Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway novels (*possible spoilers)

[Bloodybridget]

I've seen Elly Griffiths recommended on MN several times, so I picked up The Chalk Pit the other day. I do think she writes well, and am enjoying her dry humour, but baffled by logistics! The police officers are based in King's Lynn, but they're investigating incidents in Norwich, and seem to be travelling between the two locations in no time at all - which anyone who has spent time in North Norfolk, or even looked at a map, would know is impossible unless by helicopter. Example: two officers are in Norwich getting information, a colleague in KL police station wonders aloud "what's taking them so long" - well, it'll be the hour, minimum, each way on the A47, for a start!

Could it really be feasible that Norwich wouldn't have its own CID department to cover local cases? The author says she spends lots of holidays on the Norfolk coast so she must know how long it takes to get around.

@PopcornAndWine

I love the Ruth Galloway books (except The Janus Stone, too upsetting) although there is considerable suspension of disbelief required - how likely is it all these horrible crimes would take place in this peaceful area of Norfolk? The same could be said of a lot of detective series though to be fair! What makes it work for me is how engaging the characters are, and the sense of place.

I agree with you on all this, @PopcornAndWine

The Janus Stone seemed to suddenly take things up a notch, or perhaps down, after The Crossing Places. I also live somewhere very scenic and relatively peaceful but terrible things do happen here - thankfully only very, very occasionally. It's the frequency though in the books, isn't it? But I suppose without the frequency we wouldn't have a series like this one or Vera, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Raisin and so on, would we?!

@SaltMarsh oh absolutely! Well worth a bit of suspension of disbelief to enjoy these stories!

I'm hoping to be suspending disbelief shortly as I'm unexpectedly on my own with one of my DCs tonight! I'll be making sure the doors and windows are all locked first though - it's very, very dark here!

Love these books and this thread! Have read and re-read these stories multiple times. I’m from Norfolk originally and in a sliding doors world would have been an archaeologist plus older mum of only. I suspend my disbelief and enjoy the escapism and characters. Would like to see Nelson and Kate get together but maybe continue to live apart!

@upinaballoon

Spiral, I have read 4 of the 5 Brighton ones, I think, owned only one and have now given it to a charity shop, but I am sure I wrote at the side of a page, because she had mentioned something 50s but it wasn't quite right. This is a useless post in a way because I can't remember the details but I am happy to hear about someone being 'a bit pedantic'.

OMG, I also wrote something on the side of a page of one of them - a library book as well - in pencil, I'm not a monster. I just didn't like to admit it!

Ruth is a real misery guts. All the problems but soldiering on. Duh!
Not uplifting at all.
I agree that one can't believe all those terrible crimes happening in Norfolk.
If it was Wisbech though...

The Spiral, when my aunt was at college in the late 1920s she made proper little notes at the side of poems in her book of Tennyson poems and I like to see them there. She wasn't correcting his grammar, though. I touch it and read out loud from it sometimes.
Don't tell anyone else in the whole wide world but I too make little pencillings on library books.

.....................................................................................................................

No spoilers here - I have got to a part in Night Hawks where Ruth thinks about a Georgette Heyer novel, and that set me off in a reverie last night. The names Dominic and Mary Challoner and Devil's Cub came to me straight away, because I think that's the book she had in mind. I haven't read it since I was a teenager but I couldn't ever give it away, and so thanks to Elly for reminding me. I had to hunt around for it this morning to look for Dominic's surname.

Oh, they did it again! And I wouldn't have seen C&J coming - so to speak - if I hadn't have read it here first!

@jamie85

Ruth is a real misery guts. All the problems but soldiering on. Duh! Not uplifting at all. I agree that one can't believe all those terrible crimes happening in Norfolk. If it was Wisbech though...

I don't think Ruth is a misery gits! She always seem very content in her little cottage in a place she loves with Kate and her cat. She loves her proper work when she is allowed to get on with it. She's even fine with other people around, along as it's on her terms. Maybe I just relate too well with her character Sounds pretty idyllic to me.

Ooops guts, not gits

Ruth is a real misery guts.
AKA Give us a smile, love. I think she is remarkably chipper given that either she, her baby or her lover are in such regular mortal danger...

Sounds pretty idyllic to me.
Me too, @Seeline discounting the above

Late to the party but i also have enjoyed this series of books and reread the earlier books many times. The later ones are perhaps a bit formulaic but i think that happens in many crime series.
I didn't really enjoy her books and stories set in the 50s.
I love the idea of speculating who could play Ruth. Doesn't she often mention she feels taller or more imposing next to other women, so Samantha Morton seems like a good suggestion, who I think is quite tall.
Other series i have enjoyed are
Susan Hill's Serrailler detective
Peter Robinson
Ann Cleeves
Belinda Bauer
Val McDermid
PD James
Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine

I love how ordinary Ruth is. So many books have their main character living such a glamorous life where as she’s as awkward as I am 😂. I love Flint and Kate is very funny. Lots of suspension of belief around the Ruth/Nelson/Michelle thing not blowing up yet but time will tell!

I agree with all that @tcjotm . I was disappointed in Michelle about Kate, although perhaps I was expecting much too much in that awful situation.

I hadn't really thought about height, @efeslight - Sam is 5ft 3, but I don't think that matters and she could direct too...

@SaltMarsh I really wish the author has gone the other way with the baby to see how that panned out. That was very awkward but got smoothed over so quickly.

When it comes down to it, he’s not going to leave Michelle (more likely she would him) and whatever Ruth thinks she wants, she really, really doesn’t want him full time! He’s had over 20 years as head of a very smoothly run home with a glamorous wife who has dinner on the table for his return. If she died I could see him remarrying someone similar to Michelle and have a fairly seamless transition but Ruth is so different in her interests and life, divorcing Michelle for Ruth would be a mess. Their weird arrangement actually seems to work.

My family is similar, I have a much younger half sibling from an affair. Everything imploded, they moved in together, had a second kid but they weren’t compatible (at all!) in a relationship and eventually broke up. But the siblings are great and we can sit around and laugh at the disaster of our parents relationships. Infidelity and the damage to the family sucks so much for the kids but we focused on being good siblings and ignored the drama. I think Laura and the other daughter (mind blank) and Kate and George can all have a good relationship.

Has Ruth ever cooked anything except pasta?
I know Michelle can whip up a Sunday dinner with very little effort!

I like the fact that Cathbad has a psychic bond with Flint.

In my recently-bought paperback of The Night Hawks there are 5 chapters at the back - a taster of the book due out in 2022. It starts in Feb 2020.

I don’t think so, pasta is her standby.

I would marry Michelle to live in her organised, Sunday dinner world 😂

In Ruth's defence, in the third book she serves up chicken cacciatore when all she has in the fridge is two chicken breasts and a very old tomato when a house guest turns up early. She has to 'hope for the best' with it though!

She’s a kindred spirit, I survive perfectly well on toasted cheese sandwiches. I’m sure she has to eat vegetables as a good model for Kate (no kids here so I don’t haha)

I really hope she had some spices or herbs to add to those ingredients 😂

Elly has some live events coming up this Autumn, so although they're linked to her latest Brighton series offering, you could ask her about the Norfolk logistics yourself, OP.

I love these books and would love a purple cape like Cathbad's. I also enjoy the Wesley Peterson stories by Kate Ellis as they also have an archaeological theme.

I felt completely exasperated with Ruth at the very end of The Ghost Fields just now. I actually found myself saying out loud, 'oh, you silly woman!'

She did however manage to cook boeuf bourguignon for Frank, still 'hoping for the best'!

Having now read the first ten books in the series and already cast Ruth, I feel qualified to cast Nelson in the TV series: seeing him in The Pembrokeshire Murders clinched it, and he is, of course, Luke Evans.

I'd also cast Adrian Scarborough - Dreamboat Charlie in Miranda - as Ed, the weekender neighbour.

@SaltMarsh

Having now read the first ten books in the series and already cast Ruth, I feel qualified to cast Nelson in the TV series: seeing him in The Pembrokeshire Murders clinched it, and he is, of course, Luke Evans.

Mmm, a young Caroline Quentin and Luke Evans. Not bad, I think, SaltMarsh. Now you've got Michelle and Cloughy(Cloughie?) to think about!