Stone Maidens

Stone Maidens is the debut novel by American author Llyod Devereux Richards. Published in 2012, the novel gained prominence in 2023 after a post by Richards’s daughter went viral on social media. The novel follows FBI Special Agent Christine Prusik as she investigates a series of gruesome murders in the forests of Indiana. The discovery of small stone figures in the victims’ throats forces Prusik to face her own dark secrets as she races against time to prevent further violence. Major themes in the novel include The Lasting Effects of Traumatic Events, Gendered Prejudice in Law Enforcement, and Nature Versus Nurture in Human Development.

This guide references the 2021 Thomas and Mercer eBook edition.

Content Warning: This novel contains graphic depictions of violence, including sexualized violence, child abuse, and cannibalism. It also contains sensationalized and inaccurate depictions of Indigenous people in Papua New Guinea.

Plot Summary

In the Prologue, an unnamed man follows a girl through a corn field. He becomes intoxicated with her scent and passes out.

Later, a young girl named Missy Hooper meets a man named Jasper at a county fair and agrees to go exploring with him. When Jasper’s mood suddenly changes, she flees into a wooded ravine. Jasper corners her, wearing a feathered mask. Three weeks later, Missy’s body is discovered with a large cut along the side of her abdomen and all her organs removed. FBI agent Christine Prusik believes the murder is connected to the discovery of another body in similar condition. She develops a profile of the killer as a charming man whose victims go with him willingly. She suspects he collects the organs for ritual purposes.

Meanwhile, in Weaversville, Indiana, a young man named David Claremont visits a psychologist for help with vivid daydreams. During the meeting, Claremont hallucinates a young girl screaming in a ravine. In a town called Crosshaven, a young girl named Julie Heath agrees to help a stranger return a turtle to a nearby ravine. The stranger attacks Julie wearing a feathered mask. An hour later, a boy named Joey Templeton sees a strange man stuffing something into a truck. When Julie’s disappearance is reported, Joey insists the man must be connected.

Prusik investigates the Missy Hooper crime scene and learns that a strange feather has been found near the body. Meanwhile, David Claremont has visions of a girl screaming in a ravine and passes out. In Weaversville, Joey helps create a police sketch and Sheriff Joe McFaron finds blood at the spot where Joey saw the suspect. In a session with his psychiatrist, Claremont reveals that he urinates in bed. He confesses to his doctor that he fears he is being controlled by a dark force.

Prusik returns to Chicago, disturbed by her discovery of a small stone figure in Missy’s throat that reminds her of her time studying cannibal tribes in Papua New Guinea. At the Chicago Museum of Natural History, she discovers that the figure is one of five recently stolen from the museum, along with a feathered mask. The sight of the masks brings on a traumatic memory of being attacked by a cannibal tribesman in Papua New Guinea.

Jasper is called to a Crosshaven farmhouse to paint a barn but is distracted by the sound of young people playing nearby. Meanwhile, Julie Heath’s body is discovered in Patrick State Forest. Prusik discovers a stone amulet in the corpse, and evidence of urine on her body. While Prusik joins Sheriff McFaron in investigating the crime scene, Claremont attacks a woman in a parking lot and is briefly detained by witnesses.

Prusik discovers that the killer’s first victim, Betsy Ryan, also had a stone amulet in her throat, but not one of the stolen ones. Claremont is stopped by police after driving erratically while chasing a girl. The police connect him to Joey’s sketch, and he is arrested on suspicion of murdering Julie Heath. Prusik’s rival Bruce Howard is given credit for the capture and promoted to lead investigator on the case. Prusik worries that Claremont’s arrest is too simple.

In Chicago, Jasper rejoices at the news that someone has been arrested for Julie Heath’s murder, but panics when he sees that the suspect looks like him. Prusik interviews Claremont, who insists on his innocence and says he has a demon inside him. Claremont agrees to write down the details of his visions. Prusik returns to Chicago and visits the site of Betsy Ryan’s death. Unbeknownst the Prusik, she is followed by the killer.

Prusik learns that the teeth impressions given by Claremont do not match the victims and that the fingerprints found are the inverse of Claremont’s. Along with a behavioral scientist named Emil Katz, she hypothesizes that Claremont might be sensing the activities of a long-lost twin. She confirms that Claremont was adopted and that his twin was raised by their mother under the name Donald Holmquist.

Prusik travels to the abandoned apartments where Holmquist was raised and finds evidence that he is the killer. When Thorne rejects her theory, she goes above his head to demand Claremont’s release in order to set a trap for Holmquist, whom she correctly guesses will try to visit him. Holmquist interrupts Claremont’s court-ordered visit from Dr. Walstein and kidnaps both men. Prusik is suspended from the FBI and flies out to Crosshaven to honor a pre-scheduled commitment to a local Girl Scout troop.

Claremont wakes up in the back of a car driven by Holmquist. When Claremont realizes Holmquist is the man committing the violence in his visions, Holmquist attacks him. Shortly after, a Girl Scout goes missing; when Sheriff McFaron arrives at the scene, he finds a bloodied man (implied to be Claremont) carrying her. Meanwhile, Prusik is picked up by Holmquist, now driving alone. Prusik attempts to talk to Holmquist, but he knocks her unconscious. When she wakes, she secretly calls Sheriff McFaron and loudly announces their location. Sheriff McFaron, who has re-arrested Claremont finds the car and forces an accident, freeing Prusik. Claremont and Holmquist, both badly injured, escape in the chaos.

The next day, Holmquist and Claremont are found separately in the field: both are dead, tangled up in native thorns. Prusik is reinstated at the FBI, then rushed to the hospital when a small stone amulet is found inserted into her abdomen. As she recovers, Prusik and Sheriff McFaron agree to pursue a relationship.

In the Epilogue, newscasters attempt to interview Earl Avery, an old man confirmed to be the father of Claremont and Holmquist, about the decades-old disappearance of young girls at the mine where he once worked. Earl refuses to speak but relishes the memory of killing and eating one of the young girls.