The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

The lonely stretches of marshland on England’s coast in county Norfolk are home to forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway, who first appeared in The Crossing Places in 2010.  This is the eleventh entry in the mystery series by Elly Griffiths, and it circles back to the first book through similar themes, characters, and plot lines. 

Ruth, who is a lecturer at a local university, is sometimes called in by the local police force to evaluate the bones found in local digs or criminal investigations.  She is a meticulous researcher, a loner, and somewhat bristly, but she is drawn to Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Harry Nelson—both professionally and personally—creating a complicated relationship and a difficult problem for this married father of two adult children and most recently, a newborn.

The Stone Circle opens with DCI Nelson and Ruth receiving threatening letters in the vein of ones sent to them a decade before—but the problem is that the original sender is long-since dead.  Those, along with the discovery of two skeletons at a newly found stone ring, bring the two together to look into an archeological mystery and a missing-child case from twenty years before. 

This is an excellent police procedural that is strengthened by its atmospheric setting and archeological details, as well as by the the strong characterizations of Ruth and Nelson (who now have an 8-year-old daughter); their charged relationship adds tension to the suspenseful story. The secondary characters shine in their own right.  Nelson’s staff is fully fleshed out and includes the maternal DS Judy Johnson and the hilarious millennial DS Dave Clough. In addition, there is the local druid Cathbad, the visiting Norwegian archeologist Leif Anderssen, Nelson’s family, and the extended family whose daughter mysteriously disappeared; they all add much to the story. 

One of the things that makes the book so interesting is that local lore, Bronze Age information, nods to the political scene of 2016, references to classic literature and to Harry Potter are woven throughout the pages.  Because the book is full of people who are continuing characters or who are past characters related to this current plot, I would recommend reading this series in order to appreciate it fully. 

Highly enjoyable reading for people who like the books written by such authors as Erin Hart, Julia Spencer-Fleming, or Deborah Crombie,

Published on May 7.  Advanced copy from NetGalley.