Quite good.

13th book in the very popular Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. 

Ruth is a forensic archaeologist who assists the police from time to time with investigations. 

The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach in North Norfolk.

… he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison.

Ruth is more interested in the treasure, a hoard of Bronze Age weapons.

Nelson at first thinks that Taylor’s death is accidental drowning, but a second death suggests murder.

Nelson is called to an apparent murder-suicide of a couple at the isolated Black Dog Farm. Local legend talks of the Black Shuck, a spectral hound that appears to people before they die. …

The 3rd novel (2024) by an excellent author, Alex Michaelides.

This is a murder mystery — and also literature. The writing is excellent.

That said, for me the story wasn’t all that compelling. I really didn’t care about any of the characters.

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story …

It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight.

Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge.

What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

Not being much of a fan of thrillers, I have to admit this one is not bad.

1. Gideon’s Sword
2. Gideon’s Corpse
3. The Lost Island
4. Beyond the Ice Limit
5. The Pharaoh Key

The plot is insane, at times. But it’s certainly never boring.

Gideon is an art thief and nuclear researcher turned government agent — who only has 11 months to live.

Gideon’s Corpse (2012) is a thriller by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

… a sequel to Gideon’s Sword.

The plot focuses on a nuclear scare, the federal reaction, and Gideon’s attempts to unravel the mystery.

This is only the 3rd novel by Julie Otsuka.

Short. In fact, I’d call it two novellas not particularly related to one another.

The 1st a very original and wonderful tale about the people who use a local community pool.

Swimmers.

Almost magic realism.

“In our ‘real lives,’” Otsuka writes, “we are overeaters, underachievers, dog walkers, cross-dressers, compulsive knitters (Just one more row), secret hoarders, minor poets, trailing spouses, twins, vegans, ‘Mom,’… .”

But once in the water, swimmers are only “one of three things: fast-lane people, medium-lane people or the slow.”

L.A. Times review

It reminded me of my days in the Brainsport Running Club.

Once having changed out of work clothes, people group into entirely new castes based on running ability.

The second half of the book — “Belavista” — finds Alice in a long-term memory residence by this name.

While very insightful into life (prison?) in a care facility, I did not enjoy Belavista as much as the first half.

Otsuka is obviously an excellent writer.

I’ll be reading her two earlier books, as well.