Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

18 reviews

bethr's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The first in this series about a forensic archaeologist who helps solve crimes. I’m not sure where the series will go from here, but the main character is flawed and complex enough that I am already planning to return the next in the series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Grief, and Violence

singalana's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Risteyskohdat on sekavasta juonestaan ja kissanomistajia pöyristyttävistä juonenkäänteistään ihan mukiinmenevä thrilleri.

Risteyskohdat kertoo Ruth Gallowaysta, arkeologista, joka kutsutaan tutkimaan poliisin löytämiä luita. Etsivä Harry Nelson toivoo, että luut kuuluisivat kymmenen vuotta sitten kadonneelle tytölle, että tytön vanhemmat saisivat vihdoinkin vastauksia, mitä heidän kadonneelle lapselleen tapahtui. 

Ruth Galloway on lähes neljäkympinen arkeologi, joka asuu yksin marskimaan laidalla. Hän soimaa itseään ylipainosta. Harry Nelson on etsivä jolla on kaunis vaimo ja kaksi tytärtä. Hahmot ovat suhteellisen hyvin toteutettuja, vaikka heissä omat vikansa onkin. Tarinakin on suhteellisen mielenkiintoinen, vaikka alkupuolella tuntuukin etenevän vähän hitaasti. Huomasin arvanneeni syyllisen melko alkupuolella, joten mitään kovin uutta kirja ei tältä osin tarjonnut.

Spoilereita!

Vaikka Ruthin itseään ylipainosta soimaaminen onkin hieman ärsyttävää, enemmän minua häiritsi hänen tapansa kissanomistajana: kissat ovat vapaana linnunsuojelualueen laitamilla. Lisäksi kirjan tapahtumat huomioon ottaen, Ruth ei vaikuta ottavan kissojensa turvallisuutta kovin vakavasti.

Sitten päästään itse juoneen. Mielestäni ei ollut kovin loogista, että kirjeiden lähettäjä ja lasten katoamisesta vastuussa oleva olivat eri henkilöitä. Lisäksi en pidä siitä tavasta, miten lopussa syyllisille kävi köpelösti, ja miten sekaisin tekijät lopulta olivat. Se tuntui kummalliselta. 
Oma lukunsa on tietysti Ruthin ja Nelsonin tekoset, ja varsinkin lopun paljastus… En usko, että jatkan enää tätä sarjaa, vaikka kirja ihan suhteellisen viihdyttävä olikin.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Child death, Murder, and Sexual content

asha1725's review

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Abortion, Murder, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Child abuse, Animal death, and Body shaming

lillianfc's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

A fast paced and interesting anthropological crime novel — yet outdated in its consistent fatphobia and anti-childless women stances

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Medical content, Police brutality, and Fatphobia

strawbkatie's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

a really decent murder mystery that combines archaeology and mythology, i like this niche! i would definitely read more ruth galloway mysteries :) but i do wish that the author would’ve shut up a bit about ruth being a fat lady in her 30s who owns cats… fat ladies can have other personalities than cat lady who likes bones you know madam
also

was there any need for her to say that she quite likes nelson’s wife at the end, and then just casually drop in that she’s pregnant with his kid? i think not!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, and Murder

ceallaighsbooks's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

TITLE—The Crossing Places

AUTHOR—Elly Griffiths

PUBLISHED—2009

PUBLISHER—Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

GENRE—mystery crime thriller

SETTING—Norfolk, England

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—archaeology, New Age stuff, ancient henge sites, ley lines, birding, salt marsh, boundaries & liminal places, human sacrifice & ritual burials, bog bodies, horrible human relationship dynamics, cats, university jobs, child abduction & murder, modern English society & culture (though a bit dated even for 2009 imo…)

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️

STORY/PLOT—⭐️

PHILOSOPHY—🚩🚩🚩

My thoughts:

Oh gods this book was a mess. Though I’m not too familiar with the genre (crime/mystery/thriller), I thought the plot seemed way too cliché and predictable (I’m terrible at guessing whodunnits and this one I guessed *immediately*), the characters’ actions made zero sense to the point that it was disorienting, and the underlying philosophy was awful.

—👇🏻HERE BE SPOILERS👇🏻—

This book presented New Agers as mad kooks, and born again Christians as fanatical (but at least nOt As BaD as New Agers 😬). The (“fat”, single-with-two-cats, living-in-an-isolated-cottage) MC—who referred to her body at one point as “a waste” because she had never had children—was “redeemed” at the end by becoming pregnant by the married man she slept with halfway through the book. 🥴 Her odd obsession with her toxic, abusive, cheating mentor was extremely lazily justified at the end because pEoPlE aRe CoMpLiCaTeD and nO bOdY iS pErFeCt even though the dude literally died while chasing her out into the marsh during a storm and the MC was convinced he was the killer at one point. One of the characters got back together with his wife even though he was neither happy nor in love with her and it was *uncritically* presented as the right thing to do. And the person who ended up being the killer was neurodivergent and basically presented as having done what he did due to mental instability. Yeah. This book was a WHOLE mess.

I read this book as part of #ArchaeoBookclub and the archaeology in the book was, though somewhat accurately depicted (i.e. the author clearly did her research), disappointingly applied fixating on death rituals (which is an over-sensationalized part of archaeological scholarship) and, even worse, human sacrifice (a highly controversial and debatable interpretation of some ancient burials). It just came off as very lazy and many times the things the author did get wrong (how artifacts were often incorrectly excavated & recorded, the fact that the use of honeysuckle rope in one of the modern burials wasn’t an immediate indicator of who the killer was, and the archaeologist musing about the monetary value of one of the artifacts as her first thought upon uncovering it) too often took me out of the story.

—🛑END OF SPOILERS🛑—

I would not recommend this book.

Final note: Still glad I read it though (and that I was able to get it from the library) just so I know what’s out there. 👀 And I also want to emphasize that I firmly believe that just because a book is a piece of “genre fiction” or is meant as “just” escapism and entertainment, that doesn’t mean that it’s ok to uncritically feature highly problematic ideas and beliefs.

⭐️

(This proves at least that I don’t only give books four and five star ratings. 😆 Fwiw I will only really post one or two star reviews if I feel like the book was problematic on some level and needs to be addressed.)

Season: Winter

CW // fatphobia, animal death (cat), child abduction & murder, infidelity, misogyny, toxic relationships, ableism (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

• LAST RITUALS by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir—this was another book from this genre that I read because of its connections to archaeology and certain historical subjects that I’m interested in and that was similarly disappointing in its handling of those topics, though maybe not as much as Griffiths’ book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Infidelity, Child death, Ableism, Animal death, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Body shaming, Murder, and Toxic relationship

leneliest's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Child death and Murder

Minor: Abortion

zelephante's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Child death, and Fatphobia

Minor: Abortion, Infidelity, Sexual content, Sexism, Murder, Pregnancy, and Infertility

zosiablue's review

funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Ahh what a satisfying cozy mystery. Just what I needed. Light murder/kidnapping, heavy archeological bent, a little romance but not enough to annoy, and a spooky-ass saltmarsh. I'm so glad there's like 15 more books in this series. Though not without fault - there was some unsavory animal violence & anti-fat bias (though only the main character referring to herself). But I'm ready to read 15 more stories about archaeologist Ruth Galloway and her cats. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, Animal death, Confinement, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Violence, Murder, Infidelity, and Dysphoria

Minor: Sexual assault and Pregnancy

swaanderer's review

Fat-shaming,

pov of kidnapped child

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Fatphobia and Murder