The House at Sea’s End

A Ruth Galloway Investigation

by Elly Griffiths

Macmillan Publishers. Crime. Paperback RRP $ 32.99

Guest Reviewer - Anastasia Gonis

In this enthralling crime thriller full of secrets, revenge, and romance, forensic archaeologist and single mother Ruth Galloway is battling the pleasures and pain of motherhood when she is called back to work. Ruth is an intelligent and questioning examiner whose opinion is greatly valued by Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, two leaders that share a mutual respect. But mutual respect is not all that ties Ruth and Harry together. They share a secret that can destroy both their professional and personal lives if set free.

Ruth joins the team to help solve a complex mystery surrounding six bodies found at the bottom of the cliff at Sea’s End, the home of the Hastings family, by a team of archaeologists examining coastal erosion.

Two elderly men connected somehow to the six dead, die within a week or so of one another. The initial finding of death by natural causes evolves into another murder investigation. This casts a shadow on the lives of the Hastings and light on secrets they’ve protected for years.

The investigation takes on a dramatic twist when a German journalist appears in response to a letter he’d received from one of the two elderly men. He too, is hiding secrets. But when he joins the recently dead, things heat up and Ruth and Harry must pass all the evidence through a fine sieve before they discover the startling truth.

This book has a strong narrative voice and its outstanding cast of characters which enter and exit the scenes, each bring with them new knotted mysteries to unravel, and additional secrets within stories and sub stories that are crocheted together into a lacework of suspense, intrigue, murder.