitary, about the time he allegedly kidnapped a penguin from the zoo, about his amazing knowledge of Bowie lyrics, about the time when—drunk on cheap Pernod—he had kissed Ruth on the Number 68 bus to Camberwell Green.

Tonight the routine works smoothly. Kate is asleep before Ruth has finished her deliberately boring recital of Dora the Explorer’s antics. Ruth tiptoes downstairs. As she is pouring the wine she thinks that she wasted her friendship with Dan, her acquaintance with a truly unusual and anarchic mind. She should have kept in touch with him; they would have had something in common after all. Class differences fade with the years and, besides, she is middle-class now; she listens to Radio 4 and reads the Guardian. It has been decades since she has said the word ‘pardon’. They could have talked about archaeology, visited each other’s universities. Maybe, in some bizarre way, if Ruth had kept in touch with Dan, he wouldn’t have died in a house fire, far away from everyone who knew and loved him. She should have been a better friend to Dan but now it’s too late. She will never hear from him again.

The next day she receives a letter from him.

2

The letter has been forwarded from the university:

Hi Ruth. Dan here. Dan Golding. I hope you remember me as otherwise this is going to get embarrassing. How is life treating you? I’m in the inhospitable and frozen north, teaching archaeology at Pendle University. I know you’re at North Norfolk. In fact, I’ve been following your career with interest and admiration. I know that you are one of the country’s leading experts on bone preservation.

So that’s why I’m writing. (Although, of course, it would be great to catch up. Do you see anything of Caz these days? Or Roly? Or Val?). I’ve made a discovery, Ruth, and it could be big. It could be huge. But I need your help. I need a second opinion on the bones. Things are a little sensitive here, which is why I’m writing not emailing. Can you ring me on the number below? I think you’ll be interested. Have you heard of the Raven King? Well, I think I’ve found him. Jesus, Ruth, it seems a long time since UCL, doesn’t it? We’re all older and sadder, if not wiser. This discovery, though, could change everything. But I’m afraid . . . and that’s just it. I’m afraid. Do ring me as soon as you get this letter.

With love from your old friend

Dan

Ruth reads this letter standing by her front door, which is still open. It has been another exhausting day on the dig and her bones ache to be immersed in warm water. But there’s Kate and her night-time routine to be got through first. Kate is searching for Flint in the kitchen. Ruth can hear her calling through his cat flap. On a sudden, ridiculous impulse she dials the mobile-phone number at the foot of the letter. Dan’s voice, deep, amused, slightly sleepy, comes clearly across the years and the miles, from the land of death itself.

‘Hi. This is Dan Golding. I’m not here right now but if you leave your name and number I’ll get back to you. Promise.’

That, muses Ruth, as she puts her rucksack on the floor and goes into the kitchen to rescue Flint, is one promise that Dan won’t be able to keep. Hearing his voice—in the letter and over the phone—has shaken her badly. The jaunty Dan of the first paragraph she had recognised instantly. Of course, he knew that she would have remembered him. Dan wasn’t the sort of man that people forgot. And, despite everything, Ruth had felt a glow at the thought that he had remembered her and even followed her career ‘with admiration’. But the Dan of the last paragraph, the Dan who is older and sadder and afraid . . . she doesn’t recognise that person at all. What can have happened in the frozen and inhospitable north to have made Dan—Dan—so scared that he dared not write an email, so desperate that he needed help from her—Ruth Galloway from Eltham, the girl who was eighteen before she drank champagne and nineteen before she lost her virginity?

She extricates Flint from Kate and feeds them both. It has been another lovely day and from the open front door comes the scent of grass and the sea. Ruth makes herself a cup of tea and tells herself that this is all she fancies but before too long she’s tucking into cold pasta. She really must get a grip and stop eating Kate’s food. If someone asked her if she’d like a gourmet meal of sucked toast soldiers, congealed egg and soggy carrot sticks, she’d say no, thanks very much, but that’s what she eats every time she clears the table. Ruth has never been thin but she has an uneasy feeling that now she’s less thin than ever. Still, all that digging will have used up a few calories. Ruth takes another piece of fusilli.

