The complicated relationship between her and DCI Nelson is fairly well back-burnered for a big chunk of the book, though it’s always an undercurrent, and there are some large changes there, too. She learns a lot more about her family, both positive and negative, though I can’t say more without giving away spoilers. Mixed in with all the covid stuff is a lot of development in Ruth’s personal life. On the 13th, we had our first local covid case and went into the closest San Antonio ever had to a lockdown. Three days later, our local NBA basketball team canceled the rest of the season. We briefly discussed covid, and 90% of us weren’t really concerned. One woman offered around hand sanitizer, and most of us declined. I’ve said it before, but again: On March 8th, 2020, I went on a long hike with friends and at the mid-point, we had a snack break. Everything changed so quickly from it’s just a flu, it’ll pass quickly, it won’t really affect us to shut downs and lockdowns and shortages and confusion. Griffiths does an incredible job of bringing those early days back to life, with all the uncertainty and unknowns. It’s a very chaotic book, with a couple different mysteries going on, but unlike previous volumes of this series, the mystery is almost superfluous. Now that that’s out of the way, I loved this book. Third is a content warning for covid death, domestic violence, and eating disorders (including general disordered eating, extreme weight loss, fad dieting, and body image issues). If the pandemic hit very close to home for you, particularly if you had a family member pass away in those early days, this book might cause some re-traumatization. This book deals with everything from toilet paper shortages to the increase in domestic violence during lockdown to conspiracy theorists. Yes, the pandemic is still ongoing, but we have more information now, more protocols, more protection.
Second, this book is written in a way to make that first wave of lockdown and the unknown feel very, very close. Weird things, like they each have a different name for Ruth’s neighbor. I’m not sure why, but they’re all different from each other and all inaccurate in some way. First, don’t read any of the online book descriptions. Let me give three warnings before I start in with my thoughts on this book.
This 14th book of the series is less focused on mystery, and more on the confusion, uncertainty, and fear brought on by the early days of the pandemic.
DCI Nelson, meanwhile, finds his investigation into a string of suspicious suicides hampered by covid-related issues. As the UK enters its first lockdown in 2020, Ruth Galloway tries to unravel a mystery from her mother’s past while simultaneously teaching, homeschooling, and running a university department.
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