The Locked Room Synopsis
Pandemic lockdowns have Ruth Galloway feeling isolated from everyone but a new neighbor--until Nelson comes calling, investigating a decades-long string of murder-suicides that's looming ever closer, in USA Today Elly Griffiths' penultimate novel in the beloved series.
Three years after her mother's death, Ruth is finally sorting through her things when she finds a curious relic: a decades-old photograph of her own Norfolk cottage--before she lived there--with a peculiar inscription on the back. Ruth returns to the cot-tage to uncover its meaning as Norfolk's first cases of Covid-19 make headlines, leaving her and Kate to shelter in place there. They struggle to stave off isolation by clapping for frontline workers each evening and befriending a kind neighbor, Zoe, from a distance.
Meanwhile, Nelson is investigating a series of deaths of women that may or may not be suicide. When he links a case to an archaeological dis-covery, he breaks curfew to visit Ruth and enlist her help. But the further Nelson investigates the deaths, the closer he gets to Ruth's isolated cot-tage--until Ruth, Zoe, and Kate all go missing, and Nelson is left scrambling to find them before it's too late.
PRAISE FOR ELLY GRIFFITHS AND THE RUTH GALLOWAY SERIES
Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel
Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award
Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award
"Galloway is an everywoman, smart, successful and a little bit unsure of herself. Readers will look forward to learning more about her." --USA Today
"Elly Griffiths draws us all the way back to prehistoric times . . . Highly atmospheric." --New York Times Book Review
"Forensic archeologist and academic Ruth Galloway is a captivating amateur sleuth--an inspired creation. I identified with her insecurities and struggles, and cheered her on." --Louise Penny
About This Edition
Elly Griffiths Press Reviews
Lockdown provides a brilliant opportunity for Griffiths, bringing fresh drama into her characters' lives and she makes the most of it - Sunday Times
Where other Covid-themed mysteries have felt uninspired, this entry in Elly Griffiths' brilliant Ruth Galloway series is an intelligent and gripping recreation of those first weeks of lockdown in 2020 - Daily Express
A terrific story that allows Galloway and Nelson to get closer than they have been for years - The Times, Best New Crime Fiction
Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series combines imaginative plotting, cleverly located in deepest Norfolk, with the everyday dramas of her case of regular characters . . . This is Griffiths on top form - Mail on Sunday
A classic English mystery from one of the leading authors in the field, charming from start to finish - Irish Independent
Fans of gripping, clever thrillers will love this book - Candis
Brilliantly plotted with complex mysteries to keep you turning the pages, there is also an intriguing cliff-hanger - Promoting Crime Fiction
A mystery treat - Peterborough Telegraph
A sheer reading pleasure - Crime Fiction Lover
Brilliant, as ever - Best
About Elly Griffiths
Elly Griffiths is a multi-award-winning author and a No 1 bestseller. She has written twenty-six crime novels for adults; four for children, and a volume of short stories. Her books for adults include the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries, the Brighton Mysteries and the Detective Harbinder Kaur series.
Elly’s many accolades include the CWA Dagger in the Library, the Edgar Award and the Fingerprint Award for Crime Novel of the Year, as well as being shortlisted multiple times for the Theakston’s Award. The Frozen People is the first in a new series starring Ali Dawson, a time-travelling detective.
Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband and their cat, Pip.
Below is a Q & A with this author.
If you were stranded on a desert island and could take one crime novel, one DVD boxset and one character from a crime novel, who/what would you take?
This is the sort of question I spend a lot of time debating when I should be working! My desert island book is usually The Mating Season by PG Wodehouse as I think that would cheer me up (unlike Ruth I don’t like solitude). But crime novel? It would have to be The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. DVD boxset would be The Office (US version) and the character would be Charles Paris from Simon Brett’s novels as at least we’d have a laugh – and a drink.
Photo Credit: Sara Reeve
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party and what would be on the menu?
I’d invite Clive Stafford-Smith, Marcus Brigstocke, Bruce Springsteen, Germaine Greer and Jilly Cooper. We’d eat Italian food ideally cooked by my late Nonna (it is a dream after all).
What is your favourite line from a film/TV series/book?
It’s a few lines but Flora Poste’s telegram in Cold Comfort Farm. ‘Worst fears realised darling. Seth and Reuben too. Send gumboots.’
If you could write a book with any other crime or thriller writer, who would you choose and why?
I’d have great fun with Lesley Thomson, David Harrison (Tom Bale), Jim Kelly or Alison Bruce. Alison, Jim and I have talked about our fictional detectives meeting as our books are all set in the Cambridge/King’s Lynn area. They’d probably all hate each other too which would make for a fun read.
Who is your favourite onscreen detective?
I really like Jackson Brodie (Jason Isaacs) but my favourite is probably still David Suchet as Poirot.
If your book was being made into a film or a TV series, who would you want to play the lead character?
Ruth Jones or Eva Myles. She’d have to become Welsh but it would be worth it.
What crime novel do you wish you had written?
The Woman in White.
What’s the scariest place you’ve visited for inspiration?
The prison chapel in Lincoln Castle.
You are master of cluedo and have any name, weapon and room at your disposal, whodunit and what happened?
It would have to be the Reverend Green as I do like a theological thriller. Reverend Green (who’s a woman) in the library with the bible.
More About Elly Griffiths