‘Mine,’ says Kate.

What was Dan’s great discovery? It obviously included bones, by the sound of it. What sort of archaeology is there up there anyway? When Kate has finished eating, Ruth forces herself to throw away the remaining pasta then adjourns to the sitting room in search of an atlas. The cottage is tiny, just two rooms plus loo downstairs, with the front door opening straight into the sitting room. This room is full of books, overflowing on the shelves that reach up to the low ceiling and piled in heaps on the wooden floor, the sofa and the table. Ruth loves reading and is eclectic in her tastes: scholarly archaeological tomes jostle for space next to romances, thrillers and even children’s pony books. She’s sure there’s an atlas in there somewhere. She starts pulling books from the shelves and, enthralled, Kate joins her. ‘Me too.’ Here it is. The Reader’s Digest Atlas of Great Britain. Ruth takes the book to the table by the window. Where was Dan living? Fleetwood, Caz said. Near Lytham. Bloody hell—Ruth smoothes down the page—it’s right next door to Blackpool, the much-loved and much-missed home town of DCI Harry Nelson. She had no idea that Dan had strayed into Nelson’s territory. Fleetwood is right on the coast—there could be Viking remains, maybe even a Roman garrison town. But what could be so earth-shattering that Dan was scared to write about it in an email?

The Raven King, he had said. Abandoning the printed word, Ruth switches on her laptop. Kate is sitting on the floor, apparently absorbed in Ruth’s tattered edition of The Women’s Room. Excellent choice, Kate.

Ruth googles ‘raven king’ and, seconds later, her screen is full of heavy metal lyrics, on-line gaming tips and images of swarthy men in feathered cloaks. The Raven King is obviously a potent symbol but, trawling through the sites, Ruth can only find a few solid references. One is to a Celtic God and hero called Bran, or Raven. The other is to a fifteenth-century Hungarian king famous for his library. Neither of these seems to fit Dan’s great discovery.

Interestingly, though, the Raven King myth is often especially linked to the north of England. Ruth thinks of Erik’s descriptions of the Norse God Odin, who sits with his ravens, Huginn and Muginn, on each shoulder. Huginn and Muginn; thought and memory. Odin, Erik used to say, saw all and knew all. Rather like Erik himself, or so Ruth thought once.

Ruth is reading about the ravens in the Tower of London when the phone rings. For a second, she has the ridiculous idea that Dan is ringing back, calling from the realms of the lost. Her hands are shaking when she picks up the phone.

‘Hello?’

‘Hi, Ruth, it’s Caz.’

‘Oh, hi, Caz.’ Ruth watches as Kate abandons Marilyn French for the TV remote. Oh well, perhaps eighteen months old is too young to be a fully fledged feminist. Soon the soothing strains of Emmerdale fill the room. Kate snuggles on to the sofa and Flint sits beside her, though not too close.

‘I said I’d ring to tell you about the funeral.’

‘Oh, yes, it was today, wasn’t it?’

So Dan was buried on the day that she received his letter. Ruth shivers.

‘It was grim, Ruth. Only a few people. His parents, Miriam, his ex-wife.’

‘Ex-wife?’

‘Yes, apparently they were divorced a few years ago. She seemed very upset though, cried all the way through the service.’

‘Did they have children?’

‘No. Miriam said that was partly why they split up, she wanted children, he didn’t.’

‘Is Miriam married?’

‘No. She’s as stunning as ever, though.’

Ruth thinks of her friend Shona, who is also often called ‘stunning’. To stun someone—it’s quite a violent image. What must it be like to be so beautiful that looking at you is like a blow on the head? Ruth can’t imagine.

‘It was so sad, Ruth,’ Caz is saying. ‘All that promise, all that brilliance, ending in a bleak little synagogue in Blackpool. Only a handful of people to mourn him.’

‘Was anyone else from UCL there?’

‘No. I don’t know if he was in touch with anyone.’

