Review: THE LOCKED ROOM, Elly Griffiths

• 
  this edition made available through my local library
  
• published by Quercus in Great Britain 2022
• ISBN 978-1-52940-966-6
• 361 pages
• #14 Ruth Galloway series
  

Synopsis (publisher)

Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are on the hunt for a murderer when Covid rears its ugly head. But can they find the killer despite lockdown?

Ruth is in London clearing out her mother’s belongings when she makes a surprising discovery: a photograph of her Norfolk cottage taken before Ruth lived there. Her mother always hated the cottage, so why does she have a picture of the place? The only clue is written on the back of the photo: Dawn, 1963.

Ruth returns to Norfolk determined to solve the mystery, but then Covid rears its ugly head. Ruth and her daughter are locked down in their cottage, attempting to continue with work and home-schooling. Happily, the house next door is rented by a nice woman called Zoe, who they become friendly with while standing on their doorsteps clapping for carers.

Nelson, meanwhile, is investigating a series of deaths of women that may or may not be suicide. When he links the deaths to an archaeological discovery, he breaks curfew to visit the cottage where he finds Ruth chatting to her neighbour whom he remembers as a carer who was once tried for murdering her employer.

Only then her name wasn’t Zoe. It was Dawn. 

My Take

For me, reading a Ruth Galloway novel is like meeting up with an old friend. This one is set in 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Ruth's classes are cancelled and go onto Zoom, schools are closed. Just before this event a skeleton is found in Tombland and it raises the possibility that there may have been plague pits in Norwich near the Cathedral.

Nelson begins investigating cases of unexpected deaths among women who have been attending slimming groups.   

Ruth becomes friendly with Zoe who has moved in to the cottage next door to hers and then Zoe disappears.

Nelson's wife Michelle is away visiting her mother and he and Ruth take advantage of that fact.

I read with interest the way English society deal with Covid, the restrictions and lock downs put into place. This gave the story an extra relevance.

And then Cathbad is struck down with Covid.

My rating: 5.0

I've also read

• 4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES - Ruth Galloway #1
  
• 4.6, THE JANUS STONE - Ruth Galloway #2
• 4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END - Ruth Galloway #3
• 4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES - Ruth Galloway #4
• 4.8, DYING FALL- audio book - Ruth Galloway #5
• 4.5, THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book - Ruth Galloway #7
• 4.7, THE OUTCAST DEAD, Elly Griffiths - audio book - Ruth Galloway #6
• 4.7, THE WOMAN IN BLUE - Ruth Galloway #8
• 4.7, THE CHALK PIT - Ruth Galloway #9
• 4.4, THE VANISHING BOX
• 4.6, THE STRANGER DIARIES
• 4.5, SMOKE AND MIRRORS
• 4.4, THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS 
• 4.7, THE LANTERN MEN - Ruth Galloway #12
• 5.0, THE STONE CIRCLE, Elly Griffiths - Ruth Galloway #11 
• 4.8, THE DARK ANGEL, Elly Griffiths - Ruth Galloway #10