Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A taut psychological thriller. The Split is mainly set in South Georgia, a small, isolated island in the Atlantic Ocean where Felicity has gone away to work and hide from her ex. A definite page-turner that will keep the reader hooked till the very end.

Recommended.

Most, if not all, of the Sharon Bolton books that I’ve read and enjoyed have been very much in the vein of procedurals. However, this book is far more of a psychological mystery, even though two of the main characters adopt a very systematic approach to investigating the mystery surrounding one of them. Felicity Lloyd is a glaciologist based on the remote island of South Georgia for a two-year study, and living with the fear that the man she believes to be her estranged husband, Freddie, will track her down there and arrive on one of the cruise ships that regularly call at the island. As the last ship of the season approaches, we learn that it is carrying not just Freddie but also two other people with clues to Felicity’s past.

Joe is a psychiatrist, someone whom Felicity sees professionally as part of the assessment process for her current post. While working in Cambridge, she suffered a number of episodes in which she acted out of character and subsequently had no direct recollection of the events. Meanwhile, Joe’s mother, an unconventional Detective Inspector on the local CID, is investigating a series of deaths and disappearances among the local homeless people that Joe works with on a voluntary basis. Joe is troubled by memories of two female patients whom he allowed to get too close to him, and worries that the same course of events will happen with Felicity. In order to understand her better, he investigates her past in his own time and discovers a number of worrying secrets that Felicity has buried deep within her subconscious. By the time Joe manages to put the pieces together and reach a diagnosis, Felicity is already in the South Atlantic and has become a person of interest in Joe’s mother’s investigation.

Joe and his mother set off to find Felicity and potentially save her from herself, but Felicity learns that Freddie is coming to find her also and puts her prearranged escape plan into action. The various characters find themselves battling the weather, the environment, and their own inner turmoils, and it seems at times that not all of them can possibly survive.

I liked this book a lot. I was particularly fascinated by some of the characters that don’t fit easily into the main narrative, such as Bamber, who watches over Felicity and is prepared to kill to protect her. I also liked the slightly quirky locals and the factors relating to life on a series of desolate islands that have shaped them and their attitudes. I now want to go back and read Bolton’s previous unrelated book about the same part of the world.

New author for me and I will definitely check out more of this author's work in the future.
So, for the most part, I found this enjoyable with lots of twists and turns.
The story is told from multiple POV’s and it’s one of those that definitely becomes clearer the further you read.
This starts off feeling fairly transparent but the further you get the more you realize there’s more here than originally meets the eye.
The story revolves around Felicity starting in present-day where she is running scared from a mysterious past and then moving backwards where we learn how we arrived at this present point in time.
This for me did start fairly slowly and the second part of this I found to be much better and faster-paced than the first.
I also managed to guess fairly easily what was occurring.
I still thought this was well written and engaging it just took me a while to become invested.
On reflection, I would recommend this and it had many more positives than negatives and overall it was an intriguing read.
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of The Split

I really enjoyed this fast paced, complex thriller. It kept me engaged all the way through and although in places I tried to guess what was coming, I didn't always get it right! The story was based primarily on remote islands and that made a nice change of scenery for a storyline. There was lots of factors incorporated into the story which added to its complexity.

I would definitely recommend this and it is worthy of the 5 stars.

Thank you Orion Publishing and Netgalley.

DNF this book as could not get into the book and found it hard to follorw
Apologies but this book was not for me

**THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW**

I kept waiting for the twist - beyond the one that was glaringly obvious almost from the start - but it never came. It really was just the obvious thing. I also thought it was an odd choice to name the book "The Split" when there is a film of the same name which refers to the same plot device, ie the character's multiple personalities - it led me directly to that conclusion from the beginning when it's supposed to be a big reveal.

