Review: Sacrifice by Sharon Bolton (Goodreads Author)

Sacrifice by Sharon Bolton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sacrifice is S J Bolton's debut novel........it's a dark, terrifying and an absolutely gripping thriller that will have you hooked from the very first page.

The Story
Tora Hamilton has moved with her husband, Duncan Guthrie to the Shetland Islands, where he was born with the hope to working out the problems they are experiencing in having a baby.

When she makes a gruesome discovery the body of a young woman, with strange rune symbols carved into her flesh and her heart ripped, in the ground surrounded her home, she becomes involved in trying to solve the mystery of who she was.

Despite the warnings to leave the case to the local police, she continues with her enquiries and soon uncovers some frightening information with links to the islands folklore and legends.

Intense, fast paced with twists and turns that leave you guessing until almost the end.

What made this story really interesting was the setting and the way that the author wove the local folklore and legend into the plot.

The Characters
I found the characters easy to connect with and I particularly found Tora Hamilton, very engaging. She's a very good pediatric consultant surgeon, but she has so many insecurities about herself....she always finds herself saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and just rubs everyone around her the wrong way. Her social skills are pretty dismal...........and that just made her more human to me. I wanted her to succeed and I worried about her as she continued with her "Miss Marple" sleuthing!!

There were some interesting secondary characters like Sgt Dana Tulloch, and Tora's boss, Kenn Wickliff.

The Setting
The setting of the wild, beautiful, isolated and remote Shetland Islands,

is vividly written that you almost feel that you are there.

It also adds an sense of eeriness

and darkness which creates an atmosphere of menace and creepiness.

Overall Feeling
SACRIFICE is a spine-chilling, clever and incredible debut novel and I am definitely going to be reading more of this author's work.

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