The Crossing Places - An archaeologist dream

The crossing places by Elly Griffiths is a murder mystery about the disappearance of a little girl 10 years ago.  When some human bones are found, Detective Chief Inspector Nelson looks for help in identifying these bones.  He solicits the help of Dr. Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist who lives near the salt marsh where the bones were found for help.  When she finds that the bones go back to the Iron Age, Nelson and Galloway start to unravel and try to put the pieces of this puzzle together when another little girl goes missing.  The Crossing Places is the first book in this series.  Griffiths skillfully takes you into the world of archaeology and puts in a lot of little twists and turns on the way to solve this mystery.  I highly recommend it.  I couldn't put the book down.

Movie Review

The King's Speech was a wonderful movie about a stammering Duke who becomes a great King with the help of a brilliant speech therapist.  Colin Firth who portrayed King George VI was wonderful.   He took a very difficult and embarrassing problem like stammering and showed how love and support from family and friends and sheer determination of a person can overcome anything. Mr. Firth was so convincing with the stammering that I believed he really had a problem.  It was also nice to see Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean-the curse of the black pearl fame) as the great Lionel who helped bring levity and seriousness to this character.  Helena Bonham Carter showed how talented she is in the role of Elizabeth as the supportive, loving and lighthearted wife of "Bertie", King George VI.  The King's Speech was a historical and powerful movie depicting a scary and difficult time for England and its people.  This is a movie that I highly recommend seeing.