Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a debut novel by S.J. Bolton and is about illegal adoption and muder set in the Shetland Isles. The heroine, if that is the right word, opens the action by attempting, illegaly, to bury her favourite horse in the field behind her house and in doing so finds a body. She calls the police but is not satisfied by the attitude of the senior officer and so uses her position in the local hospital to do some checking of her own which leads her into danger but, of course, all is sorted in the last chapter. The action is well written with good descriptive passages that maintain the atmosphere and keep the pages turning. That I am writing this review means that I liked it enough to keep reading to the end as I do not feel justified in reviewing books that I give up on after three or four chapters but I must admit that I was not keen on it. My lack of enthusiasm centres on the main character a consultant obstretician known as Miss Hamilton despite being married to a man named Guthrie. Her instant reaction to the slightest criticism or opposition is an instant torrent of often foul mouthed abuse which is off-putting to say the least. Having unfortunately worked with one or two women of this ilk I do not want to spend my spare time with one. Like all book lovers I am signed up to that contract between writer and reader called "Suspension of Disbelief" and I am therefore happy to go along with Miss Hamilton's ability to climb through windows, crawl through heather and survive falling overboard and swimming to safety but sailing a strange craft in the pitch dark and a Force Five gale in the treacherous waters off Shetland and making a successful landfall on a strange beach is pushing the contract too far.