I've liked other of this author's books, but this one wasn't for me. I trudged through the first half, and only got through the second half so quickly because I wanted to finish and be done with it. I will still read this author's future books, but this one was disappointing for me - though others have loved it, so I'm definitely in the minority here!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley who provided me with a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads Description

Two years ago Felicity desperately signed up for an extended research trip working on the remote island of South Georgia. It was her only way to escape. And now he's coming for her. Freddie Lloyd has just got out of prison for murder and is on his way to where Felicity is hiding. And this time, he won't stop until he finds her. Because no matter how far you run, some secrets will always catch up with you...

Things that I liked:

• Sharon Bolton always seems to write in a more “intelligent” way, and I often feel that her thrillers are aimed at people who enjoy a more advanced and detailed type of thriller, ones that are often set in landscapes that the reader is unlikely to be familiar with, where the scenes are very atmospheric.
• It’s obvious that a lot of research went into this book, and the author does a great job of lifting the reader up off their couch and whisking them away to the magnificent Antarctic and specifically, the remote island of South Georgia
• There were a number of really good twists in this story, and I have a suspicion that a number of people are going to love the twists.
• The characters were very well formed and they felt very real.
• It’s a gripping and pacey read, and I especially enjoyed Part 2. The last part of the story is also excellent, and nature lovers will love the way that the story culminates, taking the reader back to the Antarctic where a cat-and-mouse chase takes place along the glaciers.


Things that I wasn’t so keen on:

• I sometimes find that the problem with thrillers set in foreign locations that are extremely unfamiliar to most readers is that it becomes difficult to get to grips with the location and the setting, thereby making it difficult to 100% bond with the story. In this book, Part 1 and Part 3 are set in the Antarctic but Part 2 (which is the longest part of the book) is set in more familiar surroundings, namely the UK. Personally, I found Part 2 the most enjoyable part and it’s the part of the story where the plot really starts to develop and thicken.
• Being a more intelligent thriller meant that I did need to concentrate during this read. Thus I wouldn’t describe this one as an easy-going-beach-read, but better suited for an evening on the couch when the family is out and you have complete peace and quiet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not overly complicated, but it is the type of read that has a number of different characters and you do need to keep up so that you don’t miss anything.
• Unfortunately, none of the twists caught me off guard and I did see them coming. The one twist was also a twist that I’ve seen before in other thrillers and so it wasn’t very surprising. Having said that, I’m sure that a number of people will still be entertained by the twists.

In conclusion then, this was a great, intelligent thriller that I really enjoyed. Sharon Bolton is the type of author who never disappoints and I’ll continue to read whatever she comes out with next.

DNF @ 30% - I kept pushing through with this book because I’ve enjoyed some of her other works but I just had to give up.

The writing is so disjointed and it’s so hard to follow what the actual plot is. We have so many different POV’s and different time lines and all three different plot threads and my brain was just scrambled. I just couldn’t keep up with what was going on, but I also wasn’t invested in the characters at all. The therapist Joe seems really inappropriate; going to Felicity’s house when she doesn’t turn up for an appointment? That doesn’t seem like normal behaviour...

Sadly not one for me but it might work for you!!

I enjoyed this book, it seemed to take the long way around and the pace seemed too slow and dragged at times for me in the beginning but I think this was the author’s setting everything up. I found myself getting aggravated with Felicity at times too. The book flitted from South Georgia to Cambridge There are the usual twists and turns and the further I read into the book the better it got. A scorcher of a finish.

This was a bit different as it was set in the Antarctic with lots of penguins, so a very remote place which would be just right for hiding from your past. A bit of a twist to this towards the end that I did not see coming but it really gave the book a nice feel instead of a thriller. I enjoyed this and read it quickly as it pulls you into the next part all the time. Is she dreaming this or is it real? You are never too sure if what you are reading is correct. Very well written and I loved it.

I'm stunned, I'm sitting here mouth wide open in an O, at just how this book concluded. The whole last quarter has just flown past in an unputdownable, and completely unpredictable conclusion.

There is so much to unravel with regards the plot and yet I can't really comment on it all as it is so tightly weaved and plotted, that I don't want to inadvertently give spoilers.

