The Janus Stone (Ruth Galloway Mysteries) (Ruth Galloway Mysteries, 2)

I’m enjoying this series very much. Interesting, fun mysteries, storylines and characters. Currently on book #3 and look forward to many enjoyable hours as I read my way through the entire series.

Good plot, great location, but it was all in present tense which detracted from the story and it became sufficiently irritating that I didn't finish it. I always finish my books, but not this one. There is a reason great writers past and present, don' use present tense. I won't try any of her other books.

The headless skeleton of a child is found at a construction site where a former children's home is being razed. Forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway is called in to help investigate. She's a marvelous character, but perhaps a little too careless about her own safety -- and her cats -- when know murderers are on the loose, and always ends up in trouble. I love Elly Griffiths books. Great writing, great characters.

Some gaps and disappointments. I did learn that Romans had heated flooring, and upon further investigation found out the first heated floors may have been 5,000 yrs ago in Korea. Who knew!!SPOILER***********I’m disappointed Ruth is pregnant. I liked her “baby would be a substitute for kittens” attitude in the first book. Why can’t we have more strong female characters without kids that aren’t internally tortured by the choice or happier once they end up pregnant? Good god!

I enjoyed this second book in Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series just as much as the introductory book and I really like the way the characters are developing in this very character driven plot. Ruth Galloway with her straightforward no-nonsense approach to life and DCI Harry Nelson with his old fashioned approach to policing and disdain of new technology and pretentiousness. His wife Michelle and two daughters round out his character as a family man and the personalities of CID team are also emerging.As a forensic archaeologist whose specialty is in identifying bones, Ruth is called to a building site when the skeleton of a child is unearthed next to a an old children's home that is being pulled down. Roman artifacts have been discovered at the site, but Ruth is pretty sure that the skeleton is a lot more modern than that.This is a very atmospheric tale with gothic overtones as Ruth feels she's being watched at her isolated home on the Norfolk salt marshes and when she is alone at the archaeological dig site. It's also very suspenseful as a very twisted murderer leaves macabre messages for Ruth and tries to kill again.

I began this some months ago, just after I finished the first in the Ruth Galloway series, but at the time found it too much like its predecessor. However, picking it up again the other day, and starting it again, it proved to have a life of its own, and is a good thriller.The two main characters, Ruth and Harry Nelson, make admirable foils for each other, and of course, in this book have a mutual secret that they're trying - not always successfully - to keep from the rest of the characters. Plainly book three in the series will deal with this issue further.I found the sacrifice parts of the book a bit too icky for my taste, and as so often is the case, the murderer seems to have just too much access both to harmful items and to Ruth's whereabouts. Nevertheless, he gets his comeuppance well and truly at the end. There are plenty of red herrings here, and the other characters are well-drawn. Griffiths' nice sense of humour pervades the book, and is often succinctly funny.The Kindle version has a number of typos, however, and one particular mistake stands out like a sore thumb to anyone who has any connection with Christianity. The Catholic priest talks about the 'trilogy' of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I thought perhaps this was intended to show he was a suspect, and not really a priest at all, but it's basically just a surprising error on the part of the author - and her editor.

(3.5 stars) The second book in the Ruth Galloway series has Ruth in a life changing situation. She realizes that she is pregnant and has decided to keep the baby, even though she has no idea how she is going to juggle her job and a child, particularly in the remote cottage where she lives. Ruth is called in to evaluate the bones of a young child found under a threshold in a old manor house being turned into luxury condos. The home was once an orphanage, but was built on Roman ruins, so Ruth must determine if this was a recent death or ancient remains. Harry Nelson is on the case from the police side, and while she is glad to be working with him, Ruth is not sure how long she can keep her secret. As the case evolves, it turns out that two children went missing from the orphanage, and one is a candidate for the skeleton found. The head is missing from the body which is another puzzling clue, but also indicative of Roman ritual. As Ruth digs into the case, it becomes clear that someone is trying to frighten her away from the case and is becoming more violent and threatening as the case moves forward. A nearby Roman dig and a potential new romantic interest for Ruth add further interest to the story line and the suspense builds to a dramatic finish at the end.

I love Ruth! She always gets herself into trouble..... completely by accident! I love that she takes pride in her field and her education. I love that she is a strong female figure. And I love that she is as awkward as I am!The other characters are equally well written and charming. Nelson, Judy, Shona, Cathbad, and Clough are definitely becoming a little family of sorts .... or so it seems. I’m really looking forward to the third book of the series.Side note: Cathbad cracks me up and is currently my favorite character. He reminds me of someone I know.Anyhow, check out the series. So far, the first two books are solid mysteries with a few sharp twists and turns. The books have their funny moments too.

I have really enjoyed the Ruth Galloway series. But, as I said in my review of her first book, 'The Crossing Places', "there was something I think Ellie Griffiths got terribly wrong - and that's the entirely gratutious violence visited on the little cat, very near the beginning. It almost made me stop reading and decide never to touch the book, or any of the others, again. I'm glad I carried on, though. However, I hope the author reads this, and understands that she caused very real distress to this reader - and perhaps to many others - quite unnecessarily."Sadly she repeated this gratuitous description of violence upon a cat in this, the second book of the series. What has the author got against cats? If her detailed description had been about murdered, or sacrificed, babies, many people would have been as upset as I am, at least I hope so. But because this is an animal, apparently it's acceptable to use its suffering as a literary device, to capture the reader's attention.Such gross insensitivity lost her a star - and indeed I feel like giving both books only three stars; but since I have to admit to enjoying them, it seems hardly fair.Fortunately Griffiths doesn't persist with this horror in her subsequent Ruth Galloway books - maybe she's actually taken on board her readers' sensibilities? I'd certainly like to think so.

