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For some reason the author switched after this book to 'Sharon Bolton' instead of 'S.J. Bolton'. I can't think of any reason why this would be necessary.



I really liked this book! It was quite different from most of these books, as it was not your usual suspense book. What I also loved is that it's a stand alone, it seems as everything today needs to be part of a series.



It gives an insight into Shetland-Islands folklore as it may very well be connected to the terrible murders that are going on on the island. The eventual conclusion is a bit far fetched however I do think that it could be more realistic than we're willing to believe. A lot is possible these days.



As I was quite surprised by this book, and her other books as well, It won't come as a surprise that she is in fact one of my favourite authors.

Excellent book. Takes place in the Shetland islands and the atmosphere is well developed. Some of the characters could have been more fleshed out but otherwise I loved all of it. Very clever plot and a true page-turner.

I look forward to reading more by this talented author!

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Bolton's other book I've read (now you see me). But it was nice to get Dana Tulloch's origin story, so to speak. And the folklore behind it is pretty fascinating. Maybe it was just a little too much description for me.

But I am intrigued to see what happens in the rest of this trilogy...

My first Sharon Bolton book! So as an author Sharon Bolton comes highly recommended so I was looking forward to reading her books.

I purposely started with this one being her first and although an initial slow start, the second half of the book completely made up for it! It’s not necessarily that it was slow but it was complicated and there were a number of different characters so I just found myself having to really pay attention incase I missed a critical piece of the puzzle. This however was completely forgiven by the fast paced thrilling developments around 50% right through to the end.

Overall, I thought the main characters were well developed and most were likeable! I loved the Shetland setting and thought Bolton did a great job describing the landscape and environment.

Overall solid 4 star from me and looking forward to reading others by the author

Tora Hamilton and her husband have recently moved back to his childhood home, the Shetland islands.  Despite growing up there, Duncan hasn't returned for over 20 years, and Tora has never visited.  Whilst digging in one of the fields on their new property, Tora discovers a body.  At first sight it looks like a centuries old body, but on closer inspection it turns out to be much more recent.  On finding out that the woman's heart was cut out, and that she had given birth just before her death, Tora is horrified, and feels like the police aren't taking the death seriously enough. Despite several warnings otherwise, she immerses herself in the investigation, not realising what she is getting into until it's too late.

This is Sharon Bolton's first book, but not the first one I've read.  I had high hopes based on the other books I've read, so a lot to live up to!
As with the the previous books I found this one really easy to get into.  Bolton jumps straight into the plot, with Tora finding the body in the first chapter.  From there things keep moving at a decent pace, certainly not leaving the reader feeling like they're treating water.  There is a lot of content here though.  Despite it not being the focus of the book, we do learn a lot about the Shetland Islands, and some of their folklore.  The way Bolton weaves the folklore into the storyline really interests me, and makes me want to learn more about the history of the islands.

I thought Tora's character was well developed, and very likeable.  It is mentioned several times in the book that she doesn't have a great bedside manner with her patients (she's an obstetrician) and struggles to make friends, but I didn't see that side of her.  There were some characters here that I've met in later books too, and it was interesting to read about them in their first incarnation.

Once I got to about 50% I was well and truly hooked, and finding it really hard to put the book down.  One of the things I like most about Sharon Bolton is that every one of her books has taken me a little by surprise.  The storyline's are something I would never expect, but written in such a way that they feel entirely plausible and realistic regardless of how unbelievable they first seem. 

I did have high expectations of this going in, and was definitely not disappointed.  Sharon Bolton is now firmly cemented as one of my favourite authors and someone I can rely on to deliver every time.  If you haven't read anything of hers this would be a good place to start, but I don't think it impacted my enjoyment that I had read other books first.