A Room Full of Bones

PRAISE FOR ELLY GRIFFITHS AND THE RUTH GALLOWAY SERIES   Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award  Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award   "Galloway is an everywoman, smart, successful and a little bit unsure of herself. Readers will look forward to learning more about her." —USA Today   "Elly Griffiths draws us all the way back to prehistoric times…Highly atmospheric." —The New York Times Book Review   "Forensic archeologist and academic Ruth Galloway is a captivating amateur sleuth-an inspired creation. I identified with her insecurities and struggles, and cheered her on. " —Louise Penny, author of the bestselling Armand Gamache series   "These books are must-reads." —Deborah Crombie, author of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series   "[Ruth Galloway's] an uncommon, down-to-earth heroine whose acute insight, wry humor, and depth of feeling make her a thoroughly engaging companion." —Erin Hart, Agatha and Anthony Award nominated author of Haunted Ground and Lake of Sorrows   "Ruth Galloway is a remarkable, delightful character…A must-read for fans of crime and mystery fiction." —Associated Press   "Rich in atmosphere and history and blessed by [Griffith's] continuing development of brilliant, feisty, independent Ruth...A Room Full of Bones, like its predecessors, works its magic on the reader's imagination." —Richmond Times-Dispatch   "Lovers of well-written and intelligent traditional mysteries will welcome [Griffith's] fourth book…A Room Full of Bones is a clever blend of history and mystery with more than enough forensic details to attract the more attentive reader." —Denver Post

Autorentext

**Elly Griffiths **is the *USA Today *bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway and Brighton mystery series, as well as the standalone novels The Stranger Diaries, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel; *The Postscript Murders; *and Bleeding Heart Yard. She is the recipient of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in Brighton, England.

Klappentext

In this thrilling mystery, "brilliant, feisty, independent" forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson investigate a seemingly cursed collection of Aboriginal skulls that are causing people to die from a mysterious fever--and the next person to fall ill is Nelson himself (Richmond Times-Dispatch). When Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop, she finds the museum's curator lying dead on the floor. Soon after, the museum's wealthy owner is also found dead, in his stables. DCI Harry Nelson is called in to investigate, thrusting him into Ruth's path once more. When threatening letters come to light, events take an even more sinister turn. But as Ruth's friends become involved, where will her loyalties lie? As her convictions are tested, Ruth and Nelson must discover how Aboriginal skulls, drug smuggling, and the mystery of the "Dreaming" hold the answers to these deaths, as well as the keys to their own survival. "Lovers of well-written and intelligent traditional mysteries will welcome [Griffith's] fourth book . . . A Room Full of Bones is a clever blend of history and mystery with more than enough forensic details to attract the more attentive reader."--Denver Post "Galloway is an Everywoman, smart, successful, and a little bit unsure of herself. Readers will look forward to learning more about her."--USA Today

Zusammenfassung
In this thrilling mystery, brilliant, feisty, independent forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson investigate a seemingly cursed collection of Aboriginal skulls that are causing people to die from a mysterious fever—and the next person to fall ill is Nelson himself (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

When Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop, she finds the museum's curator lying dead on the floor. Soon after, the museum's wealthy owner is also found dead, in his stables.

DCI Harry Nelson is called in to investigate this perplexing forensic mystery, thrusting him into Ruth's path once more. When threatening letters come to light, events take an even more sinister turn. But as Ruth's friends become involved, where will her loyalties lie? As her convictions are tested, this team of amateur sleuth and detective must discover how Aboriginal skulls, drug smuggling, and the mystery of the Dreaming hold the answers to these deaths, as well as the keys to their own survival.

Lovers of well-written and intelligent traditional mysteries will welcome [Griffith's] fourth book . . . A Room Full of Bones is a clever blend of history and mystery with more than enough forensic details to attract the more attentive reader.—Denver Post

"Galloway is an Everywoman, smart, successful, and a little bit unsure of herself. Readers will look forward to learning more about her."—USA Today

Leseprobe
**P R O L O G U E
**
31 October 2009 

The coffin is definitely a health and safety hazard. It fills the entrance hall, impeding the view of the stuffed Auk, a map of King’s Lynn in the 1800s and a rather dirty oil painting of Lord Percival Smith, the founder of the museum. The coffin’s wooden sides are swollen and rotten and look likely to disgorge their contents in a singularly gruesome manner. Any visitors would find its presence unhelpful, not to say distressing. But today, as on most days, there are no visitors to the Smith Museum. The curator, Neil Topham, stands alone at the far end of the hall looking rather helplessly at the ominously shaped box on the floor. The two policemen who have carried it this far look disinclined to go further. They stand, sweating and mutinous in their protective clothing, under the dusty chandelier donated by Lady Caroline Smith (1884–1960).
   ‘You can’t leave it here,’ says Neil.
   ‘We were told “take it to the Smith museum,”’ says the younger of the two men, PC Roy ‘Rocky’ Taylor
   ‘But you can’t just leave it in the hall,’ protests Neil. ‘I want it in the Local History Room.’  
   ‘Is that upstairs?’ asks the older man, Sergeant Tom Henty.
   ‘No.’
   ‘Good, because we don’t do upstairs. Our union won’t allow it.’
   Neil doesn’t know if they are joking or not. Do policemen have unions? But he stands aside as the two men shoulder their burden again and carry it, watched by myriad glass eyes, through the Natural History Room and into a smaller room decorated with a mural of Norfolk Through The Ages. There is a trestle table waiting in the centre of the room and, on this, the policemen lower the coffin.
   ‘It’s all yours,’ says Taylor, breathing heavily.
   ‘But don’t open it, mind,’ warns Henty. ‘Not until the Big Guns get here.’
   ‘I won’t,’ says Neil, although he looks with fascination, almost hunger, at the box, whose cracked lid offers a coy glimpse of the horrors within.
   ‘Superintendent Whitcliffe’s on his way.’
   ‘Is the boss coming?’ asks Taylor. Whitcliffe may be the most senior policeman in Norfolk, but for Taylor and others like him the boss will always be Detective Inspector Harry Nelson.
    ‘Nah,&…