About
The Last Remains Synopsis
The unmissable new book in the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries. Ruth and DCI Nelson are working on a murder case in which their friend Cathbad emerges as the prime suspect. Can they uncover the truth in time to save him?
When builders renovating a café in King's Lynn unearth a human skeleton, they call for DCI Harry Nelson and Dr Ruth Galloway, Head of Archaeology at the University of North Norfolk. Ruth is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with Nelson.
The bones are identified as those of Emily Pickering, an archaeology student who went missing in the 1990s. Emily attended a course run by her Cambridge tutor. Suspicion falls on him and on another course member - Ruth's friend Cathbad, who is still frail following his near death from Covid. As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the student group and the adults leading them. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears.
The trail leads Ruth and Nelson to the Neolithic flint mines in Grime's Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?
About This Edition
Press Reviews
Elly Griffiths Press Reviews
This brilliant series, brimming with comedy and compassion, has demonstrated that archaeology, just like the best crime fiction, is the study of everyday people . . . Elly Griffiths has honed her skills to become one of our very best writers. Bravo! - The Times
Griffiths has brought the series to such a satisfying conclusion - Mail on Sunday
A satisfying read . . . one of Ruth's best investigations - Belfast Telegraph
The Last Remains does not disappoint . . . it will have you laughing, crying, gasping and staring wide eyed, because Griffiths delivers a thrilling roller-coaster ride - Crime Fiction Lover
A typically intriguing Galloway case - Sunday Times
Fast paced, with great characters . . . does not disappoint - Candis
An eerie, captivating read - Woman's Own
Author
About Elly Griffiths
Elly Griffiths is the bestselling author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries and the Brighton Mysteries. She has won the CWA Dagger in the Library, has been shortlisted six times for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for The Lantern Men. Her series featuring Detective Harbinder Kaur began with The Stranger Diaries, which won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in the USA. It was followed by The Postscript Murders, shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and Bleeding Heart Yard. 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.
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