Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries in Order including New Books

All of the novels in the popular Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries by Elly Griffiths.

Listed in order of first publication date.

Including details of free PDF and audiobook downloads.

For more top free mystery audiobooks and book series lists, see my posts listed below.

Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries by Elly Griffiths

Author: Elly Griffiths | Publisher: Quercus Books | Audiobook Narrators: Jane McDowell/Clare Corbett.

Dr Ruth Galloway Mystery cozy crime novels: This acclaimed best-selling crime series is set against the moody and beautiful landscape of North Norfolk, England. Featuring one of the most well-loved characters of the current detective novel series, forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway.

This list of Dr Ruth Galloway mysteries includes details of all of the books and Audible unabridged audiobooks in the series, listed in order of first publication.

1. The Crossing Places

Released: September 2009 | UK Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: When she’s not digging up bones or other ancient objects, Dr Ruth Galloway lectures at the University of North Norfolk. She lives happily alone in a remote place called Saltmarsh overlooking the North Sea and, for company; she has her cats Flint and Sparky, and Radio 4.

When a child’s bones are found in the marshes near an ancient site that Ruth worked on ten years earlier, Ruth is asked to date them. The bones turn out to be two thousand years old, and DCI Harry Nelson, who called on Ruth for help, is disappointed. He’d hoped they would be the bones of a child called Lucy who’s been missing for ten years; he’s been getting letters about her ever since.

Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives more letters. Soon it becomes clear that Ruth is in grave danger from a killer who knows that her expert knowledge is being used to help the police with their enquiries. [Source: Amazon]

*The Crossing Places free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

2. The Janus Stone

Released: February 2010 | UK Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: Forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway is called in to investigate when builders, demolishing a large old house in Norwich to make way for a housing development, uncover the bones of a child beneath a doorway – minus the skull. Is it some ritual sacrifice or just plain straightforward murder? DCI Harry Nelson would like to find out – and fast. [Source: Amazon]

*The Janus Stone free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

3. The House at Sea’s End

Released: January 2011 | UK Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: A team of archaeologists, investigating coastal erosion on the north Norfolk coast, unearth six bodies buried at the foot of a cliff. How long have they been there? What could have happened to them?

Forensics expert Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are drawn together again to unravel the past. Tests reveal that the bodies have lain, preserved in the sand, for sixty years. The mystery of their deaths stretches back to the Second World War, a time when Great Britain was threatened by invasion. But someone wants the truth of the past to stay buried, and will go to any lengths to keep it that way… even murder. [Source: Amazon]

*The House at Sea’s End free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

4. A Room Full of Bones

Released: December 2011 | UK Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: It is Halloween night, and the local museum in King’s Lynn is preparing for an unusual event – the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But when Dr Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the museum’s curator lying dead beside the coffin.

It is only a matter of time before she and DI Nelson cross paths once more, as he is called in to investigate. Soon the museum’s wealthy owner lies dead in his stables, too. These two deaths could be from natural causes – but Nelson isn’t convinced. [Source: Amazon]

*A Room Full of Bones free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

Ruth’s First Christmas Tree (A Christmas Short Story)

Released: November 2012 | UK Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 | Available from appstores and online as a full free ebook PDF download.

Plot: A spirited stocking stuffer for fans craving a taste of Ruth Galloway in their holiday season!

It is three days before Christmas and a bitter wind is blowing across Norfolk. Until her daughter was born, forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway didn’t do Christmas, but now that Kate is a year old, she wants it to be special.

She must get a tree, shop for food, clean the house, buy presents, including one for her new boyfriend – who she isn’t even sure is her boyfriend – and remember to get the turkey out of the freezer. But time is rushing by and the best-laid plans don’t always work out! [Source: Amazon]

5. A Dying Fall

Released: December 2012 | UK Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Clare Corbett.

Plot: Ruth Galloway receives a phone call that bears shocking news. A friend of hers from college, Dan Golding, has been killed in a fire at his Lancashire home. Her shock turns to alarm when she gets a letter from Dan. He has made a discovery that will change archaeology forever but he needs Ruth’s advice. Even more alarming, he sounds vulnerable and frightened.

DCI Harry Nelson is also rediscovering his past. Up north for a holiday, he meets his former colleague Sandy MacLeod, now at Blackpool CID. Sandy tells him there are strange circumstances surrounding Dan Golding’s death. Many of those who worked with Dan seem to be afraid. Many have secrets to hide. Ruth is drawn deep into the mystery, and where she goes, so does her toddler daughter, Kate. This time, it’s not just Ruth’s life at risk. [Source: Amazon]

*A Dying Fall free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

6. The Outcast Dead

Released: January 2014 | UK Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Clare Corbett.

Plot: Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway has excavated a body from the grounds of Norwich Castle, a forbidding edifice that was once a prison. She believes the body may be that of infamous Victorian murderess Jemima Green. Called Mother Hook for her claw-like hand, Jemima was hanged in 1867 for the murder of five children in her care…

DCI Harry Nelson has no time for long-dead killers. Immersed in the case of three infants found dead, one after the other, in their King’s Lynn home, he’s convinced that a family member is responsible, though others on his team think differently. Then a child goes missing. Could the abduction be linked to the long-dead Mother Hook? Ruth is pulled into the case, and back towards Nelson. [Source: Amazon]

*The Outcast Dead free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

7. The Ghost Fields

Released: March 2015 | UK Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Clare Corbett.

Plot: Norfolk is experiencing a July heat wave when a construction crew unearths a macabre discovery – a buried World War II plane with the pilot still inside. Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway quickly realizes that the skeleton couldn’t possibly be the pilot, and DNA tests identify the man as Fred Blackstock, a local aristocrat who had been reported dead at sea. When the remaining members of the Blackstock family learn about the discovery, they seem strangely frightened by the news.

Events are further complicated by a TV company that wants to make a film about Norfolk’s deserted air force bases, the so-called Ghost Fields, which have been partially converted into a pig farm run by one of the younger Blackstocks. As production begins, Ruth notices a mysterious man lurking close to the Blackstocks’ family home. Then human bones are found on the family’s pig farm. Can the team outrace a looming flood to find a killer? [Source: Amazon]

*The Ghost Fields free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

8. The Woman in Blue

Released: February 2016 | UK Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: The murder of women priests in the shrine town of Walsingham sucks Dr Ruth Galloway into an unholy investigation. Ruth’s friend, Cathbad, is housesitting in Walsingham, a Norfolk village famous as a centre for pilgrimages to the Virgin Mary. One night, Cathbad sees a strange vision in the graveyard beside the cottage: a young woman dressed in blue. Cathbad thinks that he may have seen the Madonna herself, but the next morning the woman’s body, dressed in a white nightdress and blue dressing gown, is found in a ditch outside Walsingham.

DCI Nelson and his team are called in and establish that the dead woman was a recovering addict being treated at a nearby private hospital. Ruth, a devout atheist, has managed to avoid Walsingham during her 17 years in Norfolk. But then an old university friend, Hilary Smithson, asks to meet her in the village, and Ruth is amazed to discover that her friend is now a priest.

Hilary has been receiving vitriolic anonymous letters targeting women priests – letters containing references to local archaeology and a striking phrase about a woman ‘clad in blue, weeping for the world’. Then another woman is murdered – a priest. As Walsingham prepares for its annual Easter reenactment of the Crucifixion, the race is on to unmask the killer before he strikes again [Source: Amazon]

*The Woman in Blue free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

9. The Chalk Pit

Released: February 2017 | UK Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: Boiled human bones have been found in Norwich’s web of underground tunnels. When forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway discovers the bones aren’t as old as originally thought, it’s time for DCI Nelson to launch a murder inquiry. What was initially just a medieval curiosity has taken a much more sinister nature…

Meanwhile, DS Judy Johnson is investigating the disappearance of a local rough sleeper. The only trace of her is the rumour that she’s gone ‘underground’. This might be a figure of speech, but with the discovery of the bones and the stories both Ruth and the police have heard of a vast community of rough sleepers living in the old chalk-mining tunnels under Norwich, the clues point in only one direction.

