Chills and Thrills: S.J. Bolton Reigns Supreme
I’ve written about the great S.J. Bolton before, both on The Huffington Post and here on my site, www.readallday.org. I’m back to tell you all: Blood Harvest, is now out in paperback! Reap it now and you will sow hours of great reading.
In Blood Harvest, Bolton introduces us to an isolated Yorkshire village rife with strong but disturbing traditions. One of the traditions, kept secret by all, is the disappearance of little girls. When a number of tiny corpses are found, the new vicar of the village starts to look deeper into the history of his parish, while a crippled psychiatrist tries to help a crazed young woman who is certain her dead child is still speaking to her. Blood Harvest is grim, wiping away any security the characters try to find in science, religion, love, or family, and leaving everyone — readers included! — vulnerable to terror. But alongside the chilling scenes of human depravity, there are also scenes of great humor, touching humanity, and resounding heroism, making Blood Harvest a moving and wonderful read.
As good as the news of the paperback release is, I have even better news: Bolton has written another great book and it is coming out in June. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of Now You See Me. Now You See Me, Bolton’s fourth novel, is further proof that this dame of chills and thrills reigns supreme. Bolton has again created memorable characters (and brought back two unforgettable characters from her first novel, Sacrifice), immersing her characters (and us, her lucky, lucky readers) in a plot that is suspenseful, intelligent, and absolutely satisfying in its ultimate climax and conclusion. When I finished Now You See Me at two in the morning, having started it at nine in the evening and then read straight through, I was panting and crying and sighing, all at the same time. I wanted to start re-reading it immediately: I’d become addicted to the writing, the characters, and the story.
Bolton switches up her locations in Now You See Me, placing us smack into London and not in the bucolic locales of her previous novels. But as in her earlier books, Bolton takes her cues from British folklore, mythology, and history, using the facts and fictions surrounding the notorious Jack the Ripper to build a modern-day saga of dysfunctional families, cast-out children, and long-held desires for vengeance coming to most bloody fruition.
In all her novels, Bolton plunges into the depths of the human soul and comes up with what is good and beautiful to be found there, and also what is foul and horrible. In Now You See Me, the foul and horrible are both the source of more horror and born of earlier foulness: what goes around, comes around. Yet in the end, Bolton offers readers some form of redemption, allowing us to see the possibility of a clean slate, a new life, and an end to bloodshed.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: S.J. Bolton is the reigning queen of thrillers, creating works that are smart, scary, and very, very satisfying. Long may she reign and write.
