The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths

Narrated by: Jane McDowell

Series: Ruth Galloway, Book 14

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Release date: 06-28-22

Publisher: HarperAudio

Crime fiction / to review /library

I was listening, and reading since my library copy finally arrived at the same time. I have never done a two in one.

Ruth in lockdown. Pretty depressing. Covid hit Norfolk, and people do get sick. It was all so very real. So very now

I kept wondering who the killer was. I was so sure, so sure! But then I am a constant guessed, and that does not really count. Strange suicides that really are murders. And Ruth seems to be in danger. Everyone is in lockdown. Ruth is homeschooling Kate. Nelson is spending more time with them, even though he shouldn't.

I really enjoy this series. We are up to 14 now. It is the only modern crime series I can follow cos it is so much about the people. I need that. I need the people. And I am so invested in their lives. This one does take you through a wringer cos covid is around, and things get scary.

Good narration, even if after having read 13 books I was very much in my own head. But it was nice to see other voices to the characters I know so well by now.

Ruth is in London clearing out her mother's belongings when she makes a surprising discovery: a photograph of her Norfolk cottage taken before Ruth lived there. Her mother always hated the cottage, so why does she have a picture of the place? As she died three years ago, Ruth can't exactly ask her, and her father denies all knowledge of the picture. The only clue is written on the back of the photo: Dawn, 1969.

Ruth returns to Norfolk determined to solve the mystery, but then Covid-19 rears its ugly head. Ruth and her daughter are locked down in their cottage, attempting to continue with work and lessons, but, in reality, becoming lonely and frustrated. Happily the house next door is rented by a nice woman called Sally, who they become friendly with while standing on their doorstep clapping for carers.

Nelson, meanwhile, has no time to be bored. He's investigating a series of suicides that could be the work of a serial killer. It's only when he links them to an archaeological discovery that he thinks of Ruth. He breaks curfew to visit the cottage to find Ruth chatting to her neighbour, whom he remembers as Dawn Lancaster, a carer who was once tried for murdering her employer. When the deaths continue, Nelson vows to take Ruth and Kate to live with him. But they, and Dawn, have vanished.