Year 2 / Book 42: The House at Sea’s End

42) The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths

I’ve been back on the police procedural / thriller front of late, and this is a series I stumbled across reading a review of a different book. It features Ruth Galloway who is a forensic archaeologist meets pathologist, and she’s a great character: flawed, struggling to get everything done, a bit lovestruck by the police detective (for reasons that become clear) and a bit all over the place – but not in the sense of being made up of police detective cliches (drink problem, love of jazz, smoking habit, divorce) but in a way that felt real, at least to me.

The plot is a touch far-fetched but enjoyable in a sort of Dads Army meets Silent Witness kind of way, revolving as it does around a potential German invasion by sea that may have happened, and the ramifications that ensued. Slightly preposterous, but entertaining nonetheless with a sort of UKIP-py country house owner, a dashing German professor and a friendly care worker in the cast of characters. But Galloway is the centre of it, and enormously likeable – likeable enough to forgive the worst plot extravagances and the a bit-too-neat denouement.

I’ve added this to the list of series to come back to and revisit for a bit of modern British crime escapism. Recommended.

Score: 7/10

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