Moving to remote Shetland has been unsettling enough for consultant surgeon Tora Hamilton, even before the gruesome discovery she makes one rain-dr...
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reviews
Jan 30, 2012
Anna
rated it: 
Rating: 4.5 stars
I loved this. It's so creepy and chilling, and packed full of gripping suspense.
Something sinister is happening to young women out on the remote Shetland Islands. Ancient island legends appear to be coming true in the most horrifying of ways, leading the reader into a tension filled page turner.
As Tora (our heroine) begins to uncover disturbing evidence and folklore, everyone falls under suspicion. Many theories are formed, and with one shocking twi More...
I loved this. It's so creepy and chilling, and packed full of gripping suspense.
Something sinister is happening to young women out on the remote Shetland Islands. Ancient island legends appear to be coming true in the most horrifying of ways, leading the reader into a tension filled page turner.
As Tora (our heroine) begins to uncover disturbing evidence and folklore, everyone falls under suspicion. Many theories are formed, and with one shocking twi More...
12 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Nov 25, 2011
Hannah
rated it:
My first reading experience of author S.J. Bolton, but it will not be my last. Bolton writes the kind of books I especially relish; spooky, mysterious and historical mixed with murder and a dash of romance against an appealing setting (in this case, the wild, lonely Shetland Islands off the northern coast of Scotland).
Bolton's research into some of the ancient legends of the Shetlands is woven into the story and creates a truely atmospheric tale of sacrificial murder, community secr More...
Bolton's research into some of the ancient legends of the Shetlands is woven into the story and creates a truely atmospheric tale of sacrificial murder, community secr More...
14 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2008
Dave
rated it:
The mystery and suspense in S.J. Bolton's debut novel aren't its only attractions--although there is plenty of both to please the most devoted fan of the genre. For me it was the unique setting and the carefully-crafted backstory that made the book a good read.
Bolton takes us to what seems like the ends of the earth. The setting is actually the Shetland Islands, the wind-racked and wave-torn granite outposts a hundred miles northeast of the Scottish mainland. The damp, violent cli More...
Bolton takes us to what seems like the ends of the earth. The setting is actually the Shetland Islands, the wind-racked and wave-torn granite outposts a hundred miles northeast of the Scottish mainland. The damp, violent cli More...
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(4 people liked it)
Jun 09, 2010
Shellie (Layers of Thought)
rated it:
I devoured this murder mystery. It is a definite page turner as the author's writing is easy to follow and kept me up till past midnight.
The story is based lightly upon some ancient myths from where it's set - The Shetland Islands off the Northern Coast of Scotland. This legend involves Nordic trolls (I love trolls), giving this novel a bit of a supernatural edge. However this doesn't shift its anchor in reality. It just gives the story a slight other worldly flavor. Delish!
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 23, 2009
Michelle
rated it:
This is a really good mystery set on the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland. Lots of twists and non-stop happenings. I really enjoyed it and found it interesting to read about this part of the world. The way the author describes it is a perfect setting for an eerie tale.
Aug 02, 2011
Dear authors of thrillers, please do not construct your narrative so that the protagonist needs to spend several pages creeping around alone, in the dark. You are asking to have pages skipped until quotation marks begin reappearing. Having said this, however, I thought Bolton's first book (I was surprised this was her debut; I read Awakening first and it has such a different and so much less complex construction that I assumed it came first) was pretty clever and a good example of psychological
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 19, 2011
Jerome
rated it: 
I love this one from S.J. Bolton. As usual coming from her, a gripping, gruesome story of a hidden clinic in the Shetland Islands trafficking premature babies and murdering innocent women. The closer you get to the truth, the more horrifying the story. Tora Hamilton is a newcomer on the Islands. She has followed her husband, who was born and grew up there before leaving behind a murky past. It all starts when Tora wants to bury a dead horse and... finds the mummified body of a woman. Little does
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Aug 03, 2011
Saxton B. Little
rated it: 
Beth could say "I told you so". She's the friend who recommended Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton to me some time ago. Who knows why I didn't pick it up immediately as Beth and I have like tastes in fiction; not just in thrillers but across the board. Beth told me I'd like this one and she was right!
