About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

CROW STONE
by Jenni Mills
Harper Press, May 2007
496 pages
10.00 GBP
ISBN: 0007247125


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Kit is a mining engineer. Despite swearing, when she was a child, that she would never return to Bath, she has done so. She will be working on a project to fill in the underground quarries that wind through the landscape, unseen by the upper world.

When Kit was a 13-year-old living in Bath, she had developed a crush on Gary Bennett, four years her senior and living across the road from her. The narrative details incidents from both past and present. In the present, she is a divorcée, and Gary, too, is the survivor of a broken marriage. He is also the site foreman.

The engineer has to cope with prejudice from the miners. Women are, after all, bad luck underground. She is determined to earn their respect by being a thorough professional.

Despite knowing she is straying from permitted paths, Kit dares to examine interesting pictures that indicate there may have been a temple dedicated to Mithras in the mine's depths, a relic of the days of the Roman occupation. She contacts her old friend Martin, who is enthusiastic at the prospect of discovering a hitherto unknown temple.

Kit, the first person narrator, leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader that she is terrified when underground but she manages to overcome her fear in order to examine what is hidden in the quarries.

It is no exaggeration to describe the novel as gripping. I found myself unwilling to relinquish one time frame for the next, wishing I could read both at the same time. The story of the adolescent's adventures, complete with unpleasant friends and inappropriate parties, develop into situations as life-threatening as in the present. Kit's secrets and unpleasant colleagues of her professional life are closely bound up with her life as a child.

The author's generosity in describing the religion of Mithraism is greatly appreciated, by this reviewer, at least. In fact, her description of what lies beneath Bath made me wish that I could have read the book before visiting that city.

The book has a very polished feel about it, for a debut novel. If Jenni Mills can accomplish such polish on her first attempt, I wonder what treats lie in store for readers as she adds to her experience.

Reviewed by Denise Pickles, April 2007

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]