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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I liked this book a lot, actually! I liked the archeology and the vibe of the places. It’s been a long time since I read a book in a day. Seems that a good crime novel was what I needed!
The first 50 pages didn’t really impress me, but I think that Griffiths really just needs to get the story started and then afterwards it’s very good.
I enjoyed it!
It was a bit rich in caricatures - well, all the characters were caricatures to be honest, which annoyed me, just like the weird affair thing between Nelson and Ruth.
But overall I really really enjoyed the book and the characters still!
The first 50 pages didn’t really impress me, but I think that Griffiths really just needs to get the story started and then afterwards it’s very good.
I enjoyed it!
It was a bit rich in caricatures - well, all the characters were caricatures to be honest, which annoyed me, just like the weird affair thing between Nelson and Ruth.
But overall I really really enjoyed the book and the characters still!
Not amazing, but decent and quick read. Will probably read a few more.
I enjoyed this!
I wished the main character wouldn’t have fat-shamed herself so much, but the story had a good amount of suspense that kept me guessing.
I wished the main character wouldn’t have fat-shamed herself so much, but the story had a good amount of suspense that kept me guessing.
Another new-to-me mystery series, originally published in 2009, which I devoured entirely this year (though there are still more to come!). Following the life of forensic archaeologist, Dr. Ruth Galloway, means solving mysteries both centuries old and horrifyingly new, and she is alternately called upon to identify very old bones unearthed around the UK and other parts of Europe, and to assist the local police whenever they come across something especially unique. As archaeology is painstakingly exacting work, similar to police science, brushing away the dirt of someone's life layer by layer, so the reader comes to know the ins-and-outs of Ruth's often surprising life, as she juggles being a single, middle-aged woman living in a remote part of England with an understated yet passionate nature and a propensity for discovering all the secrets bones have to tell. Both quieter of pace, and in some ways more emotionally dramatic, than Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan series, one of the most intriguing elements of this series is how much of Ruth's developing life is woven throughout the mysteries.
Labs sērijas sākums - detektīvintriga it kā sižetiski diezgan vienkārša (bet tas ir arī pluss, ka nav samudžināta simts slāņos), bet to kompensē riktīgi forši varoņi un labs stāstījums. Beigu daļa gan bija tāda par daudz melodramatiska, tomēr tas mani neatturēs turpināt šo sēriju.
Good mystery - but I almost stopped reading in the first chapter when the main female character just beats herself up over and over about her weight/size. That improved, and I'm glad I kept going. But it was a rough start
Really engrossing, I look forward to reading more in this series
I'm quite excited to have found a new mystery series, and it seems to have pulled me right in! Ruth Galloway, in her late thirties, short and overweight (12 1/2 stone, but I'm not at all sure how much that is) lives by herself with her cats in a small cottage in the salt marshes near Norfolk, England. I can't quite picture this salt marsh, where people who are walking along can get swallowed up and die/drown, or easily get pulled out to sea. I really want to see this place! I think I've actually been quite close, taking the train from Cambridge to Norwich a few years ago - while looking for Norfolk on a map of Britain, it seemed quite close. Ruth's relationship with Inspector Harry Nelson was really interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it's going to develop in later books. Their working relationship and respect for each other is strong, but the personal relationship that's begun certainly has some far-reaching possibilities. Although resolution of the mystery was, indeed, pretty easy to figure out, I'm expecting some good things from books-to-come in this series. This was just setting them up!
A well-written, engaging mystery — with one majorly problematic element.
Dr. Ruth Galloway is (supposedly) fat, hugely fat, so fat that she “has a morbid dread of the seatbelt not fitting around her” in a car (page 21). She weighs an entire … 175 lbs.
Wait, what?!
I don’t find fat-shaming to be a huge point of sensitivity for me. So if I found the fat-phobia of this book to be disgusting and over-the-top, I can only imagine how upsetting it will be for people who are more easily triggered by such descriptions.
While 175 isn’t skinny, it’s not obese, either. It’s entirely normal and about smack dab in the center of average weight for a woman.
When I told my husband about this (along with a reference to being too old to wear jeans at age 39), he said, “Let me guess. The author is a man?” I said, “That’s what you might think, but no!” Some serious internalized misogyny and body shaming at play here.
The repeated references to how “fat” the main character is were extremely off-putting.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. I had a good guess early on of who the baddie was, but there were enough twists and turns to keep things exciting.
I also liked the complex imperfect relationships of various characters. Ruth is an adult who behaves like an adult, having complicated feelings toward some of the men around her but without ever being a lovelorn cliche. She is smart, strong and capable. If only her author would let her have a reasonable view of her totally normal and average body size.
Dr. Ruth Galloway is (supposedly) fat, hugely fat, so fat that she “has a morbid dread of the seatbelt not fitting around her” in a car (page 21). She weighs an entire … 175 lbs.
Wait, what?!
I don’t find fat-shaming to be a huge point of sensitivity for me. So if I found the fat-phobia of this book to be disgusting and over-the-top, I can only imagine how upsetting it will be for people who are more easily triggered by such descriptions.
While 175 isn’t skinny, it’s not obese, either. It’s entirely normal and about smack dab in the center of average weight for a woman.
When I told my husband about this (along with a reference to being too old to wear jeans at age 39), he said, “Let me guess. The author is a man?” I said, “That’s what you might think, but no!” Some serious internalized misogyny and body shaming at play here.
The repeated references to how “fat” the main character is were extremely off-putting.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. I had a good guess early on of who the baddie was, but there were enough twists and turns to keep things exciting.
I also liked the complex imperfect relationships of various characters. Ruth is an adult who behaves like an adult, having complicated feelings toward some of the men around her but without ever being a lovelorn cliche. She is smart, strong and capable. If only her author would let her have a reasonable view of her totally normal and average body size.