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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
A child's historical death and its investigation; some thriller danger
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild romantic tension between Ruth and Nelson — he is married
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking
Emotional Intensity
Some
The specific melancholy of a child killed and ritually placed; the weight of religious institutions and their historical habits of secrecy
What this book is about
When a Victorian house in Norwich is demolished for redevelopment, workers find a child's skull beneath the doorway — apparently placed there deliberately, in the manner of a foundation sacrifice. Ruth Galloway investigates with DCI Nelson and discovers that the house's history involves a nineteenth-century Catholic order and a series of disappearances. Elly Griffiths's second Ruth Galloway novel develops the Roman archaeology of the Norfolk area and deepens the central relationships, including Nelson's complicated personal life and Ruth's growing involvement in it.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
second of the Ruth Galloway series
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