A Likeness In Stone
A Likeness In Stone by Julia Wallis Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Martin starts the novel with an opening scene like none I’ve ever read. Eerie and captivating.
The book is extraordinarily well written. Creepy, with tentacles of prose wrapping around you and pulling you in like the ivy, or marsh reeds so prevalent in the story.
Any reader versed in mystery fiction will know from the beginning that things aren’t as simple as they seem. Yet, even with that knoweldge, even being correct in that knowledge, Julia Wallis Martin manages to pull of a twist ending.
While not quite a “fair play” mystery, there are clues enough, hints, woven among the details.
Multiple perspectives, a staunch part of many mystery novels, is pulled off brilliantly, without giving anything away.
The setting is haunting, creepy (yes, there’s that word again, so very apt) dark and as mysterious as the cold case being revealed in the present.
My only criticism is that the police officers were difficult to distinguish one from the other. A minor detail that would have most likely been worked out if there had been subsequent entries into a series. Alas, it’s a stand alone..but perhaps that’s ok as I need a light, cozy mytery as a palate cleanser after this dark one.