The Norfolk Marshes Yield Up Secrets

 

THE NIGHT HAWKS

Ruth Galloway #14

Quercus UK

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt USA

Elly Griffiths

June 29, 2021

I was late to discover Dr. Ruth Galloway from the talented pen of Elly Griffiths. After binging the series, I was impatiently waiting for The Night Hawks. Thanks to Quercus for an advance digital copy. Dr. Ruth Galloway, an archaeology professor, has returned to her beloved Norfolk fens after a year-long stint teaching at Cambridge. She is back at North Norfolk University, this time as department head. Of course, her 11-year-old daughter, Kate, seems happy to be back and seeing her father regularly. Her father is DI Nelson, who Ruth met when he needed her help in an investigation. Their one-night encounter produced Kate, and eventually, the girl was accepted by Nelson's wife and two grown daughters.

Nelson and Ruth have collaborated on numerous cases over the years. She is an expert on dating bones, and those turn up regularly in the marshy landscape of Norfolk. She is called out to examine what might be an Iron Age hoard turned up by The Night Hawks. The Night Hawks are metal detectorists who have to be licensed in England. Nelson is much more interested in a nearby body, a young man Nelson thinks might be an asylum seeker. Then he turns out to be a local, recently paroled from prison. A second call comes shortly after to the scene of a murder-suicide at the isolated Black Dog Farm. Then, the members of the Night Hawks start dying one after another. Can the two cases be connected somehow, and or is the spectral black dog of British folklore real?

The Night Hawks is a pivotal book in the Ruth Galloway series. It ends with somewhat of a cliff-hanger, as least as far as the Galloway-Nelson relationship is concerned. Things aren't going so well in the Nelson marriage, and Nelson is being pressured to retire. I know how I want it to go, but other people may feel differently. I don't think Nelson and Ruth could exist for 24 hours in the same household. Of course, many of the characters we love make appearances, especially Cathbad, a self-declared druid and all-around wise soul. I highly recommend The Night Hawks, as I do the rest of the series.

Thanks again to Quercus and NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

RATING-5 Stars