The Lantern Men: Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 12 (The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries)

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Lantern men used to lure unsuspecting travellers to their death. They would shine a light to lost travellers, and rather than showing them the way home, they would lure them to their death in the bed of reeds. Yet the proclaimed murderer, Ivor March, is a master psychological manipulator. It’s clear he, like the groupies who adore him, savors being able to tug Ruth’s strings. He even somehow knows about Nelson and their shared daughter—which immediately means Ruth needs to worry about her child’s safety. In the meantime, DCI Harry Nelson and DI Judy Johnson are interviewing Ivor March who has been arrested for the murders of two young women. March buried the bodies in the garden of his present girlfriend's home. Chantal still believes that he is innocent even with DNA saying otherwise. Now Marsh insists that Ruth do the forensic digging. Oh, and by the way, Crissy happens to be March's ex-wife. Only one person has been known to avoid the deadly spirit this way. After seeing his light and fearing his safety, he pushed his face into the dirt and prayed that the spirit would spare him. The fisherman felt such a terrifying attraction to the light that he instantly feared it had an evil presence with deadly intent.

So it goes if you are unfortunate enough to come face-to-face with its menacing stare, tragedy will befall you. Despite my complaining about the relationship angst, the mysteries in these books are tight, well thought out, engaging, and never too gory. These books are filled with folklore and rich with historical facts. Each day we'll be sending you a selection of our top stories from across our county, as well as breaking news so you can be the first to know. A convicted murderer informs Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson that more of his victims have been buried across Norfolk. Can Ruth and Nelson find the bodies, or are they being lured into a trap?In an attempt to escape the man had taken shelter at the home of a friend, who hung out a horn on a long pole to distract the spirit. The skill of the book is the premise of The Lantern Men and the sense of foreboding that draws women to danger like moths to a candle. This mystical tale of a malevolent presence over marshland and the fens is as scary as Candyman or Dracula. You are brought fully into this sense of myth and legend especially as you perceive a human element buying into the folklore. As characters within find to their cost. It is heart-stopping and breath-taking. I read the Kindle edition in the Kindle app on my pad. Pandemic style reading. It was hell to wait the extra wait. Two delays actually. One was the inability to borrow the hardcover edition because my library is still closed and the other glitch was that the type of e-edition I first got was unreadable. Axis 360 never ever works for me. Much gratitude to the SFPL staff who helped me and put me first in the queue for the ePub Overdrive and/or Kindle edition. Both of these formats work for me. This volume opens with the conviction of a man for murdering two women—the police are convinced he's killed four. He agrees from prison that he will reveal where the remaining two bodies are buried, but only if forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway agrees to do the digging. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson, who has taken the lead on these cases is much less comfortable with the arrangement than Galloway is—the two of them had an affair in the past that remains unsettled. DISCLOSURE: Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of the Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Elly Griffiths brings us in touch with familiar characters in this latest edition in the series. Dr. Ruth Galloway, senior lecturer and forensic archaeologist, has set in motion many changes in her life. She's now teaching at St. Jude College in Cambridge. She and nine year old daughter Kate are living with Ruth's American love interest, Frank Barker. This means a distance in miles from DCI Harry Nelson who is the father of Kate. There is tension and there will always be tension between Harry and Ruth. She has a new job, home and partner, and is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March* offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this, and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried – but only if Ruth will do the digging. It is thought that the Lantern Man lured the unsuspecting Joseph Bexfield to his death in the Norfolk Fens. The wherryman had been enjoying a drink with his fellow sailors in August 1809 when he remembered he had left a parcel for his wife on the wherry. Can it really have been 12 books, and 10 years of Ruth's life pining away for Nelson? I first fell in love with Ruth, a forensic archaeologists, by her forward thinking, completely genuine, intelligent, yet self-deprecating attitude. But I'm tired of waiting for the Nelson drama to fix itself. Their simmering passions, and in earlier books, their frantic coupling (that produce their daughter while Nelson was married), have turned into a soap opera and I'm done wondering when they'll either realize they are perfectly imperfect together, or let the whole thing go, and be happy in other relationships. Everything has changed for Dr Ruth Galloway. She has a new job, home and partner, and is no longer North Norfolk police's resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this, and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried - but only if Ruth will do the digging.If you think a lantern would stop these apparitions from approaching you, you would be wrong, as they were said to take the lanterns and smash them to pieces. Encounters The Lantern Men has, as always with this series, an intriguing plot. Ivor March has been jailed for the murders of two young women. There was plenty of forensic evidence. And yet there's a strong body of people, Cathbad included, that believe him to be innocent. Nelson is not one of them. He is totally convinced of March's guilt and believes that he is also guilty of the murders of two more young women whose bodies have never been found. Then the body of another young woman is found murdered. Is it a copycat? It can't have been Ivor - he is securely held in prison. Or is Ivor indeed innocent? The legend of the Lantern Man, which finds its origin in the history of the Fens of East Anglia, has been referred to as an atmospheric ghost light. At times, local folklore believed it was another legendary creature, the will-o'-the-wisp. Realistically, this light was the product of combustible marsh gases. This is where the Lantern Men roam, prowling the dark, marshy Fens for their victims. A lone light, shining out across the darkness, luring people in. The evil spirits were said to be drawn to the sound of whistling. You could only evade them by lying face down on the ground with your mouth in the mud.

