Like This, For Ever by Sharon Bolton

I read and started this review at the end of March, straight after I read If Snow Hadn't Fallen. Yes, it's taken me this long to finish it - whoops. Here you go. Beware of hyperbole.

Like This, For Ever (2013) (Lost in the U.S.) (Bantam Press)
S. J. Bolton
Grade: A
Genre: gothic thriller horror
Sex scenes: n/a, but seriously the most frustrating sexual tension I've ever read
Source: NetGalley
Lacey Flint series: (1) Now You See Me, (1.5) If Snow Hadn't Fallen, (2) Dead Scared, (3) Like This, For Ever

S. J. Bolton scares the living shit out of me.

And yes, that’s exaggerating just a little, but it’s 3:24am, I’ve been reading for something like 5 hours, couldn’t wait to start reviewing and considering how much of my EU essay I’ve neglected, I’m in the exaggerating mood.

In just eight weeks, five young boys between 10 and 11 years old have gone missing around London, and the killer is picking up the pace. The victims are disappearing faster and bodies are turning up quicker; the latest discovery of the bodies of twin brothers Jason and Joshua is just one more reason for parents across the capital to give their sons curfews. It won’t be long before the Met starts getting the blame.

If Snow Hadn't Fallen by S. J. Bolton

There are a dozen other books I should be reviewing before I do this one, but I can't help myself.

If Snow Hadn't Fallen (2013) (short story) (book 1.5 in the Lacey Flint series)
S. J. Bolton
Grade: A
Genre: gothic thriller horror
Source: own, eBook 
Lacey Flint series: (1) Now You See Me; (2) Dead Scared

Ever wonder what Lacey got up to between the closing of Now You See Me and the opening of Dead Scared? Now is your chance to find out …

It’s like trouble follows DC Lacey Flint’s heel like a loyal Labrador. Off-duty and on her way home, there’s a call for assistance on her radio, just a stone’s throw away from her flat. Instinct and duty prompt her to answer it, but it’s not the teenage scuffle or canoodling couple that she expected to break up and hurry along. Five masked persons surround a burning pyre in the centre of the park. A burning pyre of human flesh that’s still alive. Lacey’s appearance sends the perpetrators running, but with such extensive burns, there’s little she can do to prevent death.

Sacrifice by S. J. Bolton

Sacrifice (2008)
S. J. Bolton
Grade: A
Genre: gothic thriller horror

Source: library

In my experience, ‘S. J. Bolton’ and ‘happy endings’ are not used together in the same sentence. Now, I’ve only been blogging seven months, but I’ve already reviewed Awakening, Now You See Me, Blood Harvest and Dead Scared; Sacrifice makes it a full complement. I would describe none of the first four titles as having a happy ending. Sure, the crimes are solved, the bad guy is locked away/punished and the protagonists are no longer in danger, but their futures are often left uncertain and Ms Bolton perversely leaves us unsatisfied with the paths she’s made for the characters we’ve come to love. The exception is the secondary couple in Dead Scared, so there’s some hope left in me yet for her future works.

Sacrifice was Ms Bolton’s first novel and it’s a chilling and stunning debut. Annoyingly, it’s the book I’ve read last, but what can you do. It’s terrifyingly good and I’m finding it very hard to measure it against her other novels; one thing I do know is that it is a definite keeper.

Dead Scared by Sharon Bolton

Dead Scared (2012) (Bantam Press)
Sharon Bolton
Grade: B+
Genre: gothic thriller crime
Source: own
Lacey Flint: (1) Now You See Me, (1.5) If Snow Hadn't Fallen, (2) Dead Scared

Straight-up compelling.

I read this in something like four hours straight, until past 2AM, despite the fact that I knew I had to be up at 6.30 that day to be on campus for 8. Each time I looked at my phone, I'd tell myself 'at 11' which would then become 'at 12' and you get the picture. I might not have liked it as much as Now You See Me, but I think Dead Scared has the edge when it comes to the unputtable-down factor.

Cambridge University has, in DI Joesbury's own words, "[developed] a very unhealthy record when it comes to young people taking their own lives." Twenty students have committed suicide in the last five years and Head of Student Counselling, Evi Oliver doesn't believe that it's a coincidence that the mostly female suicidees all chose inventive, violent methods to end their lives. She contacts her old university friend Dana Tulloch who then refers it on until it lands in Joesbury's hands. He needs Lacey to pose as a vulnerable student to see if she discovers any underground network that is working to glorify and encourage suicidal behaviour.

Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton

Blood Harvest (2010)
S. J. Bolton
Grade: B+
Genre: gothic thriller crime
Source: library

Alice and Gareth Fletcher have lived in the little village of Heptonclough with their three young children for a few months, but the community still hasn't really accepted them. If anything, Heptonclough are trying to get them to leave. The Fletchers are not at all fazed by the fact that their new house is next to a church and surrounded by a graveyard, which I guess is ominous in itself. When the new vicar Harry Laycock arrives in town to reopen the church for worship, they bond over their common outsider status and become fast friends.

Tom is ten years old and at that age where he's determined not to run complaining to his parents when he's bullied and pranked at school. But it isn't just the bullies that have him constantly on edge. He doesn't feel safe playing in his own garden and being the eldest child, he feels that it is his responsibility to ensure that five-year-old Joe and two-year-old Milly are safe. Tom knows that someone is watching them, but can't get any solid proof to take to his parents. To make matters worse, Joe and Milly are perfectly comfortable in 'Ebba's' company and seem to be conspiring against Tom when he tries to convince his parents and Harry that someone has been watching them.

Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton

Now You See Me (2011) (Bantam Press)
S. J. Bolton
Grade: A
Genre: gothic thriller crime
Sex scenes: n/a but again, even better sexual tension than Awakening
Source: Transworld/RHCB building / NetGalley
Lacey Flint: (1) Now You See Me

Jack the Ripper has become somewhat of a mythical figure since the days he stalked the streets of Whitechapel, disemboweling women in populated areas with not a single scream to give him away. As the theories have developed, the already murky truth got murkier as the stories distorted; Now You See Me lays out many of these theories and Ms Bolton follows the path of the one she feels is most credible, leaving the reader to question whether this take on history is indeed what really happened, and if not, which other theory might be right.

Most scholars agree that Jack was only responsible for five of the murders that took place; the others were the result of copycats. In Now You See Me, the killer is imitating the murders usually attributed to Jack, and the police - much like as they had been in the nineteenth century - are helpless to stop him.

Awakening by S.J. Bolton

Awakening (2009)
S.J. Bolton
Grade: A
Genre: Gothic thriller crime (from the mouth of the lovely Sharon Bolton herself)
Sex scenes: n/a but some wonderful sexual tension
Source: bookshelf in the Transworld/RHCB building

Clara Benning is very happy as a wildlife vet in Dorset, tending injured badgers, birds and hedgehogs as well as the more mundane household pets, despite being perfectly qualified to work in a big zoo - something she tried but didn't like. Quiet village life suits her, though Clara makes a concerted effort to avoid seeing and coversing with the few neighbours she has; despite being deliberately blunt and rude, her neighbours continue to be nothing but friendly. When Clara begins to see an increasing number of snake cases, she refuses to believe it to be the work of the local gang as many suspect; herpetology being a speciality of hers, she investigates deeper.