Because Agatha Christie was something of an amateur archeologist, she likely would have enjoyed Elly Griffiths's Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery series (The House at Sea's End), centered as it is on the head of archeology at the University of North Norfolk. And the Queen of Crime might have especially admired the series' positively Christie-esque 15th book, The Last Remains, with its clutch of colorfully shifty characters, one of whom is unmasked as a killer during the blindsiding reveal at novel's end.
Dr. Ruth Galloway is again tapped as a police consultant after a builder finds a human skeleton while renovating a café. Ruth assesses the bones: they belonged to an adult female, and a metal plate at the ankle confirms that the skeleton isn't especially old. Dental records prove that the deceased is Emily Pickering, an archeology student who has been missing since 2002. Twenty-year-old Emily seemed to vanish following a field trip to Grime's Graves, a prehistoric flint mine, with a motley band of teachers and peers, including, as it happens, Ruth's druid friend, series regular Cathbad.
In charge of the murder investigation is DCI Harry Nelson, whose series-spanning romantic negotiations with Ruth could be packaged as a stand-alone novel. In The Last Remains, Griffiths (The Postscript Murders; Now You See Them; The Vanishing Box) effortlessly juggles their romance, Emily's murder, Cathbad's disappearance, Covid's long shadow, and threats to Ruth's job and safety. It all leads to a resolution that wouldn't be unsuitable for a series finale. May it be a mistake to read too much into the novel's title. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer