Jenni Mills

This is the second archaeological-based mystery thriller I have read by this author, though I didn't enjoy it as much as Buried Circle. This one is based around the discovery of a temple to Mithras in some old mines underneath Bath. While I love Bath, we don't get to see much of the city here, and indeed we don't get that much of the mystery either. While there were some creepy and atmospheric scenes set in the utter darkness of the mines, much of the novel concerned the childhood travails of the central character, Kit Parry, and her complex relationships with her families and friends as she grew up, with chapters alternating between her childhood and her current (2007) work as a mining engineer, facing sexism from many of her colleagues in an overwhelmingly male industry. For me, there was rather too much of Kit's personal life, and not enough of the mystery/thriller elements in a slightly rambling and probably overlong novel. I understand what the author was trying to achieve, but this imbalance was a bit of a disappointment to me.… (mais)

I was prompted to read this novel set in and around the stone circle of Avebury in Wiltshire, after listening to the audiobook of Children of the Stones, one of my all time favourite TV series filmed and set there in 1977. This novel had many good elements: two timelines, one set in modern (2005) Avebury, the other in the same place in the late 1930s and into the war; archaeology; the occult; wartime dangers and heroism; a fairly wide cast of characters, some of them real historical figures (explained in the author's note at the end); and exploration of themes such as dementia. The two time zones are connected through a 2005 young woman India, working part time in TV and part time in a cafe, while looking after her grandmother Fran, and Fran's own youth in the 1930s working with archaeologists to restore fallen stones from the circle into their original positions; with appearances and connections with other family members as well. Despite all these elements, I found the narrative a bit rambling and rather too long, and the elements didn't always hang together satisfactorily for me, though the last few chapters of tying things up raised it in my estimation.… (mais)