Blood Harvest

This book takes great advantage of the fact that British pagan rituals are creepy as anything (see: Susan Cooper and the original Wicker Man), and that little villages that still practice these rituals are extra-creepy. Bolton uses this setting for a mystery / gothic thriller that reminded me of Andrew Taylor's The Four Last Things, which is high praise.

I realized immediately that this book was not something I should be reading at night alone in the house, and realized at the same time that I wasn't going to be able to put it down. I stayed up past midnight to finish it, and am glad I did - the resolution, while horrible, explains away the supernatural aspect that would really have disturbed my sleep. I figured out the culprit fairly show more early, but that didn't take away from the suspense, as it's mainly centered around "why" and "what the heck is going on" rather than "who".

I really liked this, and will be checking out Bolton's earlier books. show less

SWEDISH REVIEW

Sharon Bolton har snabbt blivit en av mina favorit författare och Ond Skörd är definitivt en av de bästa böcker hon har skrivit. Från början är boken kuslig och mystisk och den behåller den tonen rakt igenom till det chockerade slutet. Men tursamt nog så har boken lite mer lättsamma ögonblick tack vare psykiatrikern Evi Oliver och kyrkoherden Harry Laycock. Det är definitivt attraktion mellan dem från första ögonblicket de träffas och sedan fortsätter det genom hela boken. Vad mer kan jag säga än att jag gillar verkligen mina mord mysterium med lite romantik. Men, allting går inte på räls, Evi har en patient som har ett gott öga på kyrkoherden.

Sedan har vi bokens själva berättelse, den mystiska show more flickan som Tom ser och den underliga kyrkan. För att inte glömma alla de döda flickorna. Sedan får vi givetvis inte glömma byns skumma ritualer, mellan varven trodde jag hela byn var ond som filmen The Wicker Man från 1973. Jag förväntade mig inte alls slutet, det tog mig verkligen på sängen att få reda på vem som låg bakom allting och varför.

Ond Skörd är definitivt en av de bästa böcker jag har läst detta år och jag rekommenderar den varmt!

Tack till Modernista för recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

Sharon Bolton has quickly become one of my favorite authors and Blood Harvest is definitely one of the best she has written. Right from the start is the book quite chilling and mysterious and it keeps being that for the entirely book all the way to the shocking ending. But, fortunately, there are lighter moments thanks to psychiatrist Evi Oliver and the Vicar Harry Laycock. They hit off from the first moments and after that every time they met the sparks fly. What can I say I love my murder mysteries with a bit of romance. However, not everything is going smoothly between them, she's having a patient that is quite sweet on the good Vicar.

Then we have the heart of the book, the mysterious girl that Tom sees and the strange church. And, what about the dead girls? Not to mention the village old strange rituals. I kid you not, there were times I thought that the whole village was evil, kind of like the movie The Wicker Man from 1973. I did not expect the ending, I was actually a bit blindsided to whom could be behind it all and the reason for everything was shocking!

Blood Harvest is one of the best books I've read this year and I recommend it warmly!

Thanks to Modernista for the review copy! show less

Given the title, this book was not at all what I expected. I went into it expecting a fairly straight horror novel filled with dastardly deeds of blood sacrifice. What I got was a Ruth Rendell style psychological thriller - well written, subtle, tightly plotted, atmospheric, and scary.

The village of Heptonclough is one of those places that sits outside of time. Located in the Pennine moors near Lancashire, the town surrounds the old church, the new church, and a graveyard (complete with underground crypt). Straddling the line between the new and old church (and the new and old world) is a house built by the village's newest residents, the Fletchers, and their three children - and so the fun begins.

This village takes its traditions show more seriously, particularly those centered around the harvest. There is a harvest festival with all kinds of strange customs (and potential misdeeds), the annual slaughter (where blood literally runs in the streets), and the making of 'bone people' to be destroyed in the annual bonfire. Throughout it all the Fletcher children feel they are being watched and the long-buried secrets of Heptonclough are (in some cases literally) uncovered.

This was a wonderfully creepy read. Highly recommended for fans of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. show less

You know what the best thing about this book is?

The editors and publishers left it alone. Instead of a neutered, American English variant (ahem, Harry Potter, ugh), the bucolic Britishness of Blood Harvest's weird (fictional) town of Heptonclough, Lancashire, has been left intact, and it is that very slight cultural shift that makes S.J. Bolton's novel stand out in a crowded genre of quasi-paranormal suspense stories.

