Title: THE PACT
Author: Sharon Bolton
Read: June 2021
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!
Book Description:
A golden summer, and six talented
friends are looking forward to the brightest of futures - until a daredevil
game goes horribly wrong, and a woman and two children are killed.
18-year-old Megan takes the blame, leaving the others free to get on with their
lives. In return, they each agree to a 'favour', payable on her release from
prison.
Twenty years later Megan is free.
Let the games begin . . .
What attracted me to this book:
I’ve devoured every single book by Sharon Bolton and I just love the way her mind works. She is not called the Queen of Gothic for nothing! When I read the synopsis for her latest book, THE PACT, I knew I would be in for another treat.
My musings:
A night of partying and a drunken dare between six
friends ends up in a terrible hit-and-run accident that kills a mother and her
two young children. Even though she was just a passenger in the car that caused
the accident, eighteen-year-old Megan agrees to take the fall for it to protect
her friends. They make a pact that she will serve prison time, but they will stand
by her, and each of them will owe Megan one favour – anything she asks. Now,
twenty years later, Megan is back. Her former friends haven’t kept their side
of the bargain, and she is ready to collect the debts she is owed ...
What a deliciously dark, twisted
tale this was! Each of the friends have moved on with their lives, trying to
forget the accident that sent Megan to jail, and, even worse, pretend that
Megan never existed. With an eye for the darker corners of the human psyche,
Bolton explores the friendship dynamics between this bunch of unlikeable,
privileged, arrogant people, which left me speechless at times. I loved seeing
the friendships unravel as panic takes hold on Megan’s return into their fold.
Bolton is a skilled writer and her
story is intricately constructed, so the clues are revealed slowly, as layer
after layer is peeled away. I must say that I was firmly in team Megan as her
shitty friends were trying to cut her out of their lives. But of course with
Bolton nothing is black and white, and the surprises kept coming as the story
took a more and more sinister turn.
THE PACT is one of those dark,
twisty and cleverly crafted psychological thrillers from a master of the genre
that will keep you spellbound from beginning to end. I couldn’t put it down!
And finally, when I thought I had it all worked out, came the fast-paced,
adrenaline fuelled and totally unpredictable finale. Bravo! One of the best
thrillers I have read this year and definitely one for my favourites list.
Highly recommended to readers who love a clever psychological thriller that
features fascinating friendship dynamics and a constant undercurrent of escalating
danger and menace.
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