A Room Full of Bones
Arriving at the Smith Museum, a small, neglected building in King’s Lynn, forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway is shocked to find the dead body of Neil Topham, the museum director, next to the institution’s prized new artefact – the unopened coffin of 14th Century bishop Augustine Smith.
Legend says that there is a curse on Augustine’s coffin, that anyone who disturbs his bones will die a horrible death. Is this what happened to Neil Topham? But Augustine’s curse is not the only one that falls on the museum, for his are not the only bones kept there. Several Aboriginal skulls are held in the museum stores, and a group calling themselves the Elginists have levelled their own curse on all those who refuse to return them to Australia, including, apparently, DCI Harry Nelson, the secret father of Ruth’s one year old daughter.
A Room Full Of Bones is Elly’s fourth Ruth Galloway thriller. Elly’s first novel, The Crossing Places, was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award and the Mary Higgins Clarke Edgar Crime Novel Award. The Crossing Places has also been optioned by the BBC, who are currently developing it for television.