Artifact by Gigi Pandian

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Professor Jaya Jones has found her niche as a tenure-track history professor in California, but her life is about to get a bit more complicated.  Shaken by the news that former boyfriend Rupert has died in a car accident in Scotland, she arrives home to find a package containing a heavy gold anklet with a large ruby.  It’s obviously very old, and appears to be Indian.  But it’s the note that throws her for a loop:  it’s from Rupert.  He says that he’s sending her the item for safekeeping because there’s no one else he can trust.

The postmark is the same day as his fatal accident—if it was an accident.

The trouble is that Jaya’s expertise isn’t Indian history, but rather the East India Company and colonial India.  She’s going to have to find someone else who knows about Indian history, specifically jewelry, to figure out exactly what Rupert has sent her and if it got him killed.

With a possible killer on the loose, Jaya accepts the help of graduate student Lane Peters whose specialty is Indian art. But like Rupert, Jaya has to ask herself the question:  who can I trust?

I started reading Gigi Pandian with her delightful Secret Staircase Mystery series, and soon discovered that she had other books.   Jaya Jones was her first series and Artifact is the first book in that series.  Like some of her other heroines, Jaya is mixed race: part Asian Indian and part European as is Pandian herself.  It makes for an interesting cultural backdrop, which I enjoyed, and plays into the mystery too. Jaya is big-hearted, action-oriented, and deeply loyal, not to mention smart and brave.

The mystery is fast paced, with a lot of twists and turns as Jaya drops everything and heads to the UK to try to find out not only what happened to Rupert but how he came across such an unusual and valuable artifact.  It’s obvious that Pandian knows the territory well, both the historical and geographic.  While there were a few plot threads I may have had doubts about, it didn’t stop me from having a lot of fun with this book. I also was aware that this was not only a first in series book, but a debut novel.  With that in mind, I felt she handled a complex plot and characters quite well. It’s quite the page turner.

 I’ll be reading more of Jaya’s adventures as well as dipping into another of her series about an alchemist.

The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

Once again, it is our pleasure to welcome guest reviewer Kevin Tipple the the BPL Bookblog.  For more reviews, news about books, and information for authors, check out Kevin's Corner.

 

Reviewed by Kevin Tipple

 

It is the middle of May 2018 as The Lantern Men: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths begins and a lot has changed in recent months. Kate is now nine. Dr. Ruth Galloway now teaches at Cambridge and lives with Frank. She is no longer the North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archeologist and is far from her beloved cottage on the Saltmarsh. While she will always have a connection to DCI Henry Nelson because of Kate, she is trying her best to close that door of her life and move forward with Frank and her new job duties.

 

That is until convicted murderer Ivor March offers a deal that Nelson cannot refuse. Finally convicted of two murders, Ivor Martin, remains a suspect as far as DCI Nelson is concerned for the cases of Nicole Ferris and Jenny McGuire. They are the same body type as the other victims, both lived in the Norfolk area at the time as did his confirmed victims, and both had contact with March by way of his classes as did the confirmed victims. Nelson is sure, without a shred of doubt, March did it.  He knows March did it. Proving it is the problem as there has been no sign of the bodies or any evidence in either case.

 

That is until Ivor March decides to cooperate and will do so for a price. Not only does he want a meeting with Nelson and Dr. Ruth Galloway, he will only tell them where the bodies are if she handles the dig herself. Clearly March is working an unknown agenda, but if it means promising to do the excavations will bring the deceased home to their loved ones, Dr. Galloway is willing to agree to the meeting and to supervise the recovery of the bodies.

  

She does and in addition to the bodies unearths a tangled web of lies and deceit, motives, and strange relationships going back decades. Local legends and modern-day murders make The Lantern Men: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths a compelling read.

