Tuesday ~ First Chapter ~ First Paragraph (March 17)

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

My post this week is book seven from a series that I love featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway; The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths.

Blurb

Norfolk is experiencing a July heatwave when a construction crew unearths a macabre discovery – a buried WWII plane with the pilot still inside. Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway quickly realizes that the skeleton couldn’t possibly be the pilot, and DNA tests identify the man as Fred Blackstock, a local aristocrat who had been reported dead at sea. When the remaining members of the Blackstock family learn about the discovery, they seem strangely frightened by the news.
Events are further complicated by a TV company that wants to make a film about Norfolk’s deserted air force bases, the so-called Ghost Fields, which have been partially converted into a pig farm run by one of the younger Blackstocks. As production begins, Ruth notices a mysterious man lurking close to the Blackstocks’ family home.
Then human bones are found on the family’s pig farm. Can the team outrace a looming flood to find a killer? NetGalley

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph ~ Intro

July 2013

It is the hottest summer for years. A proper heatwave, the papers say. But Barry West doesn’t pay much attention to weather forecasts. He wears the same clothes winter and summer, jeans and an England t-shirt. It’s sweaty in the cab of the digger, but he doesn’t really mind. Being a man is all about sweat; anyone who washes too much is either a foreign or worse. It doesn’t occur to him that women don’t exactly find his odour enticing. He’s forty and hasn’t had a girlfriend for years.
But he’s content, this July day. The Norfolk sky is a hot, hard blue and the earth, when exposed in the jaws of his digger, is pale, almost white. The yellow vehicle moves steadily to and fro, churning up stones and coarse grass. Barry doesn’t know, and he certainly doesn’t care, that people have fought hard over this patch of land, now scheduled for development by Edward Spens and Co.

Please note the quote is from a proof copy, the book is due to be published on 26 March 2015

Do you want to know more? Would you keep reading?