The Chalk Pit: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 9

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Did anyone else know there was a chalk pit in the middle of Wargrave and that Berkshire was underwater 85 million years ago? Nope not me! I know of no better example where this subject has been treated with compassion and understanding while being fundamental to the storyline. In the ninth Ruth Galloway mystery, Ruth and Nelson investigate a string of murders and disappearances deep within the abandoned tunnels hidden far beneath the streets of Norwich.

Hyman Goldstein was well known for taking these regular walks. It was feasible that Ley — or someone he’d hired, for, as former justice minster he had access to a lot of criminals — could have pushed Goldstein to his death. However it happened, for the third time in less than a decade, one of Ley’s rivals had met a sudden, unexpected and unusual demise. If this was true, it meant that Ley had cunningly included accusations against himself to deflect suspicion. It was the same tactic he’d used to insult himself as Lemonade Ley and as the victim of a Puddifoot smear campaign. St Bartholomew, Otford dates from the 11 thC; construction began in 1060 with the tower being added in around 1185. It contains a large marble memorial to Charles and David Polhill, descendants of Oliver Cromwell.News of Ley’s impending execution and McDonald’s mysterious disappearance made national headlines. Picture: Supplied

The officers' report said: "The granting of an express planning permission covering the Certificate of Lawful Existing Use or Development area would, for the first time, give the County Planning Authority control over the operations which could take place within that specified area. Magpie Bottom and Polhill Bank are Local Nature Reserves managed by the Kent Wildlife Trust. These areas of chalk grassland support many varieties of orchid. Follow Church Street across the river (leaving the DVP) to come to the Kings Arms ? on the left. At the T-junction at the top turn right onto the High Street. Today in the south-east of the UK, much of the chalk has disappeared underneath sprawling towns and suburbs, but where it hasn’t been built over it produces a landscape often viewed as quintessentially English. Smooth, rolling hills covered with short turf. Gentle slopes and steep escarpments, dry valleys and lonely beech hangers. Seen from a distance, it seems to ebb and swell like the ocean from which it once emerged. Nothing is said but in passing it speaks of the differences perhaps society places on people's lives.

In June 1898 Thomas married Louisa Vernon, who was from a well-off family. The couple lived with her widowed mother in Glebe and soon had three sons. Thomas Ley and/or Lawrence Smith then savagely beat and strangled Mudie. Later, Smith sloppily disposed of the body at the chalk pit, which a witness had already seen him scoping out the previous day. Crucially, this meant that he had known in advance that Mudie was to be murdered. Like its predecessors (The Woman in Blue, 2016, etc.), Griffith’s ninth is complex and character-driven, providing an excellent mystery whose very last sentence will leave you yearning for the next installment.

Fork right onto the permissive bridleway climbing through the trees and eventually going along the top of Meenfield Wood. At the far end continue briefly alongside a hedge and then in the same direction through Pilots Wood. Ignore a footbridge across the M25 and follow the footpath as it turns left and goes down through the trees into the top of Polhill Bank. There is a very clever use of imagery in these lines. By describing the land as “empty” but at the same time as somehow “full”, a reader is left to fill in the blanks. This creates an uneasy feeling, one that is foreboding and might foreshadow some revelation down the line. The Darent Valley Path follows the course of the river for 31 km, from Sevenoaks (near its source in the Greensand Hills) to the River Thames at Dartford. Then we have the ending that fell flat and was utterly boring. It is just not fun when you spend a day reading a book, and it feels like you have wasted the time. The archeology aspect was what drove me to start reading this book, but not even it feels interesting anymore. Now, I'm not even sure if it's worth reading future books and as I said before it's a bit sad when a series you have enjoyed just doesn't work anymore...The two try to fill in details, imagined and real, about the land but in the end, the second speaker declares the place to be silent. The only thing living there are themselves and the trees and between them, they’ve been able to create mystery.