Un libro entretenido y correcto que engancha bastante. Lectura ligera y amena aunque algunos detalles de los trows me parecen muy fantasiosos. Pero en general muy bien, se empatiza con la protagonista y eso es algo que no en todos los libros se consigue. Estaré pendiente de leer algo más de la autora.

3.5

An excellent, eerie read. Well written, gripping and creepy! Not a who dunnit per se but a thriller.

I continue on my quest to read most of this woman's books! This is actually the first one Bolton wrote and I finally got the backstory for one of the characters who show up in the Lacey Flint series. So that's nice.

Apart from that? I figured out the plot and most of the twists before I was even halfway through and then had to spend AGES waiting for the characters to catch up. I'm not sure if that's just me ruining my own fun or if it was badly written. Or maybe just too predictable?

Either way, this is clearly not the best of Bolton's books, no, but I quite like the characters (again). The lore about the Shetland islands was also very interesting, even if the rest of the story was somewhat flimsy at times. Still, not bad.

Personally, I seem to enjoy Bolton's stand alones more than the Lacey Flint series.

A very easy to read mystery with great characters and just enough twists and turns.

This mystery (a standalone novel) had such a vicious twist I was floored. OMG!

Ms Bolton is one of my favourite authors, and when reading the Lacey Flint series, I was introduced to DS Dana Tulloch and DCI Helen Rowley. They both played a huge part in this story which is wonderful because I'm really fond of these two ladies who play for my team.

Dit boek krijgt zoveel lovende reviews, die ik zo zit te lezen: .

Het plot klinkt interessant, en ook de opening van het boek lijkt veelbelovend.
De hoofdpersoon Tora, een verloskundige, probeert haar paard te begraven op haar land, maar stuit op een lijk. Op het lijk zijn runes gesneden, en ook het hart is er uitgesneden. Dit lijkt op een ritueel moord? (intrigerend begin). Het lijk wordt naar het ziekenhuis gebracht, waar de lijkschouwer Tora's advies vraagt. Wat blijkt, de overleden rouw was een paar dagen voor haar dood bevallen. Maar waar is de baby? Tora is vastberaden om zelf uit te zoeken wat er met deze vrouw is gebeurd.

Interessant plot, slecht uitgevoerd.
Informatie over het eiland, of de omschrijving van Tora die een operatie uitvoert lijken haast wel van Wikipedia geknipt en geplakt te zijn.
Tora maakte keuzes die alleen een fictief karakter kan maken

Spoiler

; zo moest ze met een agent op de vlucht, omdat mensen hun wilden vermoorden, en zochten ze een onopvallende manier om weg te komen. Wat doen ze? Ze gaan midden in de nacht paardrijden door de heuvels!

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Het onwaarschijnlijkheid gehalte lag veel te hoog bij dit boek.

I was drawn in by the setting of this mystery: The Shetland Islands. They fascinate me. Tora is a young Ob/Gyn doctor, just starting her residency work at a local hospital under Ken Gifford, a doctor she is sort of drawn to (which frankly annoyed me the entire book). Her husband, Duncan, moved them here to a large house. He was originally from the islands but Tora is English and an accomplished horsewoman. It’s that detail that opens the mystery. She’s illegally trying to bury her deceased, beloved horse and finds the body of a woman in the peat. She’s had her heart cut out and runes carved into her back.

Tora isn’t impressed with the police investigation, even more so when she’s brought into the autopsy and learns the woman had just given birth before she was killed. She does warm a little to the police woman, also a Shetland outsider, Dana. However when everyone tells her to leave it be, Tora can’t. She starts looking through hospital records, does some very idiotic things professionally (and for a while I was sympathizing with her since I’ve been there done that but after a while she loses a lot of my sympathy and I didn’t particularly like Tora). Soon, she is on to something and Dana agrees.

However, none of this goes unnoticed, especially the ham handed way Tora did it. Soon there is a potential attempt on her life and worse, she thinks her husband might be behind it. It doesn’t help that all of Shetland seems to be one small town in the way everyone knows everyone and they don’t trust outsiders. As it starts to look like it has to do with pregnant woman, something Tora desperately wants to be, the danger ramps up. Stranger still, it somehow ties into ancient myth. The only problem is Tora may not live to tell anyone what she has found.

It’s a decent mystery with an interesting setting. Tora, unfortunately blows hot and cold for me and since she’s the pov character that’s a bit of a problem. It also seems like a standalone sort which is rare in mysteries today.