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The Woman In Blue

A Mystery

#8 in series

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
A vision of the Virgin Mary foreshadows a string of cold-blooded murders, revealing a dark current of religious fanaticism in an old medieval town in this Ruth Galloway mystery.
When Ruth's friend Cathbad sees a vision of the Virgin Mary—in a white gown and blue cloak—in the graveyard next to the cottage he is house-sitting, he takes it in his stride. Walsingham has strong connections to Mary, and Cathbad is a druid after all; visions come with the job. But when the body of a woman in a blue dressing-gown is found dead the next day in a nearby ditch, it is clear Cathbad's vision was all too human—and that a horrible crime has been committed. DCI Nelson and his team are called in for the murder investigation and soon establish that the dead woman was a recovering addict being treated at a nearby private hospital.
Ruth, a devout atheist, has managed to avoid Walsingham during her seventeen years in Norfolk. But then an old university friend, Hilary Smithson, asks to meet her in the village, and Ruth is amazed to discover that her friend is now a priest. Hilary has been receiving vitriolic anonymous letters targeting women priests— letters containing references to local archaeology and a striking phrase about a woman "clad in blue, weeping for the world."
Then another woman is murdered—a priest.
As Walsingham prepares for its annual Easter re-enactment of the Crucifixion, the race is on to unmask the killer before they strike again...
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 29, 2016
      The discovery of a woman’s body dumped in a ditch near the village of Walsingham kick-starts Griffiths’s satisfying eighth Ruth Galloway mystery set in Norfolk, England (after 2015’s The Ghost Fields). Det. Chief Insp. Harry Nelson, who heads the Serious Crimes Unit, learns that the victim, Chloe Jenkins, was receiving treatment at a local drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. Meanwhile, Ruth, a forensic archeologist, receives a plea for help from an acquaintance, Hilary Smithson. Hilary, an Anglican vicar, tells Ruth that she has received threatening letters from someone who’s against women joining the priesthood. As the hunt for Chloe’s murderer begins, a second body turns up, and Nelson—with Ruth’s aid—searches for a link between the two crimes. They share a personal story, too, and their uneasy relationship adds a domestic element to the unfolding drama. Griffiths expertly conveys the mysteries of a particular brand of Christianity that’s drawn to physical manifestations of spirituality, ancient relics, and the stubbornly corporeal. Agent: Rebecca Carter, Janklow & Nesbit.

    • Library Journal

      December 1, 2015

      Because medieval-quaint Little Walsingham is famously the site of religious apparitions, Ruth Galloway's druid friend Cathbad takes the blue-cloaked woman he sees standing in a windy cemetery one dark night as a vision of the Virgin Mary. Then a woman wrapped in blue cloth is discovered dead. Griffiths's The Ghost Fields was a Top Ten LibraryReads pick.

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2016

      Famous for religious sightings, the medieval town of Walsingham is a holy site in both the Catholic and Anglican traditions. So when Cathbad, a druid and a friend of forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway, spots a lovely figure dressed in blue in the cemetery next to the house where he is cat-sitting, he is reminded of the Virgin Mary. The next day, the woman is discovered strangled in a ditch; she is identified as Chloe Jenkins, resident of a nearby rehab facility. Ruth becomes involved in the murder investigation when her friend Hilary Smithson, archaeologist-turned-priest, receives threatening letters. She and DCI Harry Nelson, the father of her child, are hard pressed to uncover the truth. VERDICT The eighth book in the series (after The Ghost Fields) does not disappoint. Griffiths's well-crafted narrative and solid character development make for a gripping procedural. [See Prepub Alert, 11/16/15.]

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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