Review – Elly Griffiths “Outcast Dead”

The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths  –

Having finished the latest book in the Ruth Galloway series I am slightly mixed in my view. I enjoyed the latest story and was intrigued by the new storyline and enjoyed how things tied together with the detective world and archaeological world. The twists with the babies where well placed and although the clues were there I was still surprised by the twist involving Judy. My main flaws with the story are:-

As a loyal reader of the series I do feel Ruth and Nelsons relationship was avoided in this book almost to the point of ignoring it altogether. The storyline tells the reader it is because of his marriage but the situation has not changed since the last few books so this complicated relationship should have featured more in my opinion. The two characters are very dynamic and spark of each other so well, whether it is loving or hating each other, and I missed that a lot in this novel.

My second flaw is with one specific scene that I am hoping is a prelude to a future event in the Ruth Galloway series. The story makes a surprising change of pace and tells a small scene from Todds point of view. The only point in this scene seems to be to tell the reader that Nelsons wife is attractive. In my opinion if Elly felt the need to remind everyone of Nelsons wife this scene could have been told from Cloughie’s perspective, he is a known skirt-chaser, has split with Tanya and he does have a stronger lead in this story.

All in all I did enjoy this novel (as I always do with Elly’s writing), just including my little bit of positive criticism as I do love the stories so much and want the high standard of writing and storytelling to continue for many more books to come.

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