I tried this series when it first came out and didn't really like the whole frumpy cat lady, bone expert that is Ruth Galloway, who insists on living in the most desolate part of the entire universe - a place I found totally depressing. I am desperate for a new crime series so thought I'd try again as everyone seems to recommend this one.Several years on and with a lot of time on my hands do I feel any different?Well....um...no. I do not. Druids and bones and rituals abounded in this second book of the series. Our semi-reclusive heroine seems to have all these men half in love with her, but something always seems to scupper any of their chances to get close. It's just all a bit too dull for me I'm afraid.Some people will like the setting on the Norfolk coast. The murder story was ok. I just found the place too depressing and bleak. I won't be rushing out for the next episode, though I can see how this could be right up some people's street...if they like cats and barren windy beaches.

When the bones of a child are discovered under a doorway in a building about to be demolished, Ruth Galloway is called in in her capacity as a forensic archaeologist to determine how old the bones are. She suspects they’re not ancient and Nelson, as detective in charge, starts working on the hypothesis that they must have been placed under the doorway during the period the building was being used as a children’s home, run by the Catholic church, just a few decades ago. This assumption is strengthened when he learns that two young children went missing from the home – a brother and sister – and have never been heard of again. Ruth’s part in the story isn’t over once she’s finished analysing the bones however. It appears that someone is trying to frighten her, but who? And why?This is the second book in the Ruth Galloway series, which now runs to twelve books and is still going strong. I started in the middle, as usual, read several as they came out and eventually gave up on the grounds that I felt the series had run out of steam, but before then I had acquired a couple of the earlier books, including this one. Since it’s quite a while since I last read one, I wondered if the old magic could be rekindled, and to a certain extent, it was.The same things irritated me as had always done – the clunky use of present tense, Ruth’s obsession with her weight, the romantic tension (or lack thereof) of Ruth’s and Nelson’s never-ending non-relationship, the plot-stretching that is always required to make it seem in any way normal for an archaeologist to be so involved in a police investigation. Add in that in this one Ruth is pregnant, so we’re treated to all the usual stuff that goes with that, including much vomiting – always a favourite feature *eyeroll* – and I must admit I seriously considered giving up after the first few chapters.However I decided to power on through the pain barrier and eventually found that the things I used to enjoy about the series were still enjoyable too. The plot is interesting and well done, and the element of Ruth being deliberately frightened has some nicely spine-tingling moments. There’s the usual humour amid the darkness, and the old regulars are all there – Ruth’s friends and colleagues, Nelson’s team, and, of course, Cathbad the druid. There’s also a new man on the scene who looks as though he might provide a new romantic interest for Ruth – Max Grey, a fellow archaeologist, unmarried and handsome to boot!The plot involves elements of Roman mythology. It did rather niggle me that Ruth was apparently ignorant of this subject and unable to read even straightforward Latin inscriptions, since I find it hard to believe that anyone teaching archaeology at university level in the UK could possibly have avoided learning something about these, given that so much British archaeology is of Roman remains. But it allows Griffiths to tell the reader about the mythology via the device of Max, a Roman expert, explaining it all to Ruth.The setting adds a lot to this series – Ruth’s isolated cottage looking out over the salt marshes of Norfolk provides plenty of room for spooky occurrences, and Griffiths gives a real feel for the brooding beauty of the place, and for some of the myths and superstitions attached to it.So overall I enjoyed this return visit to a past favourite, although not quite enough to make me want to read the other ones that I’ve missed.

Well-written in beautifully descriptive prose, this character-driven mystery builds to a thrilling climax – 5 StarsAs a former children’s home is demolished to make way for a new development of chic apartments, the discovery of a child’s mutilated skeleton draws Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson into a web of secrets and deceit. When forensic examination proves the skeleton to be modern, the hunt for a killer is on, and as Ruth becomes the recipient of macabre ‘gifts’, Harry Nelson finds himself determined to protect her… she is, after all, carrying his child!This, the second book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series, certainly doesn’t disappoint: Well plotted, and once again shot-through with myth and legend, there’s plenty to keep any devotee of classical studies content. More complex than the first novel in the series (‘The Crossing Places’), and packed with twists and turns, this is absorbing right to the very end. However, as with the first book, it very much remains a character-driven story. Throughout the text Elly Griffiths continues to reveal more of her protagonist, Dr Ruth Galloway, an extraordinary character whose mix of strength and fragility intrigues, entices, and never fails to hold one’s attention.Overall: A complex mystery that builds to a thrilling climax, and features the wonderful Dr Ruth Galloway. Fabulous!

When a detective story begins with the discovery of the skeleton of a child beneath the floor of a former children’s home, the reader and the police instantly make assumptions of guilt, but this building site has also unearthed Roman remains so forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway has once more been consulted by DCI Harry Nelson. Happy that she is still able to conceal her pregnancy she is eager to help but her assistance in dating the remains puts her in danger. Unpleasant gifts are left for her and she is attacked more than once. Luckily, she has a team of protective guardians; Harry Nelson, the father of her child, Cathbad, the eccentric Druid leader and Lab technician, and newly arrived archaeologist, Max.There is a complex plot involving the wealthy builder’s family, events at the Children’s home when two children disappeared and how Ruth deals with the prospect of single motherhood while dealing with the disapproval of her strongly religious parents. Meanwhile Nelson’s Catholic upbringing makes facing up to his responsibilities as a married man and father of an illegitimate child very difficult and meeting a priest whom everyone trusts, in the course of his duties, adds to his confusion.I enjoyed this volume even more than the first book in the series. Ruth has matured and her relationships with others shows deep understanding and empathy. There is a gradual build up of tension as she becomes increasingly threatened culminating in a thrilling concluding scene.