The Crossing Places
The first entry in the acclaimed Ruth Galloway British crime series follows the "captivating"* archaeologist as she investigates a child’s bones found on a nearby beach, thought to be part of a decade-old cold case.
Forensic archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties. She lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near the Norfolk coast, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants―not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. In this gripping police procedural, Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter―exactly like the ones about Lucy.
Is it the same killer? Or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to Ruth’s remote home?
*Louise Penny
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Elly Griffiths
Thank you for visiting my Amazon author page! I'm the author of the Dr Ruth Galloway books, the Brighton Mysteries and four standalone titles featuring DI Harbinder Kaur. I've also written a middle grade mystery series, A Girl Called Justice. My new series, about time-travelling detective Ali Dawson, started in 2025 with The Frozen People.
I was born in London but moved to Brighton when I was five. I always wanted to be an author and wrote my first detective story, The Hair of the Dog, when I was 11. I studied English at King's College London and worked in a library before joining HarperCollins as a publicity assistant, eventually becoming editorial director for children's fiction. I wrote my first published novel, The Italian Quarter, whilst on maternity leave expecting my twins. Three other books followed, all written under my real name, Domenica de Rosa. When I wrote my first crime novel, The Crossing Places, I was advised to get a 'crime name'. I chose Elly Griffiths, after my grandmother, and have now published 32 books under that name..
Ruth Galloway
Ruth Galloway consists of fifteen primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