Ok I said unpredictable, the only thing I did have an inkling of ahead of the characters, was what a mental health condition was likely to be diagnosed as, but even then I hadn't put the whys, or understanding in place. So when the therapist comes to their conclusion and the full extent is unravelled there are more shocks along the way.

What drew me towards the book was the setting of South Georgia, it is so remote, so cold, and clearly with its glaciers and ends of the earth feeling, a fabulous place to set a psychological thriller. I loved the descriptions of the remoteness and rugged terrain.

This setting of South Georgia is like a character in itself, it is so key to various plot aspects, and I don't think you could have set it anywhere else.

This is a gritty book, with plenty to keep you guessing, and as it ramps up, it becomes trickier and trickier to tear yourself away from. Such a clever title too, and that cover is so apt, its the perfect package for this incredible story.

Thank you to Trapeze on Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Wow! Wow! Wow! This is the most tense book I have read in a long time!!

If you are looking for a psychological thriller that will get your heart racing and your brain working overtime then this is for you. It is very well written and researched, with a great cast of characters and a unique and original plot.

Very highly recommended!

This was a very interesting story. Not only was it a murder/mystery but also had information about dissociative state and split personalities. It is always a bonus to get a good story and learn something new in the process. Well described storyline with excellent characters and lots of twists and turns. A really compelling story.

Amnesia! Antarctica! Stalkers! Secretsssss!

This book is, to put it bluntly, utterly batshit. As I was reading I sent my friend regular WhatsApp updates with each new, bizarre plot development, just to make sure it was actually real and I wasn't losing it. When I check back in my reading diary, I see I've already read three books by this author, and for each I wrote a variation of 'very silly, but fun', and that's true for this one too.

I only picked it up because it said it was set in Antarctica, and as I'm currently writing a novel set in the Arctic I'm reading lots of polar novels. But if that's also what's interesting to you, just a heads-up that only about 1/3 of the book is set in Antarctica, and the rest is a long flashback set in Cambridge. The author has clearly done her research into Antarctica, and I enjoyed those bits though they sometimes felt like info-dumps that had been copy-pasted in.

If you're looking for a fun, nonsensical read and don't mind less-than-positive depictions of mental health and descriptions of sexual abuse, then go for it.

(Also just an aside: the scene of the police officer threatening to arrest a group of rowdy boys for a hate crime because “Welsh is a race” is meant to be a cute, fun moment, but felt cringey in the wake of the police protests and is really not going to age well.)

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Trapeze Books Orion Publishing for a review copy of this book which is now available to purchase.

Felicity is based on a remote island near the Falklands, studying glaciers. We join her when she is very concerned about a cruise ship arriving, the last of the season before the islands are left to the scientists. She is desperate to check the passenger list to see if her husband, Freddie, has found her. She has taken this job in an attempt to get as far away from him as possible and in the hope he will not track her down following his release from prison for murder. Unfortunately she sees his name on the passenger list and makes her escape to a remote and unoccupied island which was once a whaling station, leaving false clues that she has gone to another island. Freddie sneaks into her bedroom and finds the clues but realises they are trying to lead him away from her actual destination and then sets out to find her.

Then we are taken back in time by 9 months to Felicity living in Cambridge. She is having issues with her mental health, losing hours at a time where she has no recollection of where she has been or what she has done. She finds items in her home she thinks have been moved and feels someone has been watching her.

She makes an appointment to see Joe, a very pleasant psychologist who has his own issues. He is recently back to work following a stressful incident in his life involving a murder of a homeless girl. Felicity needs a clean bill of health in order to take up a new job studying glaciers in a remote part of the world and needs to sort out her issues. Can Joe help her in the few weeks she has and issue that letter she desperately needs confirming her mental state is solid enough to endure this remote work?

Joe’s mum is a great character; she is a police officer with pink hair and a good appetite who is involved in the murder case. She is a good support for Joe and they work together on the case.

As we get to know the characters, more and more details emerge of what has brought them to this point in their lives.

A very well written book I was on the edge of my seat at the end. The author must have done some serious homework on glaciers as we are given a fantastic amount of detail on how they are made up, how they move and how very dangerous they are. A race up a glacier towards the end, without giving away any spoilers, is breathtaking.

