The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths

The 14th Ruth Galloway mystery from Elly Griffiths, The Locked Room, starts just as Covid is making its way around the world in 2020. Ruth is going through her dead mother's things when she comes across an old photograph of the cottage in which Ruth now lives with "Dawn 1963" written on it. She and her daughter Kate retreat to the isolated cottage to ride out the pandemic. The isolation is made a little less lonely by a new next-door neighbor, Zoe.

Detective Chief Inspector Nelson is investigating a series of women's deaths that appear to be suicide, but may not be. When one of the cases turns up a link to an archeology discovery that Ruth is linked to, he turns to her for help. Nelson soon develops suspicions of new neighbor, Zoe, which are only heightened when she goes missing. The race is on to unravel the mystery of the women's deaths and making sure that no one else dies, all while navigating the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and lockdown rules.

This is a fun mystery that fully explores how the pandemic has affected not only daily lives but crimes and crime-solving. The exploration of parallels between covid and the plague, particularly in the Norfolk setting, is also fascinating. There is almost equal time spent on exploring the impact of the pandemic as there is on the mystery of the dead women. The isolation, the uncertainty, and the impacts on work, school, family, and friends -- particularly if they are struck ill -- all weigh heavily on the narrative.

The mystery of the women's deaths is very nicely played out. There is very little evidence of murder, but their general good spirits and other tenuous connections leave enough crumbs to require some ingenious policing to follow the trail. 

The strong characters and their complicated relationships with one another combined with interesting archeology and folklore add to a mystery both difficult and fun to solve. The puzzle of Ruth's mother and her connection to the cottage is added flavor. The long history between the characters lends extra meaning for fans of the series, but there is more than enough explanation provided to allow new readers to jump right in. A fun entry in a series that is still going strong.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.