Review: The Crossing Places

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For a long time I debated whether or not to pick up the Ruth Galloway books. They seemed interesting, and yet I wasn’t compelled to read it in the way I have been by other books in the genre. It was one of those ‘maybe I will get around to it someday’ books. I would probably read it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get my hands on it. Due to this, it wasn’t until I found a copy shoved at the back of a shelf in Poundland that I decided to grab it. After all, who says no to a book in Poundland, especially when said book holds some interest to you?

Being a short read, it was bumped up my to-read list. I needed something quick to fit between other books, something that did not require much time or attention. The Crossing Places, therefore, fit perfectly. It was quick and easy, it did not require much by way of brainpower, and for the most part it was an okay read.

To begin with, I found it difficult to get into the book. I cannot say for sure why this was, but it changed pretty quickly. Once the story was moving, I was turning page after page to see where things would be going. It was an addictive read, one where you wanted to see how it all played out, but it was far from perfect.

My biggest issue, I believe, relates to the main character. Specifically, I had an issue with her self-view. I understand being self-conscious and having a far from perfect main character. In fact, I love characters with flaws. Yet the constant talk of how she was fat really bugged me. It doesn’t help that it made me feeling bad by proxy. The weight of the main character was less than some people I know who are of an average body size. The clothing size, however, was much higher than people of her weight would be wearing. It just bugged me, as though the author decided being slightly above the recommend body mass index results in a person being huge. As someone who is not skinny, I found myself constantly annoyed by the endless references to weight and unattractiveness through size. Without this focus, I would have enjoyed the main character a lot more. She had the potential to be interesting, yet I found myself disliking her because I was constantly fearing weight comments that would leave me feeling as though I’m unlovable because I’m not a size zero model.

When this kind of thing was not happening, the story itself was a lot of fun. There was a lot of predictability in terms of who was to blame for what, yet it was fun to watch things unfold. There was a simplicity to the story that I could appreciate, with just enough action to stop the story from being boring. It kept you engaged, slowly feeding you the specific information, ensuring you wanted to carry on reading to know exactly how things played out in the end.

Overall, it wasn’t what I had expected. I had wanted something more from this, yet it was still a decent enough read. The more I read, the more I enjoyed it, but it never reached the high I had hoped for. At present, I’m unsure as to whether I will carry on with the series. I will not go out of my way to read the other books, but should I stumble across them cheap or should I find them on a friend’s bookshelf I’ll give them a go.

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