Firstly thank you to Quercus Books and NetGalley for this advanced copy. Wow.. So glad that Dr Ruth Galloway and the gang are back. This is the 11th book in the series and is still as good as the first. Elly Griffiths draws you into the story and what a story it is. It is fast paced and doesn't let go until the very last page. The events are all woven into each other and you are gripped right up until the end when they all untangle at the end to reveal the guilty parties. This book is a welcome edition to the series and I hope there are more to come. You really get a feel for the places she is describing and it is great to see the characters develop over the course of the series. Absolutely brilliant and it was a privilege to read this book. Roll on the next one.

I admit that I was disappointed with my own reaction to this book, but I think at this juncture Ruth and I must part. The last book was already very borderline, I am just soooo tired of the Ruth and Nelson thing and the relationships that have descended into melodrama and remind me of a telenovela. I adored the first 9, book 10 not so much and book 11, not at all. The re-hashing of the plot of book 1, the same old themes, the characters all starting to turn into stereotypes and cardboard cut-outs of themselves.

SPOILERS

Oh it's good to be back with the gang.

There's a girl in a burial site,that feels a bit like we've done this before,but she soon gets pushed aside by a more recent murder and a kidnapping..

To be honest,it wasn't even those things,but the whole catching up with characters that has me reading these books.
Finding out who's baby Michelle is having,what crazy ideas Cathbad might come up with... how many times ruth complains about being fat (not once I believe,but I did enjoy the comedy fitbit moments).
There felt like the characters moved on a bit... especially with Kate being introduced to her sisters.
The crimes were solved... all good.

I *love* Ruth Galloway but have to admit this book feels like a re-run of the first couple: *yet another* girl's body is found out on the seahenge (how many is than now?) and yet again Ruth advises the police team. A cold case is re-opened of a girl who went missing in 1981, we have more weird letters, Erik's son appears to act in a suitably sinister fashion, and everyone (it seems) has a new baby. There's even the obligatory 'face the killer alone and with no back-up' scene, followed by the killer's confession...

What makes the whole thing so enjoyable isn't the reworked plot but the characters who are a joy. Their relationships are so intertwined and complicated now that while this can be read as a stand-alone, so much of the resonance would be missing. Griffith's sly humour and fluent prose add to the pleasure.

Circles seem important: literal and material stone circles but also the circling back into the past, and relationships going round in circles... we think, briefly, that Ruth might break out, but no, there are too many things holding her where she is. This is a 'more of the same' book: if you've not gelled with this series before, this one won't change your mind. For me, I loved being back in the company of Ruth, Nelson, Cloughie and the others.