The Night Hawks: A Ruth Galloway Mystery

Early in Edgar winner Griffith’s tightly plotted, well-paced 13th Ruth Galloway mystery (after 2020’s The Lantern Men), Ruth, a forensic anthropologist who has just been appointed the head of the archaeology department at the University of North Norfolk, receives a call from Det. Chief Insp. Harry Nelson, her friend and former lover. Nelson asks her to come to Blakeney Point, where a group of “metal detectorists” known as the Night Hawks have found the body of a young man washed up on the beach. Her assistance is needed because the detectorists have also found what could be a hoard of Bronze Age artifacts and, after closer examination, another, much older body. Could either of these deaths be related to the apparent murder-suicide of a local doctor and his wife? The complex relationship between Ruth and the married Nelson, who’s the father of Ruth’s 10-year-old daughter, is handled intelligently, with no unnecessary melodrama, and serves as an intricate part of the finale. Police procedural fans will be more than satisfied. [em]Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (June) [/em]