Ruth's parents, the born again Christians, have provided Ruth something to rebel against and she has become a materialist.

If you work with human remains you get past that phase really quickly; or you never go through it, I never did. The story of Ruth, Nelson, the various members of the police, Cathbad the local Druid who always seems to be in the middle of everything, and now a visitor from Australia are all developed further. I’m not saying they were boring, I’m just saying I would have rathered reading these things from Nelson or Ruth’s point of view.The storyline is ridiculous, the characters are stereotypes who behave in the silliest of ways, the writing is clunky and the pace is sluggish. Like its predecessors, this is a wonderfully rich mixture of ancient and contemporary, superstition and rationality, with a cast of druids, dreamers and assorted tree-huggers as well as some thoroughly modern villains: a welcome addition to a great series' Guardian. As she has done in the other three books, Griffiths also left us on a cliffhanger at the end of the book regarding the Ruth/Nelson relationship.

In fact, when we weren’t reading about the crime/mystery from one of the Smiths, it was Judy who was investigating.You're not good at suspense anyway, you might as well have written that Ruth spent hours squinting at the skeleton like serious professionals do and then came up with the answer. The deaths almost seem to be investigated as sub plots but they remain an important part of every chapter. The dialogues and thoughts of the characters are repetitive, the characters are boring and selfish, the relationships between them shallow and the situations most of the time ridiculous! Coincidentally (or not) Ruth discovers she has a new neighbour, a native Australian, Bob Woonunga who is seeking to repatriate the bones, and then of course Cathbad her druid friend seems to be at the centre of it all. I was also irritated by the way that the author feels the need to tell us everything that has happened in the series up until now, to the point of spoiling little twists in the previous books (like what happened to her cat in The Crossing Places).

Ruth Galloway's] an uncommon, down-to-earth heroine whose acute insight, wry humor, and depth of feeling make her a thoroughly engaging companion. Mature teenagers will enjoy these books over a long summer vacation and even adults enjoy these books, too. I will admit I’m reading these books for the soap opera like relationship of the main characters above all else. The characters are constantly engaging - particularly the vulnerable Ruth - the writing is perceptive, as well as wryly humorous . And it’s really a good thing— the “will they or won’t they” was pushing my limits of tolerance for bad idea romances.Griffiths] effectively conveys the hurt and complex feelings that can result from unthinking indiscretions and somehow these become integral to the narrative. Not only that but inspector Nelson also gets sick and enters into a coma and is fighting for his life and the doctors can't find a cause. An Australian theme and the issue of repatriation of aboriginal bones, a link to serpents and a curse. Lord Smith's love of the natural world is shown in his magnificent collection of animals and birds, most of which he shot and stuffed himself.

I've gradually been working my way through this series (this is the 4th) and they have been good so far. I thought the part of the animal rights activist was negatively portrayed and it didn't ring true that someone who cared about animals so much would be happy to make their money from a horse racing yard also Cathbad being vegetarian but wearing fur didn't seem to make sense. The pressures that Ruth is faced with differ in all of the cases which she has been involved with and the new consideration here is one-year-old daughter, Kate.The first thing I have to say about this book is that is soooo boring and so do yourselves a favour and just DON'T read it especially if you are fan of crime/mystery novels!