Genre: Psychological Thriller
FOUR STARS * * * *
I've always been fascinated by glaciers, ice-bergs and ice-shelves and their precarious nature. Shifting, turning, breaking, not to mention dark, ominous, deep, sharp and cold.
The island of South Georgia, one of the most isolated places on Earth, with this kind of landscape, is undoubtedly the perfect setting for a thriller! The book doesn't disappoint, with the opening part plunging you straight into the mystery set on one of the most remote islands in the world. The plot mirrors the unpredictable icy landscape, with twists and turns to match the calving glaciers and rotating ice-bergs!
I've been lucky enough to have visited Patagonia - a sparsely populated region at the southern end of South America, spanning Argentina and Chile. It's an area similar in landscape to the island of South Georgia and reading this book, I was transported back to the amazing memories of this special trip. It's one of the most incredible places I've ever visited.
Synopsis
Felicity Lloyd, a young scientist, has accepted a research assignment on one of the most remote places on earth – the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. She thinks there, at last, she’ll be safe from her estranged husband, Freddie. He’s recently been released from prison and he’ll stop at nothing to find her.
As the summer season draws to a close, Felicity is starting to relax. Once winter sets in, the cruise ships stop visiting and no one can get to South Georgia.
There’s one more ship to dock, any day now, and Felicity can’t rest until she knows whether or not Freddie is on board.
Well, spoiler alert, he is.
The Split starts as a classic chase thriller, with Freddie pursuing Felicity across the frozen wastes of this Antarctic island. She knows South Georgia well, and has had time to plan her escape, but she hasn’t allowed for his determination and stubbornness being as great as her own.
In one of the most dangerous environments on earth, Freddie and Felicity finally come face to face – and the outcome is one no one could have expected.
As taken from the author's website.
My thoughts
I was hooked right away by the opening of the book. I was immediately in a world of crunching snow and ice, eerie echoes, cold, frosty air and captured by a ridiculous amount of tension and mystery. The book is not quite as it seems, however, and in Part 2 we're suddenly in Cambridge, England in the time period leading up to Felicity's assignment to South Georgia Island. We're exposed to multiple characters and interactions between them in counselling sessions, while helping the homeless, at home, at work, out for dinner and leaving me at times wondering who was who (literally and metaphorically to perhaps give you a clue).
At the same time, there's murder, confusion, memory-loss and a traumatic past.
The author has weaved a whole set of circumstances together in a very clever way, that left me guessing what might be going on until the very end. It's hard to write much more without giving some critical points away which might spoil your enjoyment of the book. Instead, I suggest you fix the crampons onto your shoes tightly and hang on for the ride!
About the author
Sharon (formerly SJ) Bolton grew up in a cotton-mill town in Lancashire and had an eclectic early career which she is now rather embarrassed about. She gave it all up to become a mother and a writer.
Her first novel, Sacrifice, was voted Best New Read by Amazon.uk, whilst her second, Awakening, won the 2010 Mary Higgins Clark award. In 2014, Lost, (UK title, Like This, For Ever) was named RT Magazine’s Best Contemporary Thriller in the US, and in France, Now You See Me won the Plume de Bronze. That same year, Sharon was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library, for her entire body of work.
As taken from the author's website.
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