Tora Hamilton is having a bad day. Her beloved horse Jamie has died and Tora plans to illegally bury him on her Shetland property. Her husband's away so she'll need to do this alone, no e More...
Tora Hamilton is having a bad day. Her beloved horse Jamie has died and Tora plans to illegally bury him on her Shetland property. Her husband's away so she'll need to do this alone, no e More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 29, 2011
Both gripping and gruesome, `Sacrifice' is a definite page-turner, that is certain to keep you on your toes. When I first started reading it I wasn't sure that I'd get far with it, the writing was different to those I had read recently. However within a few chapters I was hooked and racing along with the narrative. Tora Hamilton took me a little while to warm to, perhaps this is why I was unsure at the start but I soon became caught up with her life.
The plot revolves around a discovery Tora mak More...
The plot revolves around a discovery Tora mak More...
May 25, 2011
Sara
rated it:
Tora Hamilton and her husband Duncan have recently moved from the the British mainland to the remote Shetland Islands, his childhood home and a place to which he hasn't returned since leaving for university. Engaged in her own risky and illegal behavior, burying her beloved horse Jamie, Tora unearths another body altogether, that of a young woman. And that's where the fun begins. Unable to put the woman out of her mind, suspicious of what she perceives as a cover-up, and against direct orders
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 30, 2011
Fleur
rated it:
The setting captured me first: Shetland, subarctic archipelago more than one hundred miles north-east of the Scottish coast. A land of granite and peat bogs, lying under rainy grey skies and battered by wind and waves. It is so vividly captured, so right for the dark, almost gothic, storyline, and its character and legends will become part of that story.
The story opens dramatically, on a stormy evening with the light slowly fading. A woman is determined to give her beloved horse a p More...
The story opens dramatically, on a stormy evening with the light slowly fading. A woman is determined to give her beloved horse a p More...
Oct 20, 2010
Andrew
rated it: 
I'm very surprised by the number of favourable reviews here on this book. In my view this is a very poorly written piece of fiction - so poor that I gave up after about 70 pages.
Why poorly written? There are too many instances where the writer is "telling" instead of "showing". Whole sections devoted to the obvious research which the writer has done and which she feels needs to be replicated in her novel. I got the impression that she might have used "cut an More...
Why poorly written? There are too many instances where the writer is "telling" instead of "showing". Whole sections devoted to the obvious research which the writer has done and which she feels needs to be replicated in her novel. I got the impression that she might have used "cut an More...
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 02, 2010
Anita
rated it:
I couldn't believe this was a debut novel, the writing is slick, compelling and the main character drew me in from the first page.
Tora Guthrie is an obstetrician whose husband, Duncan has brought them back to his home Island of Shetland to live after a twenty year absence, but when he suggests they go 'home', Tora finds a job in the local hospital and Duncan buys an old house.
Things begin to go wrong when Tora accidentally digs up the body of a local woman on her land. Wr More...
Tora Guthrie is an obstetrician whose husband, Duncan has brought them back to his home Island of Shetland to live after a twenty year absence, but when he suggests they go 'home', Tora finds a job in the local hospital and Duncan buys an old house.
Things begin to go wrong when Tora accidentally digs up the body of a local woman on her land. Wr More...
