Publication: 7th February 2019 – Quercus
DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters telling him to ‘go to the stone circle and rescue the innocent who is buried there’. He is shaken, not only because children are very much on his mind, with Michelle’s baby due to be born, but because although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of The Crossing Places, and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they?
Meanwhile Ruth is working on a dig in the Saltmarsh – another henge, known by the archaeologists as the stone circle – trying not to think about the baby. Then bones are found on the site, and identified as those of Margaret Lacey, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared thirty years ago.
As the Margaret Lacey case progresses, more and more aspects of it begin to hark back to that first case of The Crossing Places, and to Scarlett Henderson, the girl Nelson couldn’t save. The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.
Happy publication day to Elly Griffiths! I am always happy when a new Ruth Galloway novel comes out and it’s a pleasure to go back to North Norfolk and to a cast of characters that have now become familiar and THE STONE CIRCLE is a fantastic new addition to a brilliant series.
After the body of a young girl who had disappearad thirty years earlier is found in a dig, Dr. Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson find themselved entangled in a family drama and a mystery full of suspects and surprises. Add to this anonymous and cryptic letters, folklore, magic, and superstition and you have another gripping and thrilling novel by Elly Griffiths.
The plot is chilling, suspenseful, and, luckily, difficult to predict. We revisit old storylines and meet again characters from the previous novels, but the story is still original and captivating. Of course, what really keeps me engrossed to this series and makes me eager to read every new novel that comes out are the characters created by Elly Griffiths. I am addicted to Ruth and Nelson’s very complicated relationship and I always want to find out more about them. In this novel, things are made more difficult by the arrival of a suitor for Ruth and the birth of Michelle and Nelson’s son. We also see more of Rebecca and Laura, Nelson and Michelle’s adult daughters, and I always enjoy reading about Ruth and Nelson’s seven-year-old daughter, Katie, who I find really adorable. My favourite character is Cathbad, a modern day druid, who knows how to keep me entertained and who makes me laugh.
Once again, I found myself completely engrossed in a novel by Elly Griffiths and I read THE STONE CIRCLE in less than two days. I love the characters, the stories, the setting, and the author’s clear and beautiful prose and I am already looking forward to the twelfth novel of this amazing series.
Book After Book 