Thinking about the letter, with its enquiries after Caz, Roly and Val, Ruth doesn’t think so. The north, it seems, was inhospitable in more ways than one.

‘I got a letter from him,’ she says. ‘Weird, isn’t it?’

‘What do you mean, you got a letter from him?’

‘Just that. It was forwarded from the university. He’d made a discovery and he wanted my opinion.’ Ruth can’t quite keep a note of pride from creeping into her voice. ‘Jesus. What an awful coincidence.’

‘Yes. It really shook me up. It sounded just like him, the letter I mean.’ She doesn’t tell Caz about the voicemail.

‘What was it, the discovery?’

‘He didn’t say.’

‘Maybe you’ll have to come up to Pendle, do some research?’

‘Maybe,’ says Ruth, without much conviction.

Things are a little sensitive here, Dan had said. Ruth somehow doesn’t think that she’ll be getting an invitation from Pendle to look at Dan’s discovery, whatever it is. But Dan was afraid. And Dan is dead.

Ruth knows that when Kate has gone to bed she will ring Nelson.

Detective Inspector Harry Nelson is having a bad day. It’s not the pressure of fighting crime in King’s Lynn (though that’s tougher than you’d think). Work is fine, though his best sergeant, Judy Johnson, is away on maternity leave and his other sergeant, Dave Clough, seems to be enjoying a second childhood. The team broke a drug-smuggling ring last year and are still dealing with the clean-up. Clough, who played rather a heroic role in the operation, has compensated by acting ever since as though he’s auditioning for a role in Starsky and Hutch. He has even taken to wearing woolly jumpers. He has just split up with his girlfriend Trace and is currently, if the rumours are to be believed, dating every nubile girl in the Norfolk region. ‘I’m young, free and single, boss,’ he keeps telling Nelson, who knows better than to reply. He thinks the break-up with Trace has hit Clough hard.

No, it’s not policing that’s doing his head in. It’s the insistence of his wife, Michelle, and

Reviews for A Dying Fall

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't as impressed with this one. A lot of back story, a good mystery, and a British legend makes for an uneven narrative. But still worth reading.

[jennybeast · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Oh, the whole kit and kaboodle have upped and gone to Blackpool on vacation. Cool. Also King Arthur and a white supremacist society. Very interesting, still loving the characters and the archaeology.

[missbrangwen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Dying Fall" was another good entry in this series! After I had a few problems with the fourth book, this one was a lot better and I was very happy about it.The case gripped me right from the beginning: A good friend of Ruth's dies in a house fire. The next day, Ruth receives a letter from him, sent to her shortly before the day of the fire, in which he writes to her about a new archaeological discovery he made, and also mentions that he is afraid. Of course Ruth is drawn into the story and travels to the north of England to investigate at her friend's university.I liked the case a lot and also enjoyed meeting all the characters that I have grown to love. They are a great bunch of people and make this series into real comfort reading. My pet peeve, though, persists: Why does Ruth seek danger all the time? Even if she has been threatened and there is no reason at all, she walks right into the trap, even endangering her daughter. It happens in every book and she just doesn't learn!This is why I cannot rate this book five stars, although I love everything else about it and have already ordered the next three!

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I suppose we are all familiar with the scenario, thinking back to our time at school or university and the circle of friends we formed, and from whom we imagine we will never drift apart – it just couldn’t possibly happen. And then it happens. Time races by, and suddenly you look back and realise that another handful of years has slipped by, and you still haven’t managed to get around to contacting old so and so, despite all your resolutions and recurrent vows to be better organised and catch up with old friends. But then, they haven’t managed to look you up, either, so perhaps you can put it aside for the moment and maybe get around to it later in the year.I am slightly reassured to find that I am not alone in this. Forensic Archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway seems to be in the same boat, and if something is good enough for her, then it is certainly good enough for me. She is brought up short when she hears from one old university friend with whom she has kept in touch, who calls her to let her know that another of their fellow undergraduates, Dan Golding, has died, having been caught in a fatal house fire. Dan had been one of the brighter stars in their undergraduate firmament, and like Ruth had continued to work in the field of archaeology, ending up at Pendle University. Ruth is shocked by the news that such a vivacious man is now dead, and is amazed that she hadn’t made any effort to contact him in the twenty years since their student days. She is, therefore, even more surprised when a couple of days later she receives a letter from Dan, that had been sent via her university address. This letter tells her of a potential tumultuous discovery that he has made on a recent archaeological dig, but also lets her know that he is scared by something relating to it.Ruth casually mentions Dan’s death to DCI Harry Nelson, whose past investigations into historic murders she has helped, and mentions that Dan had seemed to be scared. Pendle falls within Nelson’s old patch, and conveniently, he and his wife have returned to Blackpool for a few days on holiday, visiting old haunts. Nelson casually contacts his counterpart on the Blackpool CID unit to enquire whether anything further is known about Golding’s death. His former colleagues advise him that the death is being investigated as murder, as the fire appears to have been started deliberately, and the house had been locked from the outside.Meanwhile, Ruth has been asked by Dan’s head of department at Pendle if she can spend any time to look over Dan’s find, and apply some of her forensic archaeology skills to the remains that had been excavated. As it is the middle of the student vacation, Ruth is able to accept the invitation, not knowing what she is getting into. Pendle University is a struggling institution. Funding is tight, and it has also been subject to a spate of white supremacist attacks.I could say a lot more, but to people not already familiar with this series, my attempts to explain some of the deeper context behind the novel might serve mor to confuse than to enlighten. I am confident, however, that this book would work well for any reader who is not familiar with the principal characters and the particularly complicated web of relationships between them. For those of us among the cognoscenti, it is just as good as we have come to expect, and additionally entertaining.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This all gets a bit odd at various points along the way, but it's exciting enough. The story is set in & near Blackpool and two strands of story take Ruit & Nelson back that way. He's supposed to be on holiday, but has ended up getting in touch with his old buddy, Sandy, and is actually working, but not in charge (which doesn;t go down well). Ruth is there to investigate some bones that, it turns out, might be King Arthur's, and that there's something interestng about them that some people are not too keen on getting out. Along the way we have a neo nazi group and a spin off that's obsessed with King Arthur - at all gets pretty unpleasant pretty quickly. The two stories come together in the body (not a spoiler, he's dead in Chapter 1) of Dan, an archeology lecturer at the fictional Pendle University (I've been to Pendle, this is far-fetched!). Dan's death is suspicious and so the police and the bones end up being entwinned. It has an interesting surmise in that it is entirely plausible and yet you can see why those of a certain persuasion would have such a problem with it. It also takes us a bit further along the Nelson/Ruth storyline. Sandy spots that something's up, how long can they all keep playing the game... but that's why it's a series.

[olivermagnus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Dying Fall, the fifth book in the Ruth Galloway mystery series, is a straightforward thriller centering on the murder of Ruth's ex-colleague Dan Golding who, like Ruth, has forged a successful career in the field of archaeology. Ruth hears about his death through a mutual friend, one she has lost touch with, and coincidentally, two days later she receives a mysterious letter from Dan, written just before his death. She heads to Pendle University in Blackpool with her daughter Kate, and Kate's Druidic godfather, Cathbad, to solve the mystery of the newly discovered bones.

There is less actual archaeology in this book than the previous ones, and Ruth works to solve various plots that revolve around a group of white supremacists who have made inroads at the university and the complex personal relationships that connect several members of the university staff. There is a wonderful mix of the King Arthur legends, archaeology, mystery and an absolutely riveting finale.

You always know that this series will leave you educated and entertained. Ruth is a fantastic character, who constantly doubts herself on the personal level but is completely confident on the career level. Her personal life is a mess, but she is devoted to her friends and, of course, her daughter. The secondary characters are some of the most interesting and complex I've ever encountered. The author manages to weave archaeology into a compelling plot, and achieves an ideal balance between the character's private lives and the intriguing crime story. I can't wait to read the next book in this series, The Outcast Dead.

[the7ken7petersen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A cracking read. Ruth Galloway's adventures just keep getting better. This is not great literature, but it is escapism done to perfection. I am an aficionado of detective fiction so, it is not often that I am truly fooled by a plot twist: I was during this book.Thoroughly enjoyable.

[siri51 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another excellent mystery to read over a quiet weekend in self-isolation. Cathead has become such a likeable druid and Kate is developing her own personality.

[lisa2013_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really love Kate. I’m eager to get to know her as she grows and matures and becomes even more verbal and able to express herself. I love Cathbad too. I still really enjoy and love Ruth but I’m getting incredibly tired of main characters in mysteries that over & over & over again stupidly unnecessarily put themselves in danger. I’m really, really not okay when/if Kate is put in danger or even a chance that she’s in danger. Nope, I don’t like it. I do not appreciate how my emotions were played with at the end. If not for my Goodreads friend (artist) Laura telling me something that included future books, I might have thought something had happened that did not, though another true possibility would have also been in my mind. I am so glad my worst fears did not come to pass, but I hate being emotionally manipulated, even though I know it’s a mystery series and I know that’s often par for the course. I hope the Disneyland mentioned is the one in Paris because I don’t think that the original Disneyland in California has/had a ride like the one described.One thing about this series is it’s best to guess the culprit is someone about who the reader might least suspect, but I know that now. I can’t give this book or any of the books in the series so far less than 4 stars. Most are 4-1/2 for me. The characters are some of the best I’ve gotten to know in any book I’ve ever read. I guess it’s sort of like a soap opera at times but it has depth and it works for me. I am happy that it looks as though Tim will be in future books. I like that new characters are introduced and we see new layers in all the characters as the books go on. Also, the humor is great. There isn’t a huge amount of it but what there is sometimes makes me laugh out loud and I enjoy all of it. Also, I care too deeply about too almost all of the characters. They definitely seem like real people and I’m invested in them. This one takes place mostly in the Blackpool area so that was new and not quite as interesting as remote Norfolk, but still engrossing ( do love roller coasters and learning about different places in the U.K.) and there were actually a few settings and all had my interest, and maybe it was nice to have a complete change of scenery in book 5.

[lauralkeet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When Dan Golding, an old university friend, contacted Ruth Galloway for help with a recent archaeological discovery, she was flattered and curious. But Dan died in a fire before they could meet up. Ruth is asked to visit the university where Dan conducted his research and, at the same time, the police determine the fire was intentionally set. Once again Ruth is caught in the intersection of crime and archaeology, and another excellent murder mystery is off and running.This book was my favorite of the series so far. The setting shifted from Norfolk to Blackpool, providing a change of scenery and the opportunity to introduce new characters. Meanwhile, the relationships among the “regular cast” continued to develop in some very interesting ways. The fast-paced tension towards the end was handled in a new and very believable way, and I was left wondering what’s next for Ruth, Cathbad, and Nelson. Next book please!

[sandyamcpherson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another Ruth Galloway which was written so intriguingly that I fell into the story and happily read in two (long) evening binges. This sequel (#5) displayed Griffiths' ability to write an amusing dialogue. There were several especially clever dry-humour pieces with wry observations made by Ruth and Cathbad. In this saga, the author introduces a new character (Tim Heathfield) who is a complex addition to the policing end of this mystery. I hope ‘Tim’ shows up in subsequent RG novels because he is as intriguing and as likeable a character as Cathbad. Tim will flesh out the mystery landscape if he participates in Book #6. Some of the other personalities that appear in A Dying Fall are weak and inconsistently portrayed. The inconsistency did not seem part of a deliberate misdirection by Griffiths’ design, but rather as if she hadn’t made up her mind how that individual was going to evolve in the book. I was also rather surprised by developments with Max Grey because that didn't seem to add up with the impression I had in Book #4, not that this is an egregious error.There were a few historical misdirections that detracted from the archaeological account: the Romans repelled the Angles and Saxons when they arrived on the southeast shores of Britain. Only after the Roman Empire withdrew from the Island did the subsequent invaders gain a foot hold. In the dig where supposedly King Arthur was discovered, the narrative indicates that Anglo-Saxon remains predated the Romans. Aside from these minor misgivings, I enjoyed this as much as [Crossing Places] and [A Room Full of Bones]. The final reveal about King Arthur was an unanticipated twist that made sense given all the drama around the bones and archaeological findings. I thought it was smugly fabulous!

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was mainly set in Blackpool, with the author managing to find separate reasons for Nelson and Ruth to be there. She also managed to keep the plot going even with Nelson only visiting his old force and colleagues.Apart from a necessary suspension of disbelief as to the membership of the White Hand, I thought this was good, although I was waiting for more of a revelation of what had gone wrong in Dan's life, which never came. Cathbad was endearing and Kate entertaining.

[pennykaplan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ruth is shocked when she learns her old university friend Dan Golding has died in a house fire. But things turn sinister when Ruth receives a letter from Dan written before his death about a great archaeological find - the bones of legendary King Arthur, and Dan’s death is determined to be murder. Rut travels north to Blackpool to inspect the bones as the same time as DCI Nelson returns to his childhood home. But some of the bones have switched. Who is determined to keep the bones a secret?

[abycats_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A good read

Sometimes long in the tooth but then everything picks up once more. This is a different kind of series and it holds together. Kudos to the author.

A perfect rainy day book.

[catzkc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Hard to decide between 3 or 4 stars

[kmajort · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I always enjoy this series, this titles reminds me of the first title or two that I discovered & read in a flurry.
The author did give me a scare... won't spoil anything, but ~whew~!

[crazymamie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the fifth book in the Ruth Galloway series and my favorite entry so far. Both Ruth and DCI Harry Nelson end up vacationing in Blackpool - Harry with his wife on vacation visiting their families and Ruth combining business and pleasure by taking Kate and Cathbad with her when she goes to examine the findings of a recently deceased colleague. I loved all the history in this one and also the setting was so fun with the characters interacting outside of their comfort zones. Really well done. Ruth, as always, is a total delight:"She goes downstairs wondering if it's decadent to drink wine when it's still light outside. Oh, sod it, she'll just have a small glass....She gets up and pours herself another glass of wine. They're very small glasses, more like sherry glasses really."And we are introduced to a new character who is sure to reappear - Tim Heathfield, an officer who works under Nelson's old buddy Sandy Macleod in Blackpool. Here's Tim's Bucket list: Attend a pagan funeral, swim with dolphins, read Ulysses, learn Italian, see the Taj Mahal, leave Blackpool. You like him already, don't you?! Me, too.

[andrew1theqm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Yet another great read in the Ruth Galloway Series, in fact I might have to say this is my favourite book in the series so far. In this one Ruth actually goes for a working holiday to Lancashire following a request for help from beyond the grave! It was great to see Cathbad as a central feature of this book. The main character does annoy me at times but despite this I do love this series. There are good connections between this one and King Arthur. I was so close to identifying the killer but just didn't make that final leap and I've given myself a good talking to as a result of this miss. If you haven't read this series I would strongly encourage you to. Come on, what are you waiting for!

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

This book was a good "vacation" from the Saltmarshes of the earlier books in the series. I enjoyed the new location and the King Arthur theme.

[naggedman · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A very light, airport bookstall read, quite good writing except for constant switch between historic and past present tenses. Could do with a bit more editing as some of the story lines fail to connect.

[christineellei · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway is surprised to receive a letter from a university friend that she has not seen in 20 years; especially since she found out the day before that he had died in a house fire. The letter asks whether Ruth would be interested in helping on an exciting archaeological discovery he had recently made. Ominously, the letter also states that he “… is afraid. That’s it, just afraid”. Despite her misgivings her curiosity is peeked and she heads off to Lancashire. Coincidentally enough, DCI Harry Nelson (the married father of her daughter) is vacationing in the same place. Avoiding each other is not an option as strange things about the dig and the university come to light and both Ruth and Harry are drawn into the investigation.

Elly Griffiths has given readers another great entry in this series. The usual cast was included in the story and to my delight we learned a little more about Cathbad, one of my favorite of Ruth’s friends. In my personal opinion this is the best book in the series so far.

[kathy89_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoy this series. This time Ruth hears of a friend’s death and then the next day she receives a letter from him asking for her opinion on his latest archeological discovery. She decides to go on her break and investigate her friend’s discovery taking baby Kate and friend Cathbad and what she finds is the possibility of King Arthur’s remains. There are threats, another death, and unavoidable run-ins with Kate’s father, police inspector Nelson. Ruth seems oblivious to the threats and danger and a very scary threat finally makes her see that there are other ways to hurt her.

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book ticked all the boxes for me. It wasn't just that Clare Corbett's narration was excellent, but so was the plotting.Ruth's friend Dan, whom she hasn't seen since they were students together, contacts her because he wants her to help him to verify the most significant archaeological find of his life. By the time Ruth decides she will go to Blackpool to see what he is talking about, Dan is dead. She goes to Blackpool taking Druid friend Cathbad and her daughter Kate with her. And then she starts to get messages of discouragement, even threats to her welfare.I like the way the author manages to keep Ruth and Kate's father Harry Nelson meeting up. Their paths in Blackpool inevitably cross when Dan's death is verified as a murder. There is high degree of tension and suspense in the later stages of the novel.Excellent reading.

[tututhefirst_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The publisher tells us this: Ruth Galloway is shocked when she learns that her old university friend Dan Golding has died tragically in a house fire. But the death takes on a sinister cast when Ruth receives a letter from Dan written just before he died.The letter tells of a great archaeological discovery, but Dan also says that he is scared for his life. Was Dan’s death linked to his find? The only clue is his mention of the Raven King, an ancient name for King Arthur.I love this series but wonder if Griffiths is getting bogged down (pardon the pun if you're familiar with the series). Ruth and/or Harry need a big push to get something more going in these tales of old bones, single moms and skittish fringe friends.While the mystery plot on this one was more linear than some of the earlier volumes in the series, it also felt flatter. There were moments when I thought that Griffiths was actually trying to develop her main characters, and we certainly got more introspection scenes with Harry, but it still fell a bit flat. Although this one isn't as satisfying as previous episodes, I'll definitely check out another in the series when it appears in another year or so. Readers who enjoy this series have too much invested in these characters and Ruth's forensic paleontologist career to leave it dangling here.Clare Corbett's narration is delightful. She manages the many dialects and accents of various characters so well, that the listener instantly recognizes who is speaking. Not only does she get the accents correct, but she manages to infuse her voice with an excellent rendition of the individual's personality.

[katiekrug · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

#5 in the Ruth Galloway mystery series, this may be my favorite save for the first one. I like Griffiths style - an almost chatty narrative that feels very organic to me and lets me just fall into the story. In this one, Ruth heads up north to look at some bones her college friend (now deceased) had discovered. Said friend died under mysterious circumstances, and Ruth, daughter Kate, and loyal Druid Cathbad, along with DCI Harry Nelson who happens to be in the area visiting family, find themselves surrounded by strange characters and more questions than answers about the bones, about the house fire that killed Ruth's friend, and about neo-Fascist activity in the area. It's all pretty interesting, but Ruth is, of course, the star. And after a few entries in the series where I found her to be a little grating, it was nice to get back to the funny, sharp and acerbic Ruth I first met in The Crossing Places.

[maneekuhi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Dying Fall" is the 5th and current book in the Dr. Ruth, "forensic" archeologist series, set this time mostly in Blackpool, England. The storyline has an interesting beginning. Some bones are discovered during a dig and they are thought to perhaps be those of King Arthur. What an interesting money making possibility for a number of people. And then there is a dead man - in addition to King Arthur, and then.....not a lot happens. The tension never really builds until the very end during a brief episode in an amusement park. I was not crazy about the characters either, particularly our star Dr. Ruth, and hero cop, Nelson. He is father of the adorable 2 year old Kate, but alas, Nelson is married to someone else, who is aware of all this by the way and reacts very stiff upper lip. And that raises another objection I had to this book. I'm a regular guy and I know that the days of Ozzie and Harriet, and Ricky and David, are long, long past, but I thought the author could have tossed in one token traditional family. But nooo. This book was too much "Who's Your Daddy?" literally, and I found it distracting to say the least. I haven't read the first four books of this series (and I don't intend to) and I suppose that some fans might argue I would feel differently had I read the books in sequence and built up to number five - I REALLY don't think so.

[rayaowen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed it well enough but not a favorite in this series. The plot focused on King Arthur and racism didn't really engage my interest. I'll keep reading the series and the ending leads me to wonder about how the main characters will move on in their lives.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a series that for me just keeps getting better and better. Love the character of Ruth, her insecurity and all her flaws and absolutely adore little Kate and her "Piss". Not what you are thinking but you need to read the book to find out exactly what "piss" means. Adore her friends, they are all so quirky and entertaining. This book is a mystery that pertains to the legend of King Arthur, or the Raven King and his supposed bones. A major archaeological find, a murder and a major twist at the end. Excellent.

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was hooked on this series by Elly Griffiths from the very first book. A Dying Fall is the fifth (and latest) entry in her Ruth Galloway Mystery series. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and settle in for a great read with characters I truly enjoy.Ruth is a forensic archaeologist at the University in North Norfolk, England. An expert in bones, she is often called in to assist police, museums and on other digs.Ruth receives a letter from Dan - an old friend from her university days. They haven't really kept in touch, but the letter piques her curiosity. Dan is also an archaeologist, attached to a university in Lancashire. His letter says he has discovered the bones of 'The Raven King.' Ruth tries to contact him, without result. Until that university calls asking if Ruth could come up and look at some bones for them - their archaeologist Dan Golding has been killed in a tragic accident. Or was it? Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, on vacation with his wife becomes involved as well.Why do I love this series so much? The characters. Griffiths has created a wonderful protagonist in Ruth. I just really like her. She's decidedly unique and different. She is a single mother at forty plus, overweight, messy, introverted, but highly intelligent and curious. Griffiths has not endowed her with super sleuth abilities, rather she comes off as an actual person - unabashedly and happily herself. Her only worry is raising her daughter Kate.Kate's father is the married Harry Nelson. The evolution of his and Ruth's relationship has kept me quite enthralled from the beginning. With Harry's acknowledgment of Kate as his daughter, things have become even more entangled. The supporting cast of characters is just as intriguing. Cathbad, the self proclaimed Druid takes a leading role in A Dying Fall. I enjoy his enigmatic ways and his pagan beliefs. His personal storyline is just as complicated as Ruth's - involving a sergeant from Nelson's staff. I have to say, he rivals Ruth for my favourite character. Little Kate's personality is being drawn as well - it's enjoyable to see her growing and talking.And this wonderful cast of characters carries along a clever, inventive plot involving Arthurian legends, neo-Nazi's and more I had my suspicions as to the culprit, but Griffiths surprised me at the end this time. I always learn something in Griffiths' books - the historical facts and mythical legends woven into the narrative often send me searching the Internet to read more.Griffiths has done it again - hooked me with a great read that I finished too quickly and left me waiting for the next in this engaging series. Definitely recommended.

[literaryrunner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Elly Griffths' Ruth Galloway, the forensic anthropologist, who stars in this series has a cynical outlook on life, perhaps because she deals with hundreds year old corpses. The series' characters are eccentrics living on the English marshes including a druid who add humor and pathos. Ruth's involvement with a homicide detective brings a young daughter to her life which includes lecturing in archaeology at the university and going on digs. Each book's mystery deals with one of the corpses in a unique situtation where Ruth helps the police solve a modern day mystery. This book's plot evolves around the possible finding of King Arthur's tomb and skeleton. Ruth is called in to authenticate the bones and ends up in a web of cultish mayhem