Book Review: The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths

The Woman in Blue
Author: Elly Griffiths
Series: Ruth Galloway (Book 8)
Publication: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (May 3, 2016)

Description: 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."

As Walsingham prepares for its annual Easter re-enactment of the Crucifixion, the race is on to unmask the killer before they strike again…

My Thoughts: The eighth Ruth Galloway mystery centers around Walsingham which is the center of an area devoted to Mary, the Mother of God. When Cathbad, who is catsitting in the area, sees a young woman with a blue robe in the graveyard next to his house, his first thought is that he's had a vision of the Virgin Mary.

However, when the same woman is found dead in a ditch, it becomes clear that there is a murderer on the loose. The young woman is Chloe Jenkins, a fashion model who was at a local drug treatment center. Nelson and his team are determined to find out who murdered her. 

Ruth gets involved mainly because an old friend who is now an Anglican priest calls her to come look at some troubling letters she has received. Hilary is there for a seminar with other female Anglican priests who are looking to become bishops once that is allowed. 

When another of the priests is also murdered in the same way as Chloe, Ruth finds herself more involved in the case despite Nelson's wanting her to back off and let him handle the police work. Nelson and Ruth's relationship had come to some sort of equilibrium until his wife Michelle's relationship with Nelson's colleague Tim comes to light. 

Nelson and Michelle are at odds until the villain attacks her in a Walsingham churchyard. They decide to try to rebuild their marriage. Tim transfers to another area but doesn't leave until he tells Michelle that he's still in love with her and will always be there for her. 

Ruth is left out in this new version of Nelson and Michelle's marriage and is trying to convince herself that she is okay with that. She knows that Nelson and her daughter Kate will always have a relationship and she will have to deal with that. 

This was another engaging mystery in the long-running Ruth Galloway series that seems to spend as much time talking about relationships as it does solving crimes. The crime does get solved but the relationships are unresolved. 

Favorite Quote:

Nelson thinks 'I took custody of it' sounds a lot better than 'I stole it'. It never ceases to amaze him, the way people find comfortable language for uncomfortable actions. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.