Mystery Monday: The Janus Stone, by Elly Griffiths

It's been a long time since I read the first in this series, and I recalled having reservations about it, despite very strong recommendations from Jemima Pett. But her insistence on the quality of the series prevailed, and I don't regret it.

 

Title: The Janus Stone
Author: Elly Griffiths
Publication info: Kindle edition, 2011 by Mariner Books, 337 p. Originally published 2010 by Quercus Publishing.
Source:  Library 

Publisher's Blurb:
It’s been only a few months since archaeologist Ruth Galloway found herself entangled in a missing persons case, barely escaping with her life. But when construction workers demolishing a large old house in Norwich uncover the bones of a child beneath a doorway—minus its skull—Ruth is once again called upon to investigate. Is it a Roman-era ritual sacrifice, or is the killer closer at hand?
Ruth and Detective Harry Nelson would like to find out—and fast. When they realize the house was once a children’s home, they track down the Catholic priest who served as its operator. Father Hennessey reports that two children did go missing from the home forty years before—a boy and a girl. They were never found. When carbon dating proves that the child’s bones predate the home and relate to a time when the house was privately owned, Ruth is drawn ever more deeply into the case. But as spring turns into summer it becomes clear that someone is trying very hard to put her off the trail by frightening her, and her unborn child, half to death.The Janus Stone is a riveting follow-up to Griffiths’s acclaimed The Crossing Places.

My Review:
As I started reading this book I realized one of the things I hadn't much liked about the first in the series: it's written in the present tense, something I find... well, not to my taste. Later, I also remembered that the books dip farther into the dark side than I like (i.e., psychological weirdness). And you know what? None of that mattered once I got going.

Yes, I admit I wondered at 20% if I really wanted to go on with the book. I set it aside, I picked it up. And somewhere around 35%, I picked it up... and didn't put it back down. 

It's not just that it's a gripping story (it is). It's that somewhere in there the characters became people and I found that I cared what happened to them. Okay, I also wanted to know whodunnit, even if the doing was (mostly) far in the past. And the unraveling of that old mystery was brilliantly plotted.

I still say that past tense is better for a novel, and I also found there were quite a lot of characters, enough that I had trouble keeping straight for a while. There is definitely enough built on the events of Book 1 (which I didn't much remember) that it's a good idea to read them in order, and maybe not wait years between. But somewhere around that tipping point in the story the characters got clear in my head and the old history didn't matter so much.

My Recommendation:
This is an excellent mystery located somewhere between cozy, psychological thriller, and police procedural. I think I'm hooked on the series, but I also don't think I'll be rushing into the next book. There's enough darkness here that I need to space them out.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked The Janus Stone out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
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