I have more books by this author which I am looking forward to reading now. This is the first of hers I have read.

The Split is a clever combination of psychological thriller and serial killer investigation, centering around protagonist Felicity. At the beginning of the book we witness her on the island of South Georgia, where she is working, trying to elude an unwanted visitor who is arriving on a tourist boat onto the island. Why is she so worried, and what is ‘he’ coming to do?

We’re then taken back in time to the lead up of events, when Felicity starts seeing a therapist Joe in the hopes that he will sign her off to go to work in South Georgia – she sees this as a fresh start. From then on the pace is either mixture of frantic and tense, or – at other times – eerily calm but atmospheric; it often seems like someone is messing with Felicity to make her feel uneasy and unsettled. We are also very much in the dark about her supposed husband, who she is aware of only because of photographs but has no memory of, and her family history which seems to be more and more shocking as more is revealed.

We’re let into not only Felicity’s thoughts but those of various other characters, including Shane, Barber, Joe, and Freddie, and I really liked the multiple viewpoints.

Sharon Bolton effectively presents Felicity as a character who may be unreliable, but who we’re rooting for anyway. She herself can’t remember huge chunks of time, so we wonder what happened within that time frame, but she is likable and interesting to read about so we want her to be OK. This definitely adds some extra intrigue and mystery to the story.

I enjoyed the simulatenous narrative showing the investigation into what appears to be a serial killer in Cambridge, and the way this may or may not link to Felicity, and the part of Joe – who is the son of one of Delilah, one of the police officers, and is also Felicity’s therapist. He’s an interesting character as his ethics certainly seem to take a hit the more we find out about him, but he’s still very well-meaning. I don’t know if he’d actually have been able to get as involved into the investigation as he did with his mum Delilah, who works for the police, but this allows Joe’s character to combine his psychological knowledge with his mum’s rather unique but useful detective skills!

I also really enjoyed the multiple time frames, which allows the reader insight into what will happen before taken them back to figure out why it all happened, and how it will end. The journey to figuring everything out is very entertaining, with lots of surprises and twists along the way. I didn’t guess at the ending and I felt like it was satisfying and enjoyable.

The Split takes us to South Georgia, a remote and inhospitable island in the southern Atlantic Ocean where twenty-eight-year-old Felicity Lloyd is working as a glaciologist for the British Antarctic Survey. It’s fascinating work and Felicity knows she has been given a wonderful opportunity, but she also has another reason for accepting the job – a chance to put as much distance as possible between herself and Freddie, a man from her past of whom she is still afraid. However, it seems that even here, on the other side of the world, she has been unable to escape. Freddie is coming for her, on the last tourist boat of the summer, and has sent her a letter that fills her with fear:

My dearest Felicity,
Finally, I’ve found you. South Georgia? Wow! Know, my darling, that there is nowhere you can go that I won’t follow –

Who exactly is Freddie and what does he want with Felicity? We find out later in the book, but first we have to go back nine months in time to Cambridge where a series of murders has been committed. Felicity’s connection, if any, with these murders is unclear; all we do know is that she is still haunted by some previous traumatic experiences and has been attending sessions with a therapist. Eventually everything will be revealed, but before we get to that point there are plenty of the twists and turns that are to be expected from a Sharon Bolton novel.

When I first started to read this book it was the South Georgia setting that initially appealed to me, but although we are given some beautiful descriptions of the landscape and the cold, harsh environment, I found I wasn’t being drawn into the story as much as I would have liked. The details of whaling operations and Felicity’s research into glaciers didn’t really interest me – and being thrown straight into the middle of the story with no idea of who anybody was or what was happening didn’t help, even though I understood the reasons for that structure. It wasn’t until the action switched to Cambridge and the backgrounds of Felicity and the other characters began to be explored that I was able to settle into the novel and enjoy it.