 

Multiple storylines in addition to the one noted above are at work in this complicated read. This is a series that should be read in order and that is especially true here with numerous references to earlier events in the series, the changing nature of relationships, and the passage of time. There are frequent references to the fact that is has been 10 years since the first book, The Crossing Places, and how things have changed for Dr. Galloway, DCI Nelson, and many of the secondary characters who have overtime, had major roles in the series. The reader is left with the sense this is a turning point book where things will reset going forward in the series.

 

A complicated and engrossing book, The Lantern Men: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths is strongly recommended, as is the series.

 

 

 

The Lantern Men: A Ruth Galloway Mystery

Elly Griffiths

http://www.ellygriffiths.co.uk/

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

http://www.hmhbooks.com

2020

ISBN# 978-0-358-23704-4

Hardback (also available in paperback, audio, and e-book formats

368 Pages (includes several pages of the next book in the series)

 

My reading copy came from the Skyline Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020    

The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths

Reviewed by Jeanne

British archaeologist Ruth Galloway receives a call from an Italian colleague, asking if she will come to Italy to help him with an excavation near a small mountain village where he has uncovered some interesting remains.  Angelo Morelli has been working with a film company (who is helping to finance the dig) but they are losing interest.  He thinks that if Ruth comes, that as a “foreign expert” she might re-ignite some enthusiasm—and funds.  He offers Ruth the use of an apartment and encourages her to bring her young daughter, Kate, as well as another friend and her son. It will be a holiday of sorts, expenses paid.

Intrigued by both the promise of a holiday and by Angelo’s talk of “anomalies” with the skeleton he has found, Ruth sets out.  She soon discovers that her presence isn’t welcomed by all and that even Angelo is claiming to have received threats.  Is it about the Roman archaeological site—or more recent history?

But as fans know, the Ruth Galloway books are much more than mysteries; they’re a chance to find out what is going on in the complicated lives of a fascinating group of characters.  The core relationship is that between Ruth and DCI Nelson, the married police detective who first brought her into the realm of murder investigations when he called her in to consult after bones were found near Ruth’s home in the saltmarsh, but all the characters introduced since then have gone on to live very interesting lives. Sometimes I have to remind myself that there’s a murder to solve, but I’d rather find out what is going on with Cathbad, Clough, Judy, et al. 

Griffiths does an excellent job of creating characters we care about, even the ones who may seem unlikable at first.  They may still be people we don’t love, but we at least understand—like in real life. Ruth is a wonderful creation; she’s intelligent, independent, thirty something who is extremely competent at her job, but somewhat less organized in her personal life.  She’s also unfashionable, overweight, and sometimes socially awkward. 

The books also have a streak of understated humor.  I particularly enjoyed this exchange in Dark Angel when Ruth reluctantly refuses a second helping of delicious pasta, the village priest encourages her by saying, “You young women are too thin.”  Griffith writes, “It is almost enough to make Ruth become a Catholic.”

Given the strong part that character plays in these books, I highly recommend that they be read in order.  

The Crossing Places

The Janus Stone

The House at Sea’s End

A Room Full of Bones

A Dying Fall

The Outcast Dead

The Ghost Fields

The Woman in Blue

The Chalk Pit

The Dark Angel

The Stone Circle (due in May, 2019)

The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths

Reviewed by Jeanne

Ruth Galloway, university professor and archaeologist, is called in once again to examine some bones found during a construction survey.  The question is, have they stumbled on a historically important site that is going to hold up construction, or is it an old random burial, or—something else?

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Nelson is asked to look into an almost hit and run. A young woman who was driving home after dark saw a man standing in the middle of the road in front of her car, but when she got out to look for him, he had simply vanished.  The other members of the team are investigation the apparent disappearance of a homeless woman, hearing rumors of people who have “gone underground.”  The police are unsure of how seriously to take these stories until one of their informants is found murdered and another person goes missing.

