Ruth finds herself adjusting to remote teaching, complications for international students who have nowhere to go, the lack of PPE for healthcare workers, patients dying alone when visits are prohibited, and supermarkets with empty shelves. The further Nelson investigates these deaths, the closer they lead him to Ruth's friendly neighbor-until Ruth, Zoe, and Kate all go missing, and Nelson is left scrambling to find them before it's too late.Īre you ready to relive the start of the Covid19 pandemic?😷😏įebruary 2020, The Locked Room addressed the deadly flu that originated in China. But when Nelson breaks quarantine to rush to Ruth's cottage and enlist her help in investigating a series of murder-suicides he has connected to an archeological discovery, he finds Zoe is hardly who she says she is. They struggle to stave off isolation by clapping for frontline workers each evening and befriending a kind neighbor, Zoe, from a distance. Ruth returns to the cottage to uncover its meaning as Norfolk's first cases of COVID-19 make headlines, leaving her and Kate to shelter in place there. Three years after her late mother's death, Ruth is finally sorting through her things when she finds a curious relic: a decades-old photograph of Jean's Norfolk cottage with a peculiar inscription. It was Dawn.Pandemic lockdowns have Ruth Galloway feeling isolated from everyone but a new neighbor-until Nelson comes calling, investigating a decades-long string of murder-suicides that's looming ever closer. 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. Nelson, meanwhile, is investigating a series of deaths of women that may or may not be suicide. 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. Ruth and her daughter are locked down in their cottage, attempting to continue with work and home-schooling. Ruth returns to Norfolk determined to solve the mystery, but then Covid rears its ugly head. 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. ‘INTENSELY ATMOSPHERIC AND GREAT’ India Knightįorensic archaeologist Dr 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. ‘GALLOWAY NOW SEEMS AS REAL AS MARPLE AND MORSE’ The Times But can they find the killer despite lockdown? **THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**įorensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson are on the hunt for a murderer when Covid rears its ugly head.

The locked room griffiths