|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
The promise shown by Elly Griffiths in her first book, THE CROSSING PLACES, is well fulfilled by this second novel featuring Ruth Galloway, the forensic archaeologist from Norfolk University in England. Griffiths' atypical protagonist, a slightly overweight loner who delights in the harsh beauty of the East Anglia marshes by the sea, is even more likable as her character is expanded in THE JANUS STONE. A visiting prof from Sussex, Dr Max Grey, is excavating a Roman site near Norwich and unearths the head of Janus, the two faced Roman god of beginnings and endings. Other evidence also indicates worship of Hecate, Queen of the Night and goddess of crossroads and childbirth. When Ruth visits the site, Max reveals they have just found bones under a foundation wall, a sacrificial practice associated with Janus and Terminus, the god of Boundaries. Once again, the events of the past are mirrored in the present as Ruth is again asked by her friend DCI Nelson to investigate a child's skeleton found buried under the portal of a Victorian mansion. The house is being torn down to make way for a development project. The demolition crew soon finds another skeleton on site, that of a cat buried under a perimeter wall. Both child and animal skeletons are without heads, further indication of some kind of ritual practice. An emphasis on children, birth and ritual killings permeate the stories that emerge from both the police and the archeological investigations. As Ruth is coping with her own pregnancy, the result of a brief but meaningful encounter in the first novel, this personal element nicely fits into the prevailing theme. There are other similarities with THE CROSSING PLACES such as the continued presence of Cathbad, a contemporary Druid , the use of alternate texts between the chapters and the threatening incidents directed at Ruth in her isolated location. I really enjoyed the way Griffith interwove the developments in Ruth's personal life with the actions of the murder inquiry. And although Ruth is described as unglamorous, she seems attractive to men. There is a hint that Dr Max Grey, totally implicated in the complexities of the case of THE JANUS STONE, may just reappear in this series while her personal relationship with DCI Nelson necessarily continues.
Reviewed by Ann Pearson, March 2010
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