Local academic Martin Kellerman knows all about the tunnels and their history – but can his assertions of cannibalism and ritual killing possibly be true? As the weather gets hotter, tensions rise. A local woman goes missing and the police are under attack. Ruth and Nelson must unravel the dark secrets of The Underground and discover just what gruesome secrets lurk at its heart – before it claims another victim. [Source: Amazon]

*The Chalk Pit free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

10. The Dark Angel

Released: February 2018 | UK Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: Dr Ruth Galloway is flattered when she receives a letter from Italian archaeologist Dr Angelo Morelli, asking for her help. He’s discovered a group of bones in a tiny hilltop village near Rome but doesn’t know what to make of them. It’s years since Ruth has had a holiday, and even a working holiday to Italy is very welcome! So Ruth travels to Castello degli Angeli, accompanied by her daughter Kate and friend Shona.

In the town she finds a baffling Roman mystery and a dark secret involving the war years and the Resistance. To her amazement she also soon finds Harry Nelson, with Cathbad in tow. But there is no time to overcome their mutual shock – the ancient bones spark a modern murder, and Ruth must discover what secrets there are in Castello degli Angeli that someone would kill to protect. [Source: Amazon]

*The Dark Angel free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

11. The Stone Circle

Released: February 2019 | UK Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters telling him to ‘go to the stone circle and rescue the innocent who is buried there’. He is shaken, not only because children are very much on his mind, with Michelle’s baby due to be born, but because although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of The Crossing Places, and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they?

Meanwhile, Ruth is working on a dig in the Saltmarsh – another henge, known by the archaeologists as the stone circle – trying not to think about the baby. Then bones are found on the site and identified as those of Margaret Lacey, a 12-year-old girl who disappeared 30 years ago. As the Margaret Lacey case progresses, more and more aspects of it begin to hark back to that first case of The Crossing Places, and to Scarlett Henderson, the girl Nelson couldn’t save. The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly. [Source: Amazon]

*The Stone Circle free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

12. The Lantern Men

Released: February 2020 | UK Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: Everything has changed for Dr Ruth Galloway. She has a new job, home and partner and is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Amyas March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried – but only if Ruth will do the digging. Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees.

March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travellers to their deaths. Is Amyas March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over? [Source: Amazon]

*The Lantern Men free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

13. The Night Hawks

Released: February 2021 | UK Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach in North Norfolk. At first Nelson thinks that the dead man might be an asylum seeker, but 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. Nelson ignores this, even when the owner’s suicide note includes the line, ‘He’s buried in the garden’. Ruth excavates and finds the body of a giant dog. All roads lead back to this farm in the middle of nowhere, but the place spells serious danger for anyone who goes near. Ruth doesn’t scare easily. Not until she finds herself at Black Dog Farm… [Source: Amazon]

*The Night Hawks free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

14. The Locked Room

Released: February 2022 | UK Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 | Audiobook Narrator: Jane McDowell.

Plot: Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are on the hunt for a murderer when COVID rears its ugly head. But can they find the killer despite lockdown?

Ruth is in London clearing out her mother’s belongings when she makes a surprising discovery: a photograph of her Norfolk cottage taken before Ruth lived there. Her mother always hated the cottage, so why does she have a picture of the place? The only clue is written on the back of the photo: dawn, 1963. Ruth returns to Norfolk determined to solve the mystery, but then COVID rears its ugly head.

Ruth and her daughter are locked down in their cottage, attempting to continue with work and home-schooling. Happily, the house next door is rented by a nice woman called Zoe, who they become friendly with while standing on their doorsteps clapping for carers. Nelson, meanwhile, is investigating a series of deaths of women that may or may not be suicide.

When he links the deaths to an archaeological discovery, he breaks curfew to visit the cottage where he finds Ruth chatting to her neighbour whom he remembers as a carer who was once tried for murdering her employer. Only then her name wasn’t Zoe… It was Dawn. [Source: Amazon]

*The Locked Room free mystery audiobook available from UK Amazon with 30 day Audible trial.

15. The Last Remains

Releasing: February 2023.

Plot: TBA.

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