I can’t really tell you much about the Cambridge section of the book as it would be too difficult to avoid spoilers, but it quickly becomes clear that we can’t rely on everything Felicity tells us because she has been left so badly scarred by her past experiences. Joe, her therapist, who is one of the other main characters whose perspective we see, has suffered his own recent traumas and it’s obvious that there is also more going on in his life than we are aware of at first. The truth about these two characters – and others, including Bamber, a wild and angry young woman who is very protective of Felicity, and Sean, a mysterious figure who stalks the streets of Cambridge at night – unfolds slowly, with everything coming together when we return to South Georgia in the dramatic final third of the novel. However, I found most of the twists quite easy to guess, which is unusual for a Sharon Bolton book and a bit disappointing.

This hasn’t become one of my favourites, then, but I did enjoy it after a slow start.

THE SPLIT is a psychological thriller by Sharon J. Bolton. This setting for this novel is based in Cambridge, England, and the remote Antarctic island of South Georgia.

Felicity Lloyd, (Flick) world expert glaciologist and professional diver, twenty-eight years old, is set to sail to the remote island of South Georgia in the Antarctic Circle, where she will spend two years studying the formation and movement of glaciers. Her and her partner, Jack both work for the BAS (British Antarctic Survey).

But Felicity lives in constant fear of Freddie…her ex-husband, who has just got out of prison. She knows he won’t give up until he finds her.

No place to hide or run…

This is why two years ago Felicity Lloyd desperately signed up for an extended research trip working on the remote island of South Georgia.

She had to escape…but now he was out…and coming for her.

Because no matter how far you run, some secrets will always catch up with you...

The novel is broken down into 4 parts. In part 1 we follow Felicity working as a glaciologist with a small research team on the South Georgia Islands between Falklands and Antarctic. In part 2 and 3 the novel jumps back in time and we learn about Felicity’s past and get introduced to Dr Joe Grant, a therapist assigned to Felicity after she was found beaten on a street in Cambridge. The doctor is asked to evaluate Felicity as she can’t remember the attack. In the final part 4 everything comes to a climax with Freddie out to find Felicity.

This thriller novel is about a woman on the run, with secrets from her past that she tries to keep under lock and key. A battle for survival within the elements.

Many thanks to the author, Trapeze and NetGalley for my digital copy.

This is certainly a creepy read told from several different viewpoints and set in very contrasting locations.
Felicity Lloyd is a scientist working in the Antarctic studying glaciers and at the beginning of the book the reader is thrust into that landscape seeing the world through Felicity’s eyes. She is working in South Georgia but terrified that someone is coming after her so she constantly checks the passenger lists of the ships that occasionally dock at the remote island. We then meet Freddie who is trying to get to the island and find Felicity. Why is she so scared of him and why is he so desperate to find her?
Then we flash back in time to Cambridge and we meet psychiatrist Joe, who is treating Felicity for a mental disorder. Gradually Felicity’s problems are revealed but is she right to be scared or is everything in her own mind? Joe’s mother is a hard boiled policewoman who is investigating the murder of Bella, a rough sleeper as well as helping Joe who has recently suffered a traumatic attack. Joe seems slightly damaged but compassionate in his desire to help the rough sleepers of Cambridge.
This was a really twisty tale and I didn’t know what to think of Felicity for the vast majority of the book. Was someone really chasing her or was she just imagining it all ?
Sharon Bolton uses the different narrators to build the tension in the book and this is a great technique.
Joe was a likeable character and I really loved his relationship with his police officer mother, Delilah, who is as tough as old boots and always has Joe’s best interests at heart.
I won’t reveal any more about the plot but suffice it to say this is an excellent psychological thriller which will keep you entertained from page one! Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (plenty of other reviews like that out there).

Hmm. I'm in two minds about this one. The plot and settings are interesting, and it's well written and atmospheric - indeed actually creepy in places (I was reading it downstairs on my own in the early hours and didn't feel comfortable moving out of the room at one point!) Although I read a lot of thrillers, not many actually spook me - this one did... so beware if you are on the nervy side.

However I figured out the main thrust of the plot very early on - though the final twist wasn't so obvious, which was good.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.