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.

Sharon Bolton is a terrific writer. I read The Craftsman last year and thoroughly enjoyed the book.

The Split has a different feel to it. It’s a stand-alone psychological thriller about a woman with memory loss on the run. Felicity Lloyd is a glaciologist and joins a team on St. George’s Island in the Antarctic. She has traveled as far away as possible to keep away from her ex-husband, Freddie, recently released from prison. Meanwhile her therapist from back home has decided to follow her to St. George’s Island.

I enjoyed the setting for The Split, but couldn’t connect to this book and it’s characters like I did with The Craftsman. Many Goodreads friends, however, gave this thriller very high marks. I would recommend reading these reviews.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Many thanks goes to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of THE SPLIT in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date - April 28, 2020

Review posted to a Goodreads on April 24, 2020

The Split, by Sharon Bolton, was an absolutely crazy story, unlike any other that I’ve previously read. We are basically dropped straight into the narrative without any preamble and are compelled to do our best to make heads or tails of the circumstances we find ourselves in. There is very little explanation, character development or context supplied. Despite this, you can immediately sense the tension in the story and are quickly caught up in its escalating intensity. I will say that part of the first section includes some information about the Antarctica region, and it was a bit distracting and slowed the pace a notch, but I understand why it was included.

The story then suddenly shifts time frames to nine months prior and to a different continent, moving us from the frigid islands just north of Antarctica to England. In this section we receive the backstory to the opening scene. At this point the story feels like a bit of a mess as it’s all over the place with inexplicable characters and circumstances that hop from one to the next, and their actions and situations make little sense. Nevertheless, I was riveted to the plot in order to make sense of what I was reading and found it hard to put the novel down.

Once again the author leap frogs forward in time, and takes us back to the frozen wintery glaciers of the South Georgia Islands and we catch up with the current time frame. Bit by bit, things begin to make sense. Pieces of the puzzle are slowly put into place and all the confusion gives way to clarity. And even if the reader was able to deduce some of the plot twist, there are layers upon layers beneath it.

Ultimately, The Split was really quite brilliant, not only as a story, but in the way the story is put together. I think it best to not share a great deal of the plot summary, because it’s a book that is much more enticing and enjoyable when discovered on your own. But all-in-all, this story was exhilarating! It was a captivating, rather mind-boggling, and a fast-paced puzzler of a thriller. The pay off was so worth the confusion in the beginning. The Split is a definite must read.

(There are some triggers in this book, so enter with caution)

This was a wonderful psychological thriller! I also learned some about glaciers and the Antarctic while reading. I don’t want to spoil anyone, but it seemed to me that the author made two reveals very dramatic, as if they were meant to be twists. But to me, those were obvious plot points that I thought were made clear much earlier in the novel. So that felt anticlimactic and overly drawn out. But still I enjoyed the novel and will read it again.

I'm sorry to say that I found this latest book...a bit meh. I've been reading and enjoying Sharon Bolton since her first books--remember Sacrifice, Awakening, and Blood Harvest, those horror books that began her career? Then I enjoyed the Lacey Flint series. I especially liked her stand-alone Little Black Lies.

The Split, however, was a disappointment. After checking Goodreads, I realize that I'm one of the few who felt let down by this one.

And so it goes, as Billy Pilgrim frequently stated. It didn't work for me, but others loved it.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press
Psychological. April 28, 2020. Print length: 400 pages.

Talk about a wild ride. This book delivers! Cannot wait to recommend it for book clubs and library patrons!

This one had a fantastic setting and was pretty creepy all at once!

Felicity is on the run. She’s doing her dream job in a remote location in the Southern Georgia isles but she’s always waiting for her ex husbands to show up and ruin her life again. Now that he’s out of prison after serving a sentence for murder she knows he won’t give up until he finds her. But someone else is also looking for her, a doctor who worked with her while she was in England. He know knows Felicity is on the edge and he has to find her.

The setting of the south Georgian islands was probably one of my favourite parts of this story! It’s eerie what a deserted land of ice can do for a thriller. A game of cat and mouse in a setting with glaciers and abandoned houses? Yes please.

The story itself goes through a different perspectives over different time periods! So lots to follow and lots to keep me hooked. While the mystery itself remained harder to figure out, it all interlocks quite nicely! We managed to avoid some troupes I was worried would surface in stories like this so I was happy about that as well.

The Split is an outstanding psychological thriller that is throbbing with suspense and suspicion. A past that is slowly uncloaked, revealing dark and horrific crimes that are haunting and driving alarming consequences in the present.

“Felicity crawls into the cupboard and wraps the duvet around her as she settles herself into the corner. She balances the pillow against the wall and goes to sleep. And finally, like the last trace of a dream, she remembers what the voice in her ear said to her: He’s coming.”

