The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths
Publisher: Quercus
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Fern

Ruth’s partner in crime, DCI Nelson, has been receiving threatening letters. They are anonymous, yet reminiscent of ones he has received in the past, from the person who drew him into a case that’s haunted him for years. At the same time, Ruth receives a letter purporting to be from that very same person—her former mentor, and the reason she first started working with Nelson. But the author of those letters is dead. Or is he? The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.

DCI Nelson has received a few anonymous letters that are eerily similar to those he received during his first case with Dr. Ruth Galloway and a Bronze Age girl buried at a local henge. He’s uneasy, but resolves to ignore them as the original author of the letters is long dead now. But then Ruth calls to say she’s found what she thinks are somewhat recent bones of a young girl she finds when excavating at a new location right near that original henge, a recently discovered stone circle. Ruth and Nelson are finding their past is becoming ominously part of their present.

I’ve been a big fan of this series for a while now and even though I admit Nelson and Ruth’s off/on relationship drives me mental sometimes, I really enjoyed this book a lot. There is what I felt to be a satisfying amount of progress (of sorts) between Nelson’s family and Ruth/Kate. I loved that Cathbad was once again a solid and prolific character and part of this story. I even really enjoyed the amount of time spent with Judy and Cloughie this time around. I thought there really was a good amount of progress and time spent with all these main characters and the plot revolving around the missing girl whose bones were discovered. Overall, I found the balance in this story – for myself personally – was excellent. I do admit though that people who prefer the archaeology aspect to these books and the time spent focused on the dig and field work and more historical aspects might find this book a little light on for them and they might not be as satisfied as I am.

I particularly enjoyed how a good amount of the first quarter or so of this book really seemed to hark back to the first in this series (The Crossing Places) and even though it’s been quite some time since I’ve read that book, I enjoyed the parallels between the two. I wondered at times if the author was trying a sort of soft reset with the storylines – but I can’t decide if it’s my imagination and I’m reading too much into the parallels or not.

Readers who enjoy British police procedural books – especially those with strong ties to history and archaeology – should definitely find this series as a whole suits their tastes. With a strong cast of secondary characters and a well woven plotline that has a number of red herrings to keep most mystery readers guessing this was an enjoyable book and is a series I greatly enjoy. I’m looking forward to the next in the series.