Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Crossing Places

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

20 reviews

sandysmith's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A solid series opener in the Dr Ruth Galloway series. I'm going to read more, I'm sure. She is a forensic archaeologist and is called in by DI Harry Nelson when bones are found amongst the salt marshes of Norfolk. The TV Series bones is probably based on these books to give a rough idea of the context. The bones that are found are from the iron age, which is sad for Harry as he wants closure on a case of a missing child Lucy from 10 years before. Another child goes missing. Letters are received by Harry through his investigation. Ruth becomes involved in the analysis of the letters, and another body is found. What I really disliked about the book was the fat phobia, and she isn't really fat. It was annoying at best, plus the killing of the cat was unnecessary. What I loved about the book were the descriptions of the salt marshes with them becoming a character in the book in it's own right. Overall, it was a really good crime based book, well written, good plot line, engaging with great characters (including the marshes), atmospheric, and a great read. I'm looking forward to the next adventures of Ruth and Harry

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doritobabe's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Recommended to me by a coworker. Interesting enough that it kept me reading. Really hated the fatphobia.

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taralynn1107's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Good introduction to the series; I like the characters a lot and it kept my attention.

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asha1725's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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sophiepearson's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Enjoyed this as an easy listen. Although I did zone out a few times, whoops. I liked most of the characters, the mystery, and also enjoyed that it was set in Norfolk near where I grew up. What I didn’t like was the death of a pet (found that really upsetting), and some of the commentary on women, especially the repeated fat phobia - quite an outdated narrative. That being said, I will probably listen to more in the series!

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lillianfc's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

A fast paced and interesting anthropological crime novel — yet outdated in its consistent fatphobia and anti-childless women stances

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stefhyena's review against another edition

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mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This hit the spot. I have to admit mystery is my favourite genre. I suspected the person who did it but I was not sure. There was a thing in the book (a sort of a red herring) that did not make much sense. The crime itself didn't really either I feel like child abductions (like beautiful young girl ritual murders) are overrepresented in fiction and yet aspects of this book drew me in and made me want to keep reading.

I do enjoy an academic setting when there's not too much internal politics or romance. I wasn't a fan of the romance in the book for...reasons but the polyamory representation was good (although we need more of that in more books as this version was not the only version). Some objectifying stuff about women being attractive or unattractive (and fat) but I suspect the main agenda is to start to unpack that throughout the series (I hope so). Archaeology is quite an interesting choice of discipline too.

I would read more of these besides Griffiths is a favourite.

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zelephante's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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zosiablue's review against another edition

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funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Ahh what a satisfying cozy mystery. Just what I needed. Light murder/kidnapping, heavy archeological bent, a little romance but not enough to annoy, and a spooky-ass saltmarsh. I'm so glad there's like 15 more books in this series. Though not without fault - there was some unsavory animal violence & anti-fat bias (though only the main character referring to herself). But I'm ready to read 15 more stories about archaeologist Ruth Galloway and her cats.

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fossilreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Almost gave up in the beginning with all of Ruth's (and everyone else's) internalized fatphobia, not sure if it was 100% worth it. I'm glad I finished the book, loved the mystery of it! Some of the twists were really surprising and some of them I was happy to have guessed in advance.

I will be continuing the series, hoping to see Ruth grow out of judging everyone's weight.

The theme of children being kidnapped and killed can be very difficult to handle, I'm very glad of the families whose children dissapeared had a connection and supported each other in something very traumatizing. Kind of hated all the infedility, I wish so many of them weren't out there cheating on their partners and knowingly having relationships with married people.

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