The Woman in Blue - Elly Griffiths

I love the Ruth Galloway series, so I was eagerly watching my name for The Woman in Blue get closer to the top of the library waiting list.  I picked it up on Thursday, read the first twenty pages before I went to bed, and finished it on Friday.

Cathbad is house sitting in Walsingham for a friend.  Outside, in the graveyard, at night, at a distance,  he sees a beautiful young woman wearing a white gown and a blue robe.  He calls to her to see if she needs help, but she only smiles sadly and shakes her head.  The next morning, she's found strangled.

She was a famous model with substance abuse problems.  She was staying at a clinic about a mile away.  DCI Nelson and his team must find the killer.  But the killer's not finished.  Nelson's wife, Michelle, who looks very much like the model, is attacked and almost strangled.  Then a woman priest, who also looks like the model, attending a conference for women priests in the town, is strangled.  Who?  And why?

There are many suspects, but few motives.

Ruth and Nelson and their complicated relationship come into play.  Nelson finds out something about his wife that enrages him.  He gladly says goodbye to a team member.

The mystery comes to an exciting end during the Passion Play put on by the town.

There's not a lot of archeology in this book, and archeology is one of the reasons I like this series.  This book is more centered around religion:  Passion Plays, women priests, Catholicism, Anglicanism, the cult of the Madonna Lactans.  But the characters are strong enough to keep my interest.  And there's a puppy!

I just realized I wrote this assuming that you've read the other books in the series.  This is one series I think you should definitely read in order.  Too many things happen to the characters as the books progress that affect how the characters act in later books.  If you haven't read the previous books, I don't think you'll understand some things in the later books.

Recent Reading

Right after we returned from our vacation in Maine, my local branch library notified me that it was my turn for the latest Elly Griffith / Ruth Galloway mystery.  I adore Ruth Galloway, her complicated personal life, and her professional life as an archeologist.  This book also engaged my fascination with abandoned WWII air fields.

A body is found in an airplane crashed during WWII and buried in a field.  Ruth sees, however, that although the body is from that era, it has only recently been placed in the plane.  The police discover the identity of the man, Fred Blackstock, a soldier whose family lives near by.  And what a family they are!  The patriarch, Old George, is half crazy, tended by his milquetoast son, Young George, and his ditzy wife, Sally, and their two grown children, Chaz, a pig farmer, and Cassandra, an aspiring actress.

A strange man appears when the soldier is re-buried.  A body is found mostly devoured by Chaz's pigs.  Someone hits Cassie over the head and she and Dave, one of the policemen on the case, fall in love.

Ruth and DCI Harry Nelson, the father of her daughter, do their usual relationship dance.  Nelson's very forgiving wife, Michelle, buys a lovely present for her husband's illegitimate daughter's birthday.  Michelle also explores the boundaries of her marriage.

In the dramatic wrap up, Ruth is trapped in the Blackstock family ruin with both Georges in a raging storm and a terrible flood.  Nelson can't get in to rescue her and she can't get out.  Don't worry, there's a tragi-comic rescue, so she'll be around for another episode.

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One of my favorite podcasts is the video podcast of The Book Club (which used to be called The First Tuesday Book Club), from Australia.  I like the host, Jennifer Byrne, and the two regular guests, Jason Steger and Marieke Hardy.  They also have two special guests on each episode.  They read and discuss contemporary books, classics, the whole range of reading, often with very different opinions about what they've read.

Alan Cumming, is to be a guest on the upcoming show and the book he chose for them all to read  and discuss is Enid Blyton's Five on a Treasure Island.  I had heard of Enid Blyton and was aware that her books were a big part of the childhoods of many children in Britain, but I had never read any of them.  I decided I wanted to be part of the discussion, so I downloaded Five on a Treasure Island and just finished reading it.

Yes, it's a children's book.  Yes, it's dated.  Yes, it has flaws.  But it was a ripping adventure story about four independent children and a dog and a ruined castle on an island and buried treasure and thieves and a time when children were allowed to go off on adventures.  I'm looking forward to the discussion on the show.  Marieke never holds back and I can just imagine some of her comments.  Then again, maybe she'll surprise me.  Either way, it'll be fun to listen to the Five on The Book Club talk about Five on a Treasure Island and find out why this book is important to Alan Cumming.

Out and About - But I Do Read, Too

This has been, for me, a busy week.  I'll be the first to admit that I no longer like travelling, even short trips.  There are lots of reasons, but I won't bore you.

But on Sunday, we took the short drive to Wilmington, Delaware, to Winterthur, the du Pont home and museum.  It's a huge country house, 145 rooms, most of which are not on the tour.  The house is preserved as it would have been in about 1929  -  roughly the same post-WWI time period as the past season of  Downton Abbey.  Henry du Pont, the collector, was also a horticulturist, and the grounds and gardens reflect his skill.  It was rainy the day we went, so we'll have to go back on a nicer day to enjoy the gardens.

In fact, until next January, there's a wonderful exhibit of the costumes from the TV show Downton Abbey.  Photos except videos were allowed, but I never remember to take them.  You'll have to go here   to get an idea of what it's like and when to go see it.  I highly recommend a visit if you're in the area.  See the exhibit before you tour the house or you may come down with museum fatigue, as we did.  The exhibit compares life in a house like Downton Abbey to life in the country home of a wealthy American family at the same time period.  I'd love to have been a weekend guest at either home.

Tuesday, we went to the National Clock and Watch Museum in Columbia, PA.  Go here to find out the particulars.  This is a fascinating place if you have any interest in clocks or watches.  We both like clocks.  I love mechanical clocks, the kind you see in Europe, with little people popping out and about.  I have a cuckoo clock I bought when we were in Germany in 1988 and I will admit to standing in front of it with a stupid smile on my face  when the little bird comes out to cuckoo.

This museum currently has an exhibit of James Bond watches, which is fun.  The clock you can't miss is the Engle Clock.  A local inventor and watchmaker spent twenty years making this masterpiece, from about 1850-something until 1876.  It's 11' tall, 8' wide, and 3' deep.  At various times, Jesus and the Apostles appear, the three Marys appear, the devil pops out, the three stages of man (don't tell Shakespeare) come rotating out, angles sing, and Molly Pitcher reviews the troops.  I'm sure I've forgotten some of the figures.  It's awesome!

But I prefer reading to travelling.  I've come full circle.  I read voraciously as a child and youth, really all my life.  Then I decided it was time to do or see as many things as I'd been reading about.  I was fortunate enough to be able to travel a lot in the 1980s, so I'm satisfied that I've seen as much of the world as I care to see.  I've returned to reading.

Currently, I'm back in history with The Count of Monte Cristo, I just finished the latest Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway mystery, I started a Val McDermid mystery, Retribution, but I can't always stomach her books.  I'm also reading a biography of Ngaio Marsh and the letters of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell.  Several people have read, reviewed, and enjoyed the newly republished John Bude mysteries.  I have them on my Kindle and am looking forward to trying them.