This is one of those series best read in order because a great deal of the story is bound up in the personal histories of the characters.  I have to admit that I often remember more about what happens to Ruth, Nelson, Cathbad, Kate, etc. than I do the mystery that frames their stories.  The characters are complex, fully realized people which is why they are so compelling. And while most of the attention is on Ruth and Nelson, the supporting characters also have interesting lives on and off the job.  Fans of the series will find this entry to be particularly delicious, for reasons I cannot divulge without spoilers.

Yet a Griffiths novel is always more than the characters and the mystery.  There are intriguing insights into various segments of British society: the Church of England, for example, or the “rough sleepers” (homeless) who appear in The Chalk Pit.   History always plays an important role, too, and readers learn about the many chalk tunnels under Norwich.

I will say that I was disappointed that one or two questions were never answered in the book, but on the other hand many mysteries in life are never resolved.  Better to leave loose ends than to tie them up too neatly.

I highly recommend this series!

Nevermore: Velveteen Daughter, Mute Stones, Bushmen, Our Picnics in the Sun, Little Fires Everywhere

Reported by Kristin

Nevermore read a wide variety of books this week, beginning with The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber.  The similarity of title to The Velveteen Rabbit is no coincidence: this is historical fiction based on the life of Margery Williams Bianco (who wrote The Velveteen Rabbit) and her daughter Pamela, a well-known child prodigy artist.  Pamela had great talent, but also suffered greatly from severe depressions and other mental illness all her life.  Our reader enjoyed the story of a family touched with talent but also with sadness.

Another reader had a great breakthrough—she finished a book that she had been reading off and on for about a year!  The Mute Stones Speak: The Story of Archaeology in Italy by Paul MacKendrick may have been a long read, but well worth the time.  The author writes with enthusiasm to draw in scholars and non-scholars alike.  Our reader learned much about the search for antiquities in Italy, but was perhaps most impressed by the last ten pages, when it is revealed that the crypt of the first Saint Peter’s church was found.

Moving to yet another continent, Affluence Without Abundance: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen by James Suzman.  While the book talks about how the bushmen of southern Africa have traditionally lived simple and happy lives, our reader was very impressed by the anthropological changes in people over time.  Because of being able to cook meat—skulls, faces and teeth changed, so then they were able to physically develop and articulate speech.  Our reader found “so many beautiful things” in this book.

Our Picnics in the Sun by Morag Joss took Nevermore to a novel set on the English moors where Howard and Deborah Morgan are eking out a living by keeping sheep and chickens, making pottery and weaving cloth.  Then Howard has a stroke, and the world changes for both of them.  Deborah opens a bed and breakfast but is surprised by two men who come to stay, opening up old secrets and tragedies.  Our reader said that she enjoyed the book, but that it was quite sad.

Finally, another reader read Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.  A story about secrets and hidden undercurrents in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, most reviews have been positive.  However, our reader found that she didn’t have the patience for the story and thought that all the characters were immature.

Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd.

Reviewed by Brenda G.

Fergus and his Uncle Tally are digging for peat in a mountainside bog when Fergus finds a body, one of a child, in the bog. Is it a recent burial? The answer proves to be no, but proving this takes a while.  The story is set in 1981, on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and the two countries wrangle over the body, which has archaeological significance.

Other things of significance exist in Fergus’s world. He is studying for his university admissions exams, planning to be a doctor. His brother is in prison as a member of the Irish Republican Army and joins the hunger strike. The IRA seems to be insinuating itself further into Fergus’s life, but all is not quite what it seems. Fergus falls in love for the first time, with the daughter of a visiting archaeologist consulting on the matter of the bog child.

And giving the book its taste of magical realism, the bog child enters Fergus’s dreams. He can describe her appearance, her clothing, her voice, and her fate. He sees it all. He ties the famine that led to her death to a first century A.D. geological event and to the fear related to both the famine and the girl’s dwarf-like appearance.

Though this is a young adult novel, it takes its place among the best of YA literature. It is one not to be missed.

New York : Ember, an imprint of Random House. 2008. First Ember edition 2011. 322 pages.