Thursday, May 10, 2012

Book Review: The Janus Stone

The Janus Stone
by
Why no real cover?

In The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths, some construction work uncovers a human skeleton without head. Forensic Archaeologist Ruth Galloway is called in to find out the details, and the skeleton turns out not to be ancient, but only about fifty years old. Ruth finds herself entangled in the uncovering of a decade-old crime.

The second part of the Ruth Galloway series, I am still very happy with the storytelling. A good mix of archaeological accuracy, classical whodunit crime novel, and a very likeable protagonist far from stereotypical heroines. My main grievance is a slight lack of care for good typesetting of the e-book, but I have seen worse. If I had to point out something to improve, it would be trying to avoid infodumps a bit more. Oh, and write in past tense. Present tense annoys me.

All in all, if you like crime novels and archaeology, this is exactly your kind of book.