Dec 09, 2009
Viccy
rated it:
Tora Hamilton, living near Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, is far away from home. Her husband, Duncan, grew up there, but left to attend university and only returned due to his job. Tora is a practicing obstetrician, working at the main hospital in Lerwick. As the novel opens, Tora is digging a hole to bury her favorite horse and discovers a woman’s body with the heart cut out and missing and Viking runes carved into it. Coupled with the fact this woman had recently borne a child, Tora is intri
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Dec 04, 2009
Cindy
rated it:
34 year old Tora Hamilton is a consultant surgeon who has recently moved to the remote Shetland islands with her native Islander husband Duncan, who himself has been away for 20 years. The story begins with Tora digging a hole to bury one of her horses when she discovers the perfectly preserved body of a young woman in the peat soil situated on her newly purchased property. What is even more unsettling for Tora is that the woman's heart has been removed and there are strange symbols carved onto
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 29, 2009
Nicole
rated it:
I was pleasantly surprised by this debut effort by author S.J. Bolton. The setting of the Shetland Islands off the northeast coast of Scotland is interesting and unique. An area of isolation, myth and legend, remote from the rest of the world where secrets have been hidden for decades and immense power has been hoarded. Imagine moving from bustling London to a small acreage on a stark, unforgiving island. Your husband is often away on business, you have made no friends in the six months you have
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Oct 16, 2009
Nikki
rated it:
After reading Awakening by the same author, I couldn't wait to read her first book, which this was. Like Awakening, it features a highly skilled professional woman who is also a bit of an athlete and daredevil. Tora Hamilton, an obstetrician, has recently moved to her husband's native Shetland Islands with him. She is the sort of woman who, when a beloved horse dies of old age, rents a digger so that she can bury him herself. Her plans are foiled by the discovery of a human body which has been h
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Aug 03, 2011
Carol
rated it:
Beth could say "I told you so". She's the friend who recommended Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton to me some time ago. Who knows why I didn't pick it up immediately as Beth and I have like tastes in fiction; not just in thrillers but across the board. Beth told me I'd like this one and she was right!
Tora Hamilton is having a bad day. Her beloved horse Jamie has died and Tora plans to illegally bury him on her Shetland property. Her husband's away so she'll need to do this alone, no e More...
Tora Hamilton is having a bad day. Her beloved horse Jamie has died and Tora plans to illegally bury him on her Shetland property. Her husband's away so she'll need to do this alone, no e More...
2 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 21, 2011
Jenni
rated it:
This is the first book I've read for The Great Transworld Crime Caper. I'm a big fan of crime fiction so I thought I would take the opportunity to try out some new authors, the synopsis for Sacrifice left me looking forward to it arriving in the post.
The action kicks off within the first chapter of the book as Tora discovers the mutilated corpse buried on her land. From that point on I felt completely drawn in to the plot, and found it really hard to put the book down. There is no le More...
The action kicks off within the first chapter of the book as Tora discovers the mutilated corpse buried on her land. From that point on I felt completely drawn in to the plot, and found it really hard to put the book down. There is no le More...
May 04, 2011
Goldenwattle
rated it:
I enjoyed the read and was impressed this was a first novel. There were some weaknesses though. When Helen and Tora are escaping on horseback I wondered why Helen couldn’t have rung a colleague on the mainland and told them everything that had been happening. Instead she waited until morning because the helicopter apparently couldn’t fly at night. She still could have covered their backs though by letting someone else know what had been happening (Wake them, the situation was desperate.), so if
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Apr 14, 2011
Tonile
rated it:
I first stumbled across S.J. Bolton when her third novel Blood Harvest won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. It sounded brilliant, but being the way I am, I had to start at the first book (don’t let this deter you, as yet there are no sequels and no required sequential order). Sacrifice is a masterful novel, an incredible debut, and a chillingly creepy story.
Tora Hamilton is a consultant obstetrician, new to remote Shetland, and more or less living on her own as her bus More...
Tora Hamilton is a consultant obstetrician, new to remote Shetland, and more or less living on her own as her bus More...
Feb 21, 2011
Helen
rated it:
Tora Hamilton is an obstetric surgeon who has recently moved to the Shetland Islands with her husband, Duncan. Tora has been told that the Shetlands are 'one of the safest places to live in the UK', so the last thing she expects is to find a dead body in a peat bog in the field beside her new home. To make things even more shocking the body has had the heart removed and is carved with symbols which match the ancient runes on the wall in Tora's cellar. As Tora becomes more and more determined to
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Oct 12, 2010
Pam
rated it:
AUTHOR: BOLTON, S.J.
TITLE: Sacrifice
DATE READ: 10/01/10
RATING: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS: Crime Fiction/2008/Random House/375 pgs
SERIES/STAND ALONE: Stand-Alone
TIME/PLACE: Present, The Shetland Islands
CHARACTERS: Tora Hamilton/obstetrician
FIRST LINES: "The corpse I could cope with. It was the context that threw me."
COMMENTS: 4MA group read. Tora finds a body in the peat in her isolated home on The Shetland Isla More...
