The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths This is the seventh instalment in Elly Griffiths' highly likeable scries of Ruth Galloway investigations. It won't disappoint fans and deserves to win over new followers as it features one of her most atmospheric stories coupled with her usual humour, characterisation and eye for building up to a set piece.
The story starts with a digger driver at new Norfolk housing development uncovering the wreckage of a World War Two plane, complete with a body sitting at the controls.
Naturally, there is more to this than meets the eye and forensic archaeologist Ruth is soon on the case, once again helping her friend and former lover DCI Harry Nelson. The enjoyable"will- they wont-they get back together soap opera of the duo's relationship continues through the investigation though why someone as bright as Ruth would yeam for an unlikeable udgeon like Nelson is the biggest mystery of the books.
Griffiths seems to be having some fun here with the Agatha Christie style of country house mystery- she sets much of the story in the rambling forbidding Blackstock Mal, home of the Blackstock family, who seem to have as many skeletons as they do cupb(which is a lot). The house even gets cut off at one point shades of Christie's And Then There Were None.
For someone who's day job as a university archaeologist sounds a tad dull. Ruth has more than her fair share of excitement(including rekindling a relationship with American TV presenter Frank Barker). Fun and skilfully written.