Title: The Woman in Blue (Ruth Galloway #8)
Author: Ellly Griffiths
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
In the next Ruth Galloway mystery, a vision of the Virgin Mary foreshadows a string of cold-blooded murders, revealing a dark current of religious fanaticism in an old medieval town.
Known as England’s Nazareth, the medieval town of Little Walsingham is famous for religious apparitions. So when Ruth Galloway’s druid friend Cathbad sees a woman in a white dress and a dark blue cloak standing alone in the local cemetery one night, he takes her as a vision of the Virgin Mary. But then a woman wrapped in blue cloth is found dead the next day, and Ruth’s old friend Hilary, an Anglican priest, receives a series of hateful, threatening letters. Could these crimes be connected? When one of Hilary’s fellow female priests is murdered just before Little Walsingham’s annual Good Friday Passion Play, Ruth, Cathbad, and DCI Harry Nelson must team up to find the killer before he strikes again.
I can’t hide the fact that I’m utterly in love with the Ruth Galloway series. As soon as I saw The Woman in Blue on Netgalley, I knew I needed a copy of the book. Although not as enthralling as the previous books I’ve read in this series, it’s still an intriguing mystery. I figured out quite early on who the culprit was, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the book.
Cathbad is housesitting for a friend, and watching said friend’s slightly annoying cat. The cat runs off, Cathbad goes to look for it, and notices a beautiful young woman dressed in blue in the graveyard. He thinks he’s having a vision, but when a woman matching this description is found dead the next day, he realizes he saw an actual human being that night.
The discovery of the young woman’s body is the start of the investigation for DCI Nelson. Ruth becomes involved when a friend of hers, a female priests, contacts her about some disturbing and threatening letters she received that may have something to do with this case.
The book focuses a lot on religion, and in particular some people’s views on having female priests. The subject matter touched upon a few controversies, but as always with Ruth Galloway as main character, she has an intelligent, open view on things.
Ruth and Nelson are the power couple behind this series for me. On their own, they shine like little diamonds – Ruth is strong, fierce, but not in a dominant way as you often see when authors try to write strong woman (they’re usually full of sarcasm, insist on doing everything on their own, and are quite frankly almost caricatures of human beings). Not so with Ruth. She’s strong in a silent way, like an oak or any tree really, and she’s flawed too, and not afraid to admit her flaws. Nelson is an amazing character too, constantly doubting, constantly making mistakes and yet doing so many things right at the same time. He’s a good cop too.
I loved the scenes of the two of them together and their rocky relationship adds so much depth to this series. An excellent read that I wholeheartedly recommend to mystery/thriller fans.
I think I’ll definitely be checking out this book. Sounds like a real thrill ride.
Ooooh, I’ve never heard of this one before but it sounds really interesting! Not a big fan of religious-y books but I’m glad you enjoyed it 😀 Thanks for the awesome review!
I’m not familiar with this series, but you make it sound like one I could potentially enjoy, so I’d better write it down! Thanks for reviewing 🙂
I’ve never even heard of this series, but the fact that you’re obsessed with it makes me want to check it out!! Great review 😀
Tracy @ Cornerfolds
This sounds really interesting, I love the idea of seeing someone, thinking it’s a vision, then finding out the enxt day they were real- and dead! Yikes. The setting sounds great too. Great that it has strong (and realistic) characters too…