The Dark Angel

March 19, 2018
Mary Higgins Clark Award–winner Griffths’s uneven 10th Ruth Galloway mystery (after 2017’s The Chalk Pit) takes forensic archeologist Ruth and her daughter, Kate, to Castello degli Angeli, a little Italian town, to help colleague Angelo Morelli, who hosts an archeology-based TV show, analyze a Roman-era skeleton. When Ruth finds a hostile message at her lodging, and Angelo tells her he’s received death threats, they assume someone wants to stop their work. The subsequent murder of the kindly local priest in his church raises the stakes. Meanwhile, alarmed by news of an earthquake in the region, Det. Chief Insp. Harry Nelson, Ruth’s sometime lover and Kate’s father, flies to Italy, leaving his pregnant wife, Michelle, home in Norfolk, England. Subplots involving Michelle’s affair with another police officer, uncertainty about her baby’s father’s identity, and a newly released criminal determined to seek vengeance converge in a dramatic but contrived finale. Rich details about the Italian countryside, gastronomy, and history make up only in part for the underdeveloped mystery plot. Agent: Rebecca Carter, Janklow & Nesbit (U.K.).

They're back! Listeners can once again enjoy the adventures of Ruth Galloway, the pudgy forensic archaeologist; her sometime lover, DCI Nelson; her Druid friend, and others who have charmed us in the previous nine books in this series. Narrator Jane McDowell's gentle, refined voice takes us on a trip to a picturesque town in the Liri Valley of Italy. Here Ruth examines Roman bones, imbibes great wine, makes love with Nelson, and, of course, solves a murder. While McDowell's portrayal of Ruth may be too genteel and calm, she conveys the ambiance of the setting very well. Followers of the series will love this audiobook. D.L.G. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine