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This week’s review: The Stone Circle

The Stone Circle | Elly Griffiths | 2019, 364 pages | Mystery

DCI Harry Nelson is receiving threatening letters again. They refer to a missing girl, Scarlet, a child whom Nelson couldn’t save. And the letters write about another young girl who has been missing for 30 years. Harry is told to look for a child in a stone circle.

Ruth, a forensic archeologist, is also receiving letters that sound like they are from her mentor Erik. But Erik is dead, and now his son, Leif, is in the area, working on a dig. Leif is uncannily like Erick and this brings back unsettling memories for Ruth. Nelson asks Ruth for help on the case. They have worked cases together before and theirs is a complex relationship. Ruth is a single mother who lives with her young daughter in a remote house on a saltmarsh in North Norfolk.

Nelson has children on his mind a lot lately with these letters, and also his wife is pregnant and about to give birth to their third child. Before long, Nelson is searching for a missing infant. Tensions rise as the search continues and there are no clues about the missing baby. And Ruth, Cathbad and Leif are traveling together to visit a sacred site. But Ruth wonders about Leif’s motives and if it was wise to go on this journey.

This excellent mystery combines a police procedural with interesting characters, complicated relationships and a vibrant sense of place. As always in this series, the truths lie buried in the past, if only Ruth, Nelson and his team can find a way to uncover them.

Robbin Bailey