Stone Maidens

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

As Prusik fights to catch a suspected serial murderer and prevent more violence, she also fights an internal battle to overcome the lasting effects of traumatic events in her past. The ongoing trauma of Prusik’s near-fatal attack in graduate school remains with her well into her career in the FBI. The panic attacks and symptoms of anxiety triggered by the connection between her past and her current case cause her past trauma to manifest as negative physical experiences in the present, indicating that “the past is never done with us” (96). When she first makes the connection between the details of Missy and Julie’s murders and her own attack, “an itchy panic [takes] hold of her” in the investigation room. Later, at the sight of a crime scene photo, Prusik’s “heart start[s] to gallop and her breathing [becomes] ragged” (58). Richard repeats this heart-as-horse metaphor when Prusik arrives at the crime scene: “her heart at a canter [as] the uncomfortable sinking feeling [takes] hold again” (96). Although Prusik tries to fight against this physical response, she finds that the trauma of her experiences lives inside her: “it [is] in her body now.