Dec 14, 2011
Jodie22
rated it:
I was drawn to Bolton's book by it's title and cover. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I couldn't help it. I purchased the book through a book club without reading a single word. The premise alone caught my attention.
Bolton is a new author to me, and I wasn't disappointed. The writing drew me in immediately. I sympathized with Tora's grief over the death of her favorite horse and her horror over finding a dead body. I've never been to the Shetland Islands, More...
Bolton is a new author to me, and I wasn't disappointed. The writing drew me in immediately. I sympathized with Tora's grief over the death of her favorite horse and her horror over finding a dead body. I've never been to the Shetland Islands, More...
Feb 12, 2011
Beverly
rated it:
A bit of the supernatural (ala 'Rosemary's Baby' or 'Children of the Corn') makes this tale a bit off the path of the typical murder mystery. If you can suspend the 'disbelief' that there could be such a proliferation of moral corruption passing as 'tradition', without someone much sooner 'blowing the whistle' on the situation, then it does make a good read. Likewise, one must be willing to accept the 'Hitchcock' element - that is, people doing things that all normal self-preservation instinct
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Mar 01, 2011
Dot
rated it:
S.J. Bolton grabs you and literally does not let go, I just felt that the story got better and better.
Tora Hamilton discovers the body on her land in the first few pages of the book. The gruesome discovery is a shock but she could not have imagined what would happen next. The body which is a young woman has it's heart missing and symbols etched into the back. Tora alerts the police immediately but she cannot leave it alone and begins doing her own investigations. A whole can of worms is op More...
Tora Hamilton discovers the body on her land in the first few pages of the book. The gruesome discovery is a shock but she could not have imagined what would happen next. The body which is a young woman has it's heart missing and symbols etched into the back. Tora alerts the police immediately but she cannot leave it alone and begins doing her own investigations. A whole can of worms is op More...
Sep 25, 2011
Kevin
rated it:
Tora Hamilton is an outsider at her new home on the rocky, windswept Shetland Islands, a hundred miles from the northeastern tip of Scotland. Though her husband grew up here, it’s the first time he’s been back in twenty years. Digging in the peat on their new property, Tora unearths a human body, at first glance a centuries-old bog body, interesting but not uncommon. But realizing that the body is in fact much newer, that the woman’s heart has been cut out, and that she was killed within a few d
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Apr 30, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
SJ Bolton has just been added to my list of favorite authors!
Sacrifice was my second novel by Bolton; I first discovered this British author with her second novel Awakening—a unique and sharply-written mystery focused around a unexplained exotic snake epidemic in a small Dorset community. Sacrifice, her debut novel, is every bit as dark and compelling with a page-turning plot combining local Scottish lore with the accidental discovery of a murdered woman possessing Norse runes carve More...
Sacrifice was my second novel by Bolton; I first discovered this British author with her second novel Awakening—a unique and sharply-written mystery focused around a unexplained exotic snake epidemic in a small Dorset community. Sacrifice, her debut novel, is every bit as dark and compelling with a page-turning plot combining local Scottish lore with the accidental discovery of a murdered woman possessing Norse runes carve More...
Jan 05, 2009
Leslie
rated it:
While I kept thinking that the author's main plotline required a little more suspension of disbelief than I could muster, I couldn't put the book down. Bolton's eerie, chilling tale centers on an obstetrician, recently relocated to the Shetland Islands, who finds a dead body buried in the peat of her garden. I'm unsure why I found her antagonists unbelievable - after all, I have no problem suspending belief during Mosse's Labyrinth, say, or Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel - perhaps because her mythic
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Jan 05, 2009
Mary
rated it:
OB/Gyn Tora Hamilton finds a body in the peat while digging in her field of her new home on the Shetland Islands. This is no bog body, however, it has much more recently been buried - with the heart torn from the chest and within a few days of having born a child. Tora finds herself compelled to discover the identity of the body and becomes mired in a mystery stemming from an ages old Scottish legend.
This was a real page turner with an unusual setting and strong female characters. Somewha More...
This was a real page turner with an unusual setting and strong female characters. Somewha More...
