Review

Crow Stone

By Jenni Mills

Published by HarperCollins

Kit Parry, divorced from her alcoholic husband, returns to Green Down, the village of her childhood, to work as a structural engineer in the increasingly unstable quarries.

They need shoring up and then filling with concrete to prevent them from collapsing and bringing down the buildings on the surface.The damp tunnels that weave their way through the hillside need treating with utmost caution – the pillars holding up the ceilings were extensively robbed for their stone in the nineteenth century – but it is when Kit steps beyond the protected walkways that she spots a gawky carving.

Chastised by Gary, the site foreman, she nevertheless knows that her friend Martin, a professor of archaeology, will be extremely interested in her find. And so it proves. Martin is fascinated by Mithraism, a Roman cult characterised by images of ravens, bulls, the figures of Hope and Despair and seven levels of initiation.

Kit’s find may be a shoddy piece of work, but when Martin persuades her – against the rules – to take him down the mine, he discovers something much more interesting.

Getting caught contravening the regulations is only one of Kit’s problems: the miners are superstitious about the presence of a woman below ground, and Dickon, the site archaeologist, leers at her whenever he has the chance. Most troubling, however, is Kit’s past. Living in Green Down and working in the dank subterranean quarries brings back unwelcome memories that have lain hidden inside her for years.

The story flits seamlessly back and forth between Kit’s childhood and her traumatic present. For reasons that become ever more apparent, Kit has developed a steely persona to protect herself from hurt, but this masks a vulnerability she is unwilling to confront.

Crisp dialogue, a rich cast of characters and some skin-crawling descriptions of what it is like to be lost in an underground maze of total darkness make Crow Stone one of the most exciting thrillers of the year.

Reviewed by James Smith, Booktrust website editor

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