The story starts on the island of South Georgia close to Antarctica and home to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in the region. Felicity Lloyd is a world expert glaciologist on a two-year project on South Georgia to study the formation and movement of glaciers. Towards the end of her first summer, she gets more and more agitated as she anticipates the last tourist ship to dock before the Island goes into winter shut down. Felicity’s unrest is almost palpable as she waits to see the passenger manifest and if Freddie has finally tracked her down to this remote part of the world. She has an escape plan prepared and when she finally sees Freddie she flees on a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) to another small island. Only, Freddie saw her too and he is in pursuit.

I loved the location choices which worked so well in the story and the landscape of such a desolate island adds to the foreboding and chilling atmosphere of the story. The ghosts of thousands of workers from a time when South Georgia hosted a massive whaling operation, now echo in deserted settlements and half-sunken ships. The wind whistles through the rusted frames of buildings long passed their usefulness. Remaining for when the whales would return, but they never did. An eerie place that threatens unsafe dangers and now the added menace of a man that has tracked Felicity to the far ends of the Earth.

The next part of the story reverts back to Cambridge, England, nine months before Felicity takes up the position in South Georgia and she needs a clean bill of health and mental assessment from her doctor and her physiatrist. Dr Joe Grant is Felicity’s physiatrist but has just returned to work following the death of a patient who was obsessed with him. Joe genuinely wants to help Felicity as he can see personality disorders but she just wants to get clearance as easy as possible so she can getaway. Does she have a personality disorder, is she being drugged or is someone playing games with her mind. Meanwhile more disappearances occur and strange alarming situations develop, all handled brilliantly by Sharon Bolton. The plotting is superb as the layers of complexity and supposition mount to provide an enthralling and captivating story. The momentum of the novel is perfectly pitched and builds to a climactic conclusion.

It is also worth recognising the wonderful writing from Sharon Bolton, as she crafts such vivid images and psychological turmoil. I would highly recommend this book and I would like to thank Orion Publishing, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy in return for an honest review.
Of interest, Grytviken on South Georgia is where you find the grave of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Felicity Lloyd is one of the main characters in this book and she is the one that draws you in and keeps you going along for the ride of twists and turns of her life and how the past and present somehow meet up and explode. There is plenty of suspense and twists and turns throughout this story that had me scratching my head going huh?!?!? as well as Hmmm, maybe it is this. I am going to definitely check out other books by this author. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur books!

i was given this book from netgalley and publisher for honest opinion and review.

Felicity is hiding and running away from Freddie, a man that she only remembers from memory. she is located now on an area that is only accessible by ferry in the summer. the book is in four different parts of time told by different perspectives. with the different characters, i felt like there was way too much going on and too many characters. it was an ok read, didn't pick up till the end for me but i feel like it was because there were to many characters for me to keep track of.

Sharon Bolton does it AGAIN! You think you know what's going on in the Split, but truthfully you don't. This book is a heart pounder, a could-not-put-downer, a page-turner, whatever have you this book is a must-read. I wish I could say more but doing so would ruin it for you, just trust me this once and pick this book up! asap.

Thank you, NetGalley, for my eARC.

Felicity is on the run from Freddie. She takes on a project in South Georgia, a remote, harsh, sparsely-populated setting, accessible only in the summer and only by ferry. Hiding from a man she is terrified of, but doesn't clearly remember except for glimpses, flashes of memory, and...scars. Bruises easily explained away by her line of work as a glaciologist.

Set in Cambridge and South Georgia, the book is divided into four parts depicting shifts in time. Short chapters are told from the perspectives of Felicity, Joe(her psychiatrist), Freddie, and Shane(a significant character).

Although this book had its moments, I felt the plot to be slow-paced and scattered. Too much going on and too many characters to keep track of. It does redeem itself somewhat towards the end when it picks up speed and adds a twist. I had heard good things about The Craftsman so I was very excited when I was approved for this title. But, overall, it fell flat for me.

Glaciologist Felicity Lloyd is a woman living on the edge. She's running from a past that includes an abusive ex-husband and shards of memory lost to her. Nightmares haunt her, voices taunt her, and her ex-husband is coming for her. Felicity has run as far as she can - to the remote Antarctic island of South Georgia. On one hand, she's living her dream as a member of a research team studying glaciers. On the other hand, she lives in fear of her ex and her secrets - especially the ones she herself doesn't understand. When the story begins, we're with Felicity in present time on the beautiful but deadly island of South Georgia. Bolton exploits the deadly, icy, isolated setting as a unique character, driving the danger and suspense to a volatile level that emits a creepy vibe of impending doom. The last boat of the season is docking. If Felicity's ex isn't on it, she's free . . . and if he is, she's prepared to run. But where? Stakes are raised even more and tensions drawn tauter when the middle chapters of The Split revert back nine months in time serving to begin filling in the missing links of Felicity's past. In doing so, several seemingly unrelated plot lines come into play - a serial killer of homeless people, domestic abuse, mental illness. But in her brilliance, Bