A Room Full of Bones: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 4

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Arriving early, she finds herself met by the dead body of curator Neil Topham, lying beside the unopened coffin. The Local History room seems to be empty apart from a coffin on a trestle table and a body lying beside it. Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published. A Room Full of Bones has several mysteries running through it increasing Nelson's workload - that of the dead curator; another unexpected death; and an influx of cheap cocaine into the area.

There are some really fine red herrings in this book, including some mixed-up identities, and I found that entertaining. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Waitomo District Library for the loan of A Room Full of Bonesby Elly Griffiths for review.

There are a couple of characters that are far from ordinary and, of course, strange things happen to them. Actually the adventures of Ruth, her druid friend, Cathbad, and her one time lover, DCI Harry Nelson (the former two seem, bizarrely, to be involved in all the latter’s cases) read more like a soap-opera than crime fiction. You're not good at suspense anyway, you might as well have written that Ruth spent hours squinting at the skeleton like serious professionals do and then came up with the answer.

Another case for DI Nelson and it is not long before the dead body of the museum's owner lies dead in his stables too. Only if she doesn't mention forensic techniques ever again, and if Cathbad is there, because Cathbad is cool. It would actually be a far more interesting book if DCI Nelson [who really is a comic sketch version of a Northerner, constantly railing at things he perceives to be southern or young or unmanly] actually died. She effectively conveys the hurt and complex feelings that can result from unthinking indiscretions and somehow these become integral to the narrative. I've read a stand-alone by this author and she did a decent job but this series of hers is just terrible and I can't believe her publisher continues with it!

She mightn't have the most wonderful life skills - like most of us she is just stumbling through - but I love that too.

Like its predecessors, this is a wonderfully rich mixture of ancient and contemporary, superstition and rationality, with a cast of druids, dreamers and assorted tree-huggers as well as some thoroughly modern villains: a welcome addition to a great series' Guardian.All the usual characters are here including Nelson and things remain as awkward as ever between him and Ruth. She has dug up the bones of a girl who died over two thousand years ago, an Iron Age girl whose perfectly preserved arm still wore its bracelet of dried grass. in " The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly " Publishing This Week" newsletter. All this completely put me off writing and it wasn’t until I was on maternity leave in 1998 that I wrote what would become my first published novel, The Italian Quarter. Michelle's deep love for Nelson is shown near the end of the book when she demonstrates how far she is willing to go to save his life.