Maybe it's because it's been a while since I read the previous one, this felt to be more enjoyable and less going through the motions. Mind you, I roll my eyes every time that Ruth ends up in some villain's clutches by being ditsy and just turning up somewhere. Honestly, woman, you're holding down a responsible job, try engaging your brain a smidge. ( )

The Night Hawks is written by Elly Griffiths. It is Book #13 in the Dr. Ruth Galloway Mystery series. This series is one of my all-time favorites and Book #13 The Night Hawks is a welcome addition.
The combination of familiar, personable characters; the Norfolk coast location; a very dynamic, complex, tense plot; the local folklore and history; a very competent police team with excellent detective skills - all come together in this very excellent title.
Back from Cambridge, Ruth suddenly finds herself in the middle of a string of murders.
5 Stars ***** ( )

The mystery was probably closer to 3 stars but I'm happily here for the characters, setting and complicated relationship between Ruth and Nelson. ( )

The events in this murder mystery, once again set in northern Norfolk, England, happen a few years after her previous "The Lantern Men." Ruth Galloway has accepted a position as head of department at the university which Phil Trent, her old boss, once held. And immediately into her new office comes her new hire, David, who seems intent on talking his way into Ruth's office and his own research way past professional boundaries.

Adding to her stress is the nearness of her true love, Nelson, who still lives in Norfolk with his wife, MIchelle, and three-year old son, George. Ruth and Nelson have a daughter in common, Kate, and she is bringing Ruth kicking and screaming into the world of things like cell phones. Which can be handy, even from a HOD and archeologist.

The murder mystery is part of this family dynamic, taking place in the prologue and then swinging quickly to the murder/suicide of the Noakes, an older couple. They were not a happy couple as we come to find out, not least with naming their isolated farmhouse "Black Dog Farm" in recognition of the local Norfolk legend, the Black Schuck. Like the Lantern Men of the previous book, the Black Shuck is associated with death, although the form is that of a large black dog with red eyes.

How the archeological research of a body washed up on the shore interacts with a group of amateur archeologists (the "Night Hawks" of the book title) and the murder/suicide in the isolated farmhouse is hinted at and added to, right up until the very end. ( )

A group of metal detectorists exploring a beach find a washed up dead body as well as what may be a Bronze Age hoard. Nelson and Ruth swing into action.

I mainly read these for the combination of mystery and archaeology and am not so keen on the soap opera elements so could have done without Nelson's mother's cryptic advice as a cliffhanger at the end. The afterword says that this book was written and readied for publication during lockdown and there are enough winks to the reader to guess the background to the next one in the series, which I would have thought would provide enough drama without soap opera histrionics. ( )