S. J. Bolton

She got me. I should have seen the signs. They were there. Occasional food anxiety, the blue hair, rules for disappearing, the flower name. However I was too caught up in the story to fix my attention on Maggie Rose.

Hamish is slippery and duplicitous, but in a remote way. Bolton never writes a close third person for him so he feels less substantial. As does Maggie herself. Drinks with yet another man she freed? That is so strange that for a woman who cuts herself off, she wants to maintain show more relationships with these people. And what is it with women who “fall in love” with convicted murderers? The explanation toward the end, so cynically explained by Hamish, rings the most true. Not so much mental illness as a way to be in control; a thing many women lack entirely. I liked the fact that most of the letters to Dearest end up with the police. It adds a tremendous unknown quantity that engages the mind and in a way, keeps the reader (at least this one) from focusing on what is really at the heart of the situation. Nice work and I look forward to reading more from Ms. Bolton. show less

Bolton is very good at getting you to take your eyes off the bigger picture to focus on details. For some thrillers, this is the key to its solution; not for hers though. This book reminded me a lot of the way Peter May put his Lewis Island books together - heavy on characters, atmosphere and secrets. It is a tad repetitive in places and has a tangle of histrionics at the end (some of which are a real stretch to believe), but the reveal is a good one. There is happiness and hope, but also a show more future of misery and dread that’s a little hard to take in properly.

We start with Catrin who has absorbed more pain than she can handle when her best friend caused the death of her two sons. She is mentally unbalanced. No doubt about that. Now she’s plotting a way out for herself, but not before exacting revenge. She admits she’s actually good at killing and that’s the part I had to skip/skim - the beached whales. The euthanasia. The suffering. Even though the spirit is very different, the parallels to her grandfather’s whaling exploits are stark. So how far will Catrin take this ‘talent’ of hers? How far has she already taken it?

By the time Callum takes up the narration I was pretty leery of Catrin, her motives and her intentions and his side of the story makes it worse. He’s a veteran of the Falklands Islands war in the 1980s. When he first returned there his PTSD symptoms almost went away, but now they’re back. He blacks out, has fugue states and sometimes lashes out in violence. This isn’t all he is though. He’s a tech pioneer (this is set in the mid 1990s) and a popular person in town. He is the one to pull Catrin’s boys from the car in the sea. When he and Catrin find not one, but two of the missing boys, my suspicion meter went crazy.

Last there is Rachel; island child killer who will never, never be free of guilt, shame or the anger from the community for her deadly lapse. She would gladly trade one of her boys to have one of Catrin’s back. She says that yes, the pain would be horrible, but bearable and preferable to the living hell she’s made of everyone’s life. Her husband has stood by her, but she doesn’t love him; never has. Her heart belongs to another. And there’s more mental illness on display - she has imaginary conversations with her horse. Yup. Her horse. Also it seems she can’t stand to be alone with her youngest son.

I didn’t get a good enough sense of the friendship between Catrin and Rachel and wish there had been more about that. Not necessarily childhood stuff, but certainly adult interactions and closeness. There was more meat on the bones of the Catrin/Callum relationship and so I know the other could have been filled out, too. The sense of community in the Falklands is there and it works the way you’d think it would; people are fiercely protective of each other, but also blind to some faults. When they get an irrational idea about who might be might be a child abductor/killer in their midst though, they go crazy like any other small village that is isolated from the larger world. It’s comforting and scary. The ending is a mix of dread and happiness depending on what island you’re on.

One by one they all confess to killing Rachel’s boy Peter. The cops, who aren’t that sophisticated in the ways of murder investigation, lose the rag and things get crazy. Plus there are villagers with pitchforks and torches. In a rush to escape, cops and suspects end up together and are able to sort out who did what and why. The dust settles. Peter is found; alive and well.

Then there’s the solution to each boys’ situation. Jimmy is ruled an accident, although there is no certainty. Archie is found to have been inadvertently taken out of his little sphere when during a game of hide and seek he hid in the wrong car. Peter’s brothers hid him in fear of what their mother would do when she found out he took a tumble down some cliffs trying to follow his older brothers. So it seems there is no child killer after all.

But then someone witnesses another boy being taken. It’s Ben. And Rachel lets him do it. It’s crazy and oddly fitting. show less

Jessica Lane has always depended on her big sister Bella. A childhood ridded with tragedy made them even closer until they went their separate ways. Jess was sent to live with an aunt & uncle & Bella became a nun.

