Elly Griffiths’ The Stone Circle is the tenth in the series featuring forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson, and the first I’ve read. It’s written in the present tense, which is unusual for a crime novel and something I struggled with for the first part of the book, though when I got used to it it wasn’t a problem.
The plot centres on the discovery of the remains of a missing girl on an archaeological site in Norfolk — a hangover from a previous unsolved case — and on a series of notes to the investigating team in the style of a previous character who’s now dead. I found myself more than a little confused by the references to what seems to be an earlier book in the series, which is probably what you expect if you come in quite late rather than beginning with book one, but I have a lurking fear that I may have missed a few things as I wasn’t entirely sure of the ins and outs of the previous investigation.
Griffiths also has a lot of characters and several points of view and it took me a while to keep track of who was who and why they were there, especially given that several of the relationships were extremely complicated with partners and ex-partners, sibling and half-siblings and so on. There’s a short section at the back with mini-biographies of some of the characters and I would have found that really helpful up front (preferably with a few more characters included).
All of the cast of characters were believable too, though I found Ruth and Nelson’s on-off romance (he’s married with a new baby) a little irritating. In fairness, I suspect that’s also my problem rather than the author’s, because coming in late to the series means I’ve missed a lot of the character development and the back story.
It’s a beautifully written book — at times introspective but I liked that — and its evocation of the landscape of North Norfolk is compelling. These two were the book’s great strengths for me, and I felt transported to the bleak coastal landscape. And although it wasn’t always pacy, the suspense at the end when a baby went missing left me on the edge of my seat.
My gut reaction was that this wasn’t an easy book to read. Is that really a problem? I don’t think so at all — I like a book that rewards effort and this one certainly did. It’s so well done that I would certainly persevere with future books and go back to catch up on earlier ones in the series.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
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