The Split: The most gripping, twisty thriller of the year (A Richard & Judy Book Club pick) Paperback – October 22, 2020

Another super suspenseful thriller from Sharon Bolton! And this one is set in the icy wilds of South Georgia, an island in the Southern Atlantic. However, first we meet a number of important characters in Cambridge where this tale begins:Felicity Lloyd is a glaciologist, working for the British Antartic Survey carrying out research on the annual melting of the glaciers. Before she left Cambridge for South Georgia, she was convinced someone was stalking her and coming to kill her. Now she feels safe, hidden in South Georgia where only a few organised tourist boats are allowed to stop for a short time.Joe Grant is a psychologist called in to see Felicity in hospital after she was found bleeding and distressed outside at night with no memory of what happened to her. She agrees to meet with Joe for a few consultations before she goes to South Georgia. He is a compassionate man who also runs a free clinic for the homeless, even though he was recently attacked by one of his patients.Delilah Jones is Joe's mother and a Detective Inspector. She's been looking into the death of a young homeless woman, Bella Barnes and the disappearance of another, Ezzy Sheeran. The local homeless sleeping on the streets are uneasy and worried about someone called Shane who likes to watch them while they sleep.Freddie is a man with a past. He's been in prison and he's looking for Felicity.Felicity's past will eventually catch up with her when characters all meet up before the end of the novel in an explosive race for survival. The setting of South Georgia is magnificent with its towering and dangerous glaciers. The characters are complex and fully formed and the plot is as full of surprising twists as you would hope, with an unpredictable ending. Clever, intense and suspenseful, Bolton has given us another addictive thriller that begs us to read just one more chapter.

Ms. Bolton writes an exciting, nail-biting yarn about a beautiful, athletic young scientist who intentionally joins an obscure project in one of the most remote regions of the earth in order to escape someone she fears in a visceral way. The reader is initially bewildered by the dearth of facts surrounding the young woman's past, yet inundated by her desperation to escape. Flashbacks begin to offer some clues, but only as the protagonists morph through their own anxieties does it become evident who is the narrator. In the end, the plot twists in a spectacular fashion, and eventually the narrative binds itself together.This is truly a psychological thriller. The sophisticated reader who is familiar with the classical treatise (Hervey M Cleckley and Corbett Thigpen, 1956) about the fascinating disorder described in Bolton's novel will have solved the puzzle easily; but following the flashes of consciousness presented by the author requires some concentration. It's worth the effort, and the action sequences are great. I recommend this novel as a good read.

As a psychologist, it really bothered me that the psychologist character had no boundaries. He broke ethical codes and got romantically involved with the main character. The mystery itself was a good suspenseful story with many twists and turns. I enjoyed the book, but had trouble the psychologist's ethics.

The Split“No matter how far you run, some secrets will always catch up with you...”I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down. Even though I sort of figured out what her diagnosis was, I was still intrigued.The story follows the main character, Felicity, who loves to work with glaciers and learn the patterns of the ice breaking and it’s effect on life. Felicity is convinced has a stalker, named Freddie, who she also comes to believe is her husband. Felicity can’t remember gaps of her life and she is constantly hearing voices. She suffered a crazy trauma in childhood and it’s affecting her as an adult.She meets Joe, a therapist, who begins to help her discover her diagnosis. He has enemies and skeletons of his own. He helps the homeless and two girls he had tried to help have been murdered and missing.The story changes from the present, to the past and back to the present. It has seamless transitions and was written incredibly well. This was my first Sharon Bolton book and NOT MY LAST!

An excellent read set in South Georgia in the Antartic and Cambridge, England, featuring a young doctor who's on the run from her ex-husband and the psychiatrist who's trying to help her. His policewoman mother wants to arrest her for murder.The scenery in the Antarctic is chilling (I can't believe people go there for sightseeing!). I couldn't get the plight of the poor whales out of my head, it was chilling how they suffered. But it's an excellent psychological thriller.

This was a real page turner. I thought I knew where it was going but then I would question everything until I got to the end of the book.I normally don't read psych thrillers but this one kept my attention the whole way though and makes me want to read more from this author.Highly recommend.

I think this is a really good story. As do 99% of readers, we learn an important piece of information early on in the story. The remainder of the story is figuring out who did what, an all of that we get to wait until very near the ending to find out! Things get most tense toward the ending as well. Not my very favorite Bolton read, but still much better than many other books. Enjoy reading!