Review: The Locked Room

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this installment of the Ruth Galloway series. This is only the second book I have read about Ruth, a professor of archaeology, her close friend Nelson, a detective, and all of their friends, colleagues, and families. Covid is just beginning to sweep across the UK when Ruth is called upon to help unearth the skeleton of a possible medieval plague victim. At the same time, Nelson finds himself investigating the apparent suicide of an older woman who lived by herself. When the body of another woman is found dead inside a locked room, Nelson and his team wonder if a serial killer is at work while everyone around them is trying to survive living in lockdown.
The mystery in the book was well done and the pacing was great. The influences and themes of the medieval plague victims interspersed throughout the story tied into everyone's attempts to adjust to living with the threat of Covid in the present day. The author did a wonderful job of capturing those early days of the pandemic, when hand sanitizer, masks, social distancing, and zoom meetings were all so new and different. I also enjoyed the relationships between all the characters. This aspect of the book made it quite satisfying.
This is a slow-burn, cozy mystery, but it was hard to put down and I would recommend it to any mystery-lover. I can't wait to read other books in this series.

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