Pair that with the near-brilliant portrayal of young, Geordie vicar Harry Laycock and you've got a combination that is just skewed enough to make the compelling-but-not-earthshattering plot feel memorable. Laycock is a man of the cloth, but he's a modern one: He pines after smarty-pants psychiatrist Evi Oliver, whose own show more character is appealingly flawed. Oliver can only walk with a cane and suffers chronic nerve pain that pushes her nearly to madness at times.

Heptonclough's assortment of inbreds and recluses is reminiscent of the town in Simon Pegg's movie "Hot Fuzz." There's something endearingly dark and twisted about certain British farm towns. Bolton maximizes on that. Her story involves the mysterious disappearances of a suspiciously high number of very small girls from Heptonclough. A grieving young mother of one of these children seems a bit too aggrieved; the town's oligarchy seems a bit too powerful and hush-hush; the local seasonal traditions uncomfortably pagan and violent. Oh, and the family at the center of this just built a large, slightly offensive house in the middle of the town's medieval graveyard. Yeah.

Romping and gripping for most of its course, Bolton's novel suffers from a couple of plot turns that stretch one's credulity and an absolutely dreadful ending. Does this mean this will be a series? I admit, I'd read more. show less

The Fletchers have built a beautiful new house in the tiny village of Heptenclough, and they don't entirely fit in. Neither does the brand new vicar, Harry, who seems to think less about God than about romantic prospects with Evi, a psychiatrist working with a village woman mourning her dead daughter. Both Harry and the Fletcher children start hearing strange voices. Young Tom is terrified of a monstrous little girl that none of the adults believes he sees. When toddler Millie narrowly escapes falling to her death in the old church, Harry and Evi connect her near accident with a string of deaths of other little girls, including the daughter of Evi's patient.

The first half of the book is a gothic delight, with some genuinely creepy show more moments and fascinating depictions of rather ghoulish local folk customs. Then the book deteriorates into a standard-issue suspense novel with breathless manhunts and helicopters and such. The denouement is unbelievable, and the mystery is solved through the vehicle of what Roger Ebert refers to as the Talking Killer, in which the murderer feels compelled to explain everything in great detail, thereby giving the victim a chance to escape. show less

A Time To Be Born - Twelve-year-old Tom and his family have just moved to a small town perched on the crest of the moor. But troubles begin when Tom sees a mysterious child lurking around the nearby churchyard. A Time To Die - Psychiatrist Evi is trying to treat a young woman haunted by the disappearance of her little girl. A devastating fire burned down their home, but even two years on she is convinced her daughter survived. A Time To Kill - Harry is the town's new vicar, quickly befriended by the locals. But unusual events around the church suggest he isn't entirely welcome, and that this odd little town harbours a terrifying secret.

Wow, what a great book. I really couldn’t put this book down. When I first started to read this book show more I thought it was going to be a ghost story. As the story progressed I thought it was very slightly similar to The Wicker Man. My reason being that the village is steeped in old traditions and everybody seemed to have lost a young daughter. Then as the story progressed further it changed and became a crime story. I have added this to my Halloween reads because the main bulk of the story is through the months on September and October, but also because it was really scary. So OK the girl in the graveyard may not have been a ghost after all, but it is scary to think how human beings can treat each other. Is there a happy ending, well maybe for some. What the author did do was to finish each chapter on a cliff hanger so I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. I would highly recommend this read. show less

In Blood Harvest a new vicar arrives in the small Lancashire village of Heptonclough to reopen the closed church. He meets the American family who built an enormous house right in the middle of the village and who are not liked by the traditional villagers. There's something wrong with the town and the family is being menaced, with the focus of the malevolence being the three Fletcher children.

This is a well-written and very suspenseful book, which reminded me of Simon Beckett's or even Ruth Rendell's mysteries. The village, set on the wild moors, is full of atmosphere and foreboding. There are village traditions that appear brutal and bizarre to outsiders. The new vicar is an interesting man, as are the three children and a show more psychiatrist who also plays a large part in the story. The parents, especially the father, are less well realized and strangely unconcerned at the menace directed at their own children, but this is a quibble--thsi is a suspenseful and eerie tale. show less