Sunday, October 15, 2017

Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton: Reading Room Review


Careful with this one. This story is going to grab you in and not let go until you finish it, and probably not even then. Dead Woman Walking is Sharon Bolton at her dead-on best. I first start reading Bolton through her stand-alones, and although I always crave more Lacey Flint stories, I have to admit that stories don't get any more thrilling than this latest one. That I was rather perturbed about one of the twists, and there are some stunners, and I am still blown away by the genius of this plot, says that the story has a power of enormous magnitude. The characters are as sturdy as the Northumberland setting and often as unpredictable, but their complexity is in perfect step with the unfolding of a deeply layered tale. The physical action and the psychological drama will run you ragged, and you will thank Sharon Bolton for every minute of it. 

The story starts off simply enough. Two sisters, Jessica and Isabel, and Jessica is treating her older sister to a hot-air balloon ride for Isabel's fortieth birthday. But, as the thirteen people in the balloon's rectangular basket are floating over the moorlands of Northumberland National Park in the northernmost region of England, they witness the unthinkable, a man murdering a woman among the ruins of an ancient hilltop house. And the man has seen them watching. Desperate to elude the man on the ground, who is following the balloon on a quad bike, the balloon meets disaster and crashes. There is but one survivor, one of the sisters, who had eye contact with the killer and now must run for her life on the ground as he pursues the last link to his criminal actions. And, yet, finding a safe place is a challenging matter, what with a concussion and some complicated issues with the police. Danger is palatable on every page, and suspense has you in a firm grip as the hunter and the prey confound and reveal. 

To say more about this book would risk spoiling the read for those who haven't had the intense experience yet. Suffice it to give one last warning. Dead Woman Walking will rock your desire for a top thriller read, but hang on tight, because some twists may turn you inside out.

2 comments:

  1. This sounds AWESOME! Great review!!

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    1. Thanks, Erica! This book is such a big twist that I couldn't say too much.

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