The book title is The Split:
Sharon Bolton has outdone herself with her new standalone psychological thriller. It starts out slow but in the end, it is a tension-filled gripping read that never lets go. Felicity Lloyd is a glaciologist and is hiding from her abusive ex-husband, Freddie, on South Georgia Island in Antarctica. Bolton's description of South Georgia Island makes you feel like you are there in all the ice cold temperatures.
While back at home in Cambridge for a break, she meets Joe Grant, a psychologist, who delves into her background in order to help her cope with her fears. On a daily basis, she feels someone is watching her. She needs to get back to South Georgia Island in order to feel safe. Is that person Freddie or is someone else out to do her harm? When she gets back to the island, the story takes off at breakneck speed. There are plenty of twists and turns that I never saw coming. I am sure that this book will be one of my favorite reads for 2020! I would highly recommend to those who love psychological thrillers! I would also like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC for an honest review.

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Be still my heart. I just finished one of the best book I've read this year. It was an astonishing, heart stopping, multi-faceted thriller set in one of the most remote, fascinating place in the world; the Antarctic.

Be prepared to do nothing else as you read this amazing adventure of a young girl and her psychologist unfold the secrets of her past and explore this stunning, breath-taking bottom of the planet.

Sharon Bolton is a virtuoso.

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I've long been a fan of Sharon Bolton's Lacey Flint series and of her standalone thrillers, so I was really looking forward to reading The Split. As it turned out, the experience was a mixed blessing.

I loved both settings-- the Antarctic South Georgia Island where the seal colonies are so loud that some residents are reduced to wearing earplugs, and of the English university town of Cambridge. I wish that there could've been more written about South Georgia, but as a character, Felicity has so much emotional and mental baggage that most of the action takes place in Cambridge.

Toward the end of the book, the revelations come thick and fast, but I never felt off-balance. Maybe that's due to my a-bit-more-than-rudimentary knowledge of psychology and my reaction to Felicity. I really felt for this damaged main character and everything she'd been through but-- perhaps because of her history-- I always felt kept at a distance and never became fully invested in her as a character. I didn't warm up to the others either, except for one: Joe's mother, Delilah. I wouldn't mind seeing Delilah again. She's the type of woman with lots of attitude who would have plenty to say.

The Split is good, solid storytelling that failed in capturing my complete attention, but your mileage may certainly vary.

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