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confessions_of_a_bookaholic 's review for:
The Buried
by Sharon Bolton
When four skeletons are found at the site of an old children's home in Sabden, Florence Lovelady's first instinct is that they are old bones, from before her and her colleagues closed the home down thirty years ago. Something seems amiss though, and reluctantly she ends up back in Sabden, trying to honour a promise she made to dying killer Larry Glassbrook, the man she helped put away for murder early in her career. Larry's daughter Cassie is also heading back to Sabden, hoping to reunite with her childhood sweetheart. What both of the women are forgetting is how rotten Sabden is at it's core.
This is the second book in the Craftsman series, the first of which I read just over two years ago. I thought I could remember enough about the previous book not to need a re-read, but I finished this with questions and ended up going back to refresh myself and fill in some gaps before writing my review. I think this is a series where it's well worth re-reading the first one before diving in to this.
Despite that I found myself immersed in this very quickly. As with the first book we're told a story split across two timelines, one set in 1969 and one thirty years later (the present day for the book). both timelines follow on directly from their counterparts in the first book, which is why being familiar with the previous story is beneficial. Yet again there's a strong current of something wrong with Sabden, it's a town that truly is rotten at its core.
I loved how Bolton again leans in to the history and folklore of the Pendle witches and the Pendle Hill area of Lancashire. There is a supernatural element to this story, but it's written in such a way as to be within the confines of beliefs and practices of people in our world, rather than pushing into the realms of fantasy. I've always had an interest in the occult, and although the scientist in me says that witchcraft can't possibly be real, there's another part of me that recognises there are some things that science can't explain.
I found myself with some similar takeaways from this book as I did in the first - there is definitely a focus on the strength of women, particularly when banded together. It's not quite so clear cut as the women are good and men are evil, there is a lot more going on here.
I had a bit of a different take on Flossie in this book than the last one though. Whilst previously I found her someone I looked up to, and appreciated that she was very good at what she did and ruffled feathers because of this, in this book I was less sure of her. Her mental health plays a bigger role in this book, and at times I questioned both her reliability as a narrator and also her methods.
I very much enjoyed reading this, chilling as it was. It's a brilliant follow on from The Craftsman, and whilst I thought that this does answer a lot of questions and bring things to a reasonable close, I think there is also a small window for Bolton to return to this series again for a third novel. Only time will tell which route she chooses.
This is the second book in the Craftsman series, the first of which I read just over two years ago. I thought I could remember enough about the previous book not to need a re-read, but I finished this with questions and ended up going back to refresh myself and fill in some gaps before writing my review. I think this is a series where it's well worth re-reading the first one before diving in to this.
Despite that I found myself immersed in this very quickly. As with the first book we're told a story split across two timelines, one set in 1969 and one thirty years later (the present day for the book). both timelines follow on directly from their counterparts in the first book, which is why being familiar with the previous story is beneficial. Yet again there's a strong current of something wrong with Sabden, it's a town that truly is rotten at its core.
I loved how Bolton again leans in to the history and folklore of the Pendle witches and the Pendle Hill area of Lancashire. There is a supernatural element to this story, but it's written in such a way as to be within the confines of beliefs and practices of people in our world, rather than pushing into the realms of fantasy. I've always had an interest in the occult, and although the scientist in me says that witchcraft can't possibly be real, there's another part of me that recognises there are some things that science can't explain.
I found myself with some similar takeaways from this book as I did in the first - there is definitely a focus on the strength of women, particularly when banded together. It's not quite so clear cut as the women are good and men are evil, there is a lot more going on here.
I had a bit of a different take on Flossie in this book than the last one though. Whilst previously I found her someone I looked up to, and appreciated that she was very good at what she did and ruffled feathers because of this, in this book I was less sure of her. Her mental health plays a bigger role in this book, and at times I questioned both her reliability as a narrator and also her methods.
I very much enjoyed reading this, chilling as it was. It's a brilliant follow on from The Craftsman, and whilst I thought that this does answer a lot of questions and bring things to a reasonable close, I think there is also a small window for Bolton to return to this series again for a third novel. Only time will tell which route she chooses.