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I'm definitely having a bit of a crime fiction bonanza at the moment, mainly because the publication lists are stuffed full of such great titles. I'm also trying to pace myself as we are off on holiday soon and I always love to take a jolly good thriller away with me to read on a beach. However I keep reading all the books I've picked up for our holiday. Yes after having our holiday cancelled twice, we are finally getting to take it!!! Of course, we are still madly packing up boxes, just in case the call comes to move once we get back. Eek! It's going to be tight people.

Back to the post! The Night Hawks is the latest book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series which I love! A quick note, I would read the series in order. The complicated private lives of the main characters are so much easier to understand. For those of you who haven't read these before, think a police procedural crime novel with an archaeological twist.

Read my post about Elly Griffiths Books In Order

The Plot (from the Back of the Book)

The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists are searching for buried treasure when they find the body of a young man washed up on the beach...

Nelson is then called to an apparent murder-suicide of a couple at the isolated Black Dog farm. Local legend talks of the Black Shuck, a spectral hound that appears to people before they die. Myths don't impress Nelson, but the owner's suicide note includes the line 'He's buried in the Garden'.

My Thoughts

I always look forward to the latest Dr Ruth Galloway release and this did not disappoint. The novels are a great police procedural set of books - a crime is committed, then investigated, Ruth is called in as Forensic Archaeologist assisting the police in their investigations. We learn about the character's home lives, much more than a usual police procedural which either have a long-suffering yet strangely silent wife or husband. We know so much about Judy, Cathbad, Cloughie, and Super Jo that they have become almost friends.

But these novels come with a brilliant twist and that is the legends of the area which add to the atmosphere. It is truly fascinating to learn about these. In the case of The Night Hawks, the legend of the Black Shuck looms large just like the Hound of the Baskervilles. This seeks to make the novel feel darkly ominous with a true sense of foreboding.

The Night Hawks has a great plot - a sinister farmhouse, an organisation conducing drugs trials and an ambitious narcissistic Doctor fully committed to his research.

It was good to have old favourites back. My lovely mother-in-law and Team Yorkshire were discussing how wonderful Cathbad, a druid, is. And it was great to have Cloughie back for a bit.

These novels just keep better and better in my opinion and I'm already looking forward to the next Ruth Galloway novel. I was also delighted that Elly Griffiths is one of 12 authors selected to pen a short story featuring Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Brilliant! She will do a fine job.