She has a new job, home and partner, and is no longer North Norfolk police's resident forensic archaeologist. That is until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried - but only if Ruth will do the digging. The location that March gives to Ruth and Nelson is the garden of an abandoned pub, on the edge of the Cley Marshes. Ruth, who doesn’t know Ivor March, has wondered why he wanted her to do the dig. She doesn’t think she has any connection to him, but then she discovers that his ex-wife runs the writers and artists retreat, Grey Walls, where Ruth has just spent a week to finish her last book. The ex-wife, Crissy Martin, together with Ivor March’s current girlfriend and another former female resident at their retreat, are trying to get March out of jail, claiming he’s innocent. Ruth had heard of the Ivor March case and followed it, but she had no idea that the retreat in the fens was where March had lived with a group of men and women who all participated in different arts and the retreat in the early days of it. Ruth is further surprised that Crissy, whom she liked and even confided in, a rare thing for Ruth, during her week stay, is still connected to her ex-husband and the group of friends. However, only the gardener/artist John and Crissy remain to run the retreat now. Though to some the lantern men were just uncanny apparitions, a strange spectre floating across the fens, to others they were harmful to anyone unfortunate enough to cross paths with one. There was a belief that it was able to 'take away a man's breath', though there is in fact a more scientific explanation for this. Tiny beams of light in the distance seeming to come closer and closer in the Saltmarsh. Is what you see reality? Or is it the Lantern Men paying a visit from Norfolk legends.....mysterious figures prowling the marshes at night. Either way, the creep is setting in.In a bid to get over her complicated relationship with DCI Harry Nelson of King’s Lynn CID and progress her career, forensic archaeologist, Dr Ruth Galloway, has left her beloved cottage on the Saltmarsh behind and with it the University of North Norfolk. Swapping the life that she was so content with for the dreaming spires of Cambridge and living with American historian, Dr Frank Barker, she is adjusting to teaching at St Jude’s College, having a partner and parenting her rapidly maturing nine-year-old daughter, Kate, with Nelson, now an hour away in North Norfolk. Meanwhile fifty year old DCI Harry Nelson is raising what he hopes will be his fourth and final child, two and a half year old George, after wife Michelle’s unexpected arrival, not that this does anything to lessen his silent and irrational fury at Ruth cohabiting with smarmy Frank. If anything, these books keep getting better and better. That is unusual in mystery series books, in my experience. The story goes that Tom reached the size of a giant and was able to defeat “The Smeeth”, a particularly loathsome ogre in the area.