A review by bookph1le
The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

2.0

Spoiler

I think I'm done with this series. It was intriguing at first, but there are certain patterns I'm starting to find annoying because they give all the books a sameness:

- Ruth's life has been in peril in all three books I've read. The thought of reading another leaves me cold because I'll roll my eyes SO hard if Ruth ends up fighting for her life yet again. Not since Indiana Jones had archeology been such a dangerous career.

- No one in these books is faithful. No one. Nelson isn't. It's implied his boss wasn't. Judy isn't. Erik wasn't. The German historian in this book wasn't. I could make a whole list of Shona's exes who weren't. It's not that I'm taking some moral stance against adultery, it's that I simply find it both unrealistic and a little too soap operatic that there isn't a single character in this series who's happily monogamous.

Speaking of which, I don't really want to know what's going to become of Kate's parentage. Rather than making me want to find out what will happen next, the ending of this one just made me feel kind of depressed. I'm not rooting for Michelle, per se, but I just hated the idea of her finally putting the pieces together.

Which also leads me to the fact that I kind of hate Nelson, and I definitely hate that Ruth seems so determined to pine for him. He's been unfaithful multiple times to his wife, he's sexist, and it certainly sounds like he married his wife solely for her looks and is into Ruth because of her intellect. Tatjana was spot on when she said Nelson's wife wasn't clever enough for him, but to me that's an indictment against Nelson and not Michelle. He's the superficial one who apparently married a woman just because he liked how she looked in a dress. I've never liked the way Nelson and the series have treated her, as if she's an accessory more than she is a person.