The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths
Can love be dangerous, even violent? This is only one of the questions forensic archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway entertains in the quiet moments between the surprisingly frequent adventures that fill the life of this shy, overweight middle-aged professor. In this book she travels to Italy to share her expertise on bones in yet another TV program, hosted by the handsome Angelo Morelli, an Italian colleague.
Sinister events that take place in the mountaintop village where Ruth has her working holiday raise important philosophical questions. Though the answers she comes up with seem partial, temporary, and uncertain, she concludes that the lack of smug certainty is something she must live with. She must face her challenges one day at a time. Like Ruth, readers are the better for having entertained serious questions involving justice, virtue, identity, and family. For Ruth, love proves the greatest conundrum of all. Nelson too finds that love both gives much and demands great sacrifice.
When an earthquake strikes the town where Ruth and Kate are staying in Italy, Nelson impulsively travels to Italy to confirm that they are safe. Feeling guilty that he’s left Michelle, his pregnant forty-six-year-old wife, in the care of a grown daughter, he berates himself further on finding that he can’t get a flight back in time for her scan. In bed at the home of Cathbad’s friends, he expects to lie awake for hours, worrying about Ruth, Kate, Laura, Rebecca and Michelle — “all his mistakes, all his responsibilities.” Instead, he falls deeply asleep and begins to relax. In spite of the murder in the town, he is able to spend time with Ruth and Kate at the beach, and wonder of wonders — he even buys shorts and learns that vacations can be enjoyable. Just as well, considering what he’ll face on his return home.
Following the adventures of Ruth, Nelson and their associates, we meet fictional characters who reflect challenging aspects of our contemporary society: the altering nature of families, the aging demographic of Catholic priests, the xenophobia faced by refugees, and the generational legacy of war.