Book Review: The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway #6)

The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Elly Griffiths has done a wonderful job in creating the much loved Ruth Galloway and her world, based mostly around Norfolk and the surrounding areas. She manages to merge tense murder mystery with almost soap like drama and love affairs. Each book is also written in the present tense which brings a brilliant presence and 'up to the minute' excitement which is missing from other books.
The Outcast Dead follows Ruth and Nelson on their respective cases. Nelson is investigating the death of a little boy, the third child in a row which has died under the care of their mother Liz Donaldson. Ruth meanwhile has found the remains of Mother Hook an infamous Victorian child killer and becomes embroiled into TV show 'Women Who Kill' against her will.
It is the characters that really shine for Elly Griffiths, especially Ruth and Nelson. Their on again/off again love affair is one of the main reasons I keep coming back to this series. But Nelson's team, Clough and Judy and Ruth's friends including the eclectic Cathbad round out the action and keep things interesting.
Ruth's 'love interest' in this book is American TV presenter and Victorian Historian Frank Barker, who Ruth meets while filming for the TV show. There are several new characters to meet in this area and they suitably annoying/lovely/funny. But each of them is individual and memorable. Despite Ruth's constant negative attitude about her body, she is found to be lovely by many that meet her and her thoughts and feelings about new experiences in motherhood are always interesting and heartfelt. Normally I would pick a male character to lead a novel but Ruth Galloway is one of the few exceptions that I love and cherish.
The pace of the novel and all the cases it covers is remarkably quick. It took me three days to complete this book, I literally couldn't put it down. I love how everything weaves together although there were a few little things that were mentioned once and left unresolved. They didn't really relate to the case, but I like everything to be wrapped up perfectly and this didn't happen. There are a lot of references to 'The Crossing Places', the first case that Ruth and Nelson worked on together. I haven't read that book since 2011, so I would have appreciated a bit of a refresher. Although this is just personal preference as you don't need to have read that book to understand this one.
Overall, a great read, as always, and in my opinion superior to 'A Dying Fall'. I always look forward to the next Elly Griffiths novel with glee and anticipation.

View all my reviews