Elly Griffiths Books

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Elly Griffiths’ real name is Domenica de Rosa. Rosa was born in 1963 in London. Eventually moving to Brighton, Rosa had her first book written by the time she was eleven, a murder mystery set in a local village.

Every decision Rosa took at an early age was designed to lead her to a career in the publishing industry, this including working at a library and a magazine, and even scoring a job at HarperCollins as a publicity assistant. Rosa’s first book as Elly Griffiths came in 2009.

The book introduced to readers Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist that Griffiths based on her husband and her aunt. Since then, Griffiths has written numerous books in the Ruth Galloway series. She also went ahead and introduced a second series set in Brighton, called the Stephens and Mephisto series. The book is set in 1950.

Before the Ruth Galloway series, Griffiths wrote The Italian Quarter, a book she published under her real name. The book came about after she took her maternity leave in 1998 and finally made a concerted effort to pursue her writing dreams.

Elly Griffiths has a husband and two children, not to mention a cat.

Elly Griffiths Awards

Griffiths won the Mary Higgins Clark Award in 2011. She was also a finalist for the 2012 Barry Awards (Best British Crime).

Best Elly Griffiths Books

Readers that are new to Griffiths’ work will find these books, some of the best she has written, very insightful:

The Janus Stone: Construction workers demolishing an old house in Norwich are shocked when they come across the remains of a child beneath a doorway. Suggestions that the child might be the victim of a Roman-era ritual sacrifice draw the interest of Ruth Galloway, especially when it is discovered that the skull is missing.

Ruth and Detective Harry Nelson begin working to unravel the mystery. Upon learning of the large house’s history as a children’s home, the pair turns their attention to the catholic priest that once managed things.

Ruth and Harry learn that a boy and a girl went missing during his time, and they were never found. However, that information proves irrelevant when the bones of the child are carbon dated and it is determined that they were buried even before the children’s home came into being.

Ruth is able to trace them back to a time when the house was under private ownership. As Ruth begins to peel back the layers of the case, it soon becomes clear that someone doesn’t want her to succeed.

This crime novel is driven as much by the mystery of the child’s discovered bones as it is by the protagonist’s own personal relationships with the people around her. Ruth is pregnant, and Nelson is the father. The pair shared a night of passion in the First book that they never revisited, what with Nelson being a tender family man.

However, while their feelings are still in vague territory, the consequences of their actions are far more stark and difficult to accept. The fact that Ruth is involved with another man, who is unaware of her pregnancy, only complicates the situation.

Old characters return while Griffiths also makes use of a few new players, though she doesn’t manipulate the plot as effectively as she did the first time round. At some point, Ruth and Nelson’s relationship became more interesting than the mystery surrounding them.

There are definitely people who will follow Elly Griffiths to the next book just to figure out what happens to Ruth and Nelson.

The Ghost Fields: The summer heat isn’t the only thing that has the folks of Norfolk stirring. A WWII plane with its pilot inside has been unearthed by construction workers. However, Ruth quickly discovers that the skeleton in the cockpit isn’t the pilot. The remains belong to a local aristocrat called Fred Blackstone, a man that supposedly died at sea.

The rest of the Blackstones are frightened when they learn about Ruth’s discovery.

There are plans to make a film about the Ghost Fields, Norfolk’s deserted air force bases. As the film crews begin production, their work is complicated by a mysterious man lurking in the area.

In the Ghost Fields, Ruth is now the mother of a five-year-old daughter. The father of her child, Nelson, chose to stay with his wife Michelle, though he is still quite possessive of the mother and child.

Nelson and Ruth’s issues do not overtake the cold case at play, though they definitely keep things a little more interesting than the average crime novel.

When Does The Next Elly Griffiths book come out?

The next book by Elly Griffiths is The Frozen People and will be released on February, 13th 2025. It is the newest book in the Phoenix Quest Adventure Series.

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