Sacrifice

It all starts when obstetrician Tora Hamilton finds a human body buried on her land. She is new to the Shetland islands off the coast of Scotland, but her husband's people have lived here for generations. To think she was trying to bury a horse! What she finds instead is the body of a young woman who used to have red hair and appears to have given birth. Who is this woman and why is she on Tora's land? To dig into the mystery of the buried woman is to reveal a scandal much bigger than a simple death. To dig into history of Shetland is to uncover an ancient secret that is better left for dead. Despite the danger, Tora cannot let the mystery be. The more she uncovers the more she questions her marriage of five years, her job, and her show more future. Why has her husband stayed away from his homeland for twenty years and does her boss look so much like her father-in-law?
While Tora had questions I had questions for her. What kind of person can shrug off a pig's heart left on her kitchen table in the dead of night? What about crushed strawberries in the basement? Are those normal occurrences in Shetland? Wouldn't it drive her crazy that her keys go missing for days? As more strange events start to pile up I questioned Tora's judgement. That was exactly what Bolton wanted me to do. show less

I really wanted to like this book more. Sharon Bolton has been a long time favorite of mine. I believe I have read almost everything she has written to date. Sacrifice has a mind catching plot. The writing is Bolton through and through so it’s very well written. The problem comes with Tora… the main character that has been placed on this Scottish isle to carry the story line along. Along with her cool and aloof personality and her outsider status, it makes her the perfect protagonist. She is very difficult for the reader to warm up to but, her struggle to find justice for the murder victim and her search for truth in the face of growing adversity are well portrayed and add to the suspense. Medical and forensic details are a great show more addition to the story making the early parts of the investigation interesting and believable. Also adding old island mythology gives the story a dark supernatural element that I was thoroughly intrigued with. If you can bypass the fact that a young obstetrician would not be as aggressively getting involved as Tora does …then this is a great story. Tora just comes across as a bit “too much” and unbelievable in her actions. If you can put that out of your mind and just go on with the story… then you will more than likely really like this book. It has atmosphere…a look into the old legends…a brutal murder to solve and the appearance of a character from one of my other favorite series by this author…Detective Sergeant Dana Tullock …a character in Bolton’s later Lacey Flint series. show less

First Line: The corpse I could cope with. It was the context that threw me.

Obstetrician Tora Hamilton is a newcomer to the Shetland Islands, although for her husband it's merely a matter of returning to the place where he grew up. While digging a large hole in the peat on their property, Tora unearths a human body.

At first thought to be centuries-old, the body is actually much newer. The female victim's heart was cut out, and she'd given birth a few days before she was killed. Tora becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to the dead woman, no matter how many people tell her not to get involved. What she uncovers almost defies belief.

Used to the islands of Ann Cleeves' Shetland Island Quartet, I expected puffins on the show more windowsills and the incredible natural beauty:

"My favourite place to ride on Shetland was a half-moon beach, where dusky-pink, grass-tufted cliffs rose like the sides of a pudding basin around a bay of deepest turquoise. As I thundered along, spray blurred my vision and all I could see was colour: emerald grass, turquoise sea, pink sand and the soft, robin's-egg blue of the distant ocean. There are times on the islands when flowers seem superfluous."

In that I was not disappointed. I also wasn't disappointed in the character of Tora Hamilton. Although she admits that she relies too much upon the reassurance of others, when faced with a victim whose death doesn't seem right, Tora is quite prepared to throw all caution to the wind in an attempt to discover what really happened. She's also a person who is not transportationly challenged. She drives a car, is willing to walk, is an excellent equestrian, and a very good sailor. All she needs is a pilot's license so she can fly away from (or into) danger.

The plot moves at a very deliberate pace, setting itself up for the denouement, and although it is a bit over the top, it is gripping all the same and creates a wonderfully creepy atmosphere. A strong and unusual female protagonist, a beautiful setting filled with history, good use of forensics, and a spine-chilling gothic plot-- Sacrifice grabbed this reader by the throat and wouldn't let go. show less

An engaging thriller, but one a little to dependent on a big coincidence - Tora is an obstetrician so of course the big source of the trouble and mystery has to be a maternity hospital on another of the remote islands in the Shetlands. Of course it can’t be anything else.

The big reveal wasn’t hard to figure out, just the details and mechanics of it. How can the victims be switched and kept alive long enough to give birth? I guessed that part, but the larger conspiracy/crime of saving aborted babies didn’t occur to me although it should have.

Gifford is one creepy dude. Apart from him touching Tora constantly, he has way too much free time for a man with his job. The double act with Dunn got to be really weird, too. Then there were show more Duncan’s absences and I sensed a deliberate set-up on the part of the author. There was a drifting scent of romance in the air with the creepy Dr. Gifford and Tora, so combined with his “business trips” it was too easy to cast him as villain. There had to be a happily ever after, especially after it’s revealed Tora is (of course and at last) pregnant. Ugh.

In the end though, I wish Bolton could have found a way to tell this story without resorting to a stupid character. Tora is dumb, dumb, dumb. And insecure. Irrational for a person of her profession. And unsure of herself both professionally and personally. It got to be a bit much.

I’m glad I read more recent novels of hers before this one and now I know she’s improved her characterizations (at least on one occasion) I’ll probably read more. show less

After reading Awakening by the same author, I couldn't wait to read her first book, which this was. Like Awakening, it features a highly skilled professional woman who is also a bit of an athlete and daredevil. Tora Hamilton, an obstetrician, has recently moved to her husband's native Shetland Islands with him. She is the sort of woman who, when a beloved horse dies of old age, rents a digger so that she can bury him herself. Her plans are foiled by the discovery of a human body which has been horribly mutilated and then carefully buried. Local police seem to want to brush her concerns aside, except for one woman detective who's also an off-islander. Ancient Shetland folklore and all-too-modern concerns combine for a thrilling plot, and show more Tora's personal and professional skills will both be badly needed if she is to survive. Can she trust even her own husband? I devoted a large part of a day to reading this book, it was one of the rare "can't put it down" variety. Highly recommended. show less

Glad I didn't know much about the book before I started because I might not have read it. It has lots of elements I hate, like gore, strong violence, pain, and sailing (I know nothing about boats and their parts and am totally lost when an author talks about what is happening to them.). But the characters are very strong and realistic, and the setting and plot pull the reader right in and hold her there. I lost a lot of sleep because of this book---couldn't put it down.

An exceptional debut novel, based on the myths of Shetland's Kunal Trows, all the more remarkable as it was written before the author had visited Shetland. The story concerns Tora, an Obstetrician living on Shetland, but not from there, who discovers a young woman's body buried in her garden. Tora is determined to get to the bottom of how she came to be buried there and why she was mutilated, but is blocked at every turn by the tightly knit community who are determined to keep outsiders like Tora in the dark. The plot rattles along and kept me wanting to turn the page to find out what happens next. Highly recommended.