Now Bella is turning 40 & Jess has the perfect gift….a view of the world beyond the abbey’s walls from a hot air balloon. What could go wrong? Oh man, where to begin….

If you’re a fan of the author, you know she is famous for sneaky knock-out punches you never saw coming. show more Half the fun is trying to figure it out before she drops you to your knees so I don’t want to give too much away. Suffice to say while Jess, Bella & 11 others are soaring over the Northumberland countryside, they see a nasty crime in progress. Jess is shocked to realize the man looks familiar. And he’s staring right at her. The last thing he needs are witnesses & by the time the dust settles, the balloon has crashed killing everyone on board. But as he picks through the bodies he only counts 12. Wait…where’s the young woman he locked eyes with?

Well, turns out the lone survivor is up a tree. When she comes to, all she knows for sure is she has to run. It’s the beginning of a deadly game of cat & mouse along the Scottish border that grows increasingly complicated once the police are involved.

The overall plot is extremely complex & there are many side stories that flesh out a large cast of characters. Two time lines run simultaneously. In alternate chapters we go back & follow Jess & Bella as they grow up. We know something terrible happened when they were young & pivotal moments are gradually revealed & woven into present day events.

Yeesh…could I be any more vague? It’s one of those books where the less you know going in, the better & I’m getting dangerously close to spoiler territory.

The story moves along at a good pace thanks to short punchy chapters told from multiple POV’s. But to be honest, I had trouble connecting with the MC’s for the first half. It’s obvious that a lot of information is being withheld & only slowly doled out as the book progresses. Because of that, I had a hard time understanding some of the characters’ actions & motivations & it prevented me from being completely invested. At about 45% a couple of big pieces fell into place, the lights went on & from that point I was all in. All of a sudden I understood some of our heroine’s dodgy decisions & it became a true page turner.

At the very end there is a twist that seems a little too neat but it’s a minor quibble after a couple of classic Bolton bombshells that will have your jaw heading south. The characters are very diverse & I particularly enjoyed Sister Belinda, an elderly nun who has watched waaay too much CSI.

The end is satisfying & evokes a range of emotions as the characters (and readers) finally get their answers. It’s not my favourite book by Ms. Bolton but she sets the bar so high, I still highly recommend it to anyone looking for a smart, intricate thriller that will mess with your head. show less

Joe Grant is a therapist who goes out of his way to assist people in distress. In Sharon Bolton's "The Split," he starts seeing a new patient, twenty-eight-year-old Felicity Lloyd, who is experiencing alarming symptoms. She goes in and out of fugue states, and when she returns to normal has no memory of what transpired during her blackouts; has only hazy recollections of her childhood and adolescence; and is convinced that someone is stalking her. Professionally, she is a gifted scientist show more who attended Cambridge. She has been granted a wonderful opportunity as an employee of the British Antarctic Survey to work on a base in the Antarctic Circle. She and her colleagues will conduct research on the formation and movement of glaciers, and they will try to determine what impact steadily rising temperatures in the region will have on our planet.

Bolton is a crafty storyteller and talented descriptive writer. She gives us plenty of clues to alert us that not everything should be taken at face value. Meanwhile, Joe's mother, Detective Inspector Delilah Jones, is a no-nonsense woman who is fiercely protective of her son. Therefore, she is justifiably alarmed when someone kills two homeless people whom Joe knew well and tried to help. As the narrative progresses, we wonder: Who exactly is Freddie Lloyd, and why is he so eager to track down Felicity? What past traumas transformed Felicity into a high-strung woman who hears voices and, when she is not busy doing the work she loves, is so unsettled that she can barely function?

We grow to care about Joe, a compassionate individual who, against his better judgment, finds himself attracted to his troubled client. Although we sympathize with Felicity, her erratic behavior prevents us from fully identifying with her plight. It is a shame that the secondary characters are less well-defined than Joe and Felicity. This fast-paced thriller is enhanced by vivid scenes in the South Atlantic, an exotic, fascinating, and environmentally significant locale. The author colorfully depicts the area's breathtaking vistas, vast and unstable glaciers, and abundant wildlife. Unfortunately, the finale, although action-packed, is rushed, has some predictable elements, and is too pat to be believed. Its shortcomings aside, "The Split" is, on the whole, a riveting thriller that holds our attention and takes us on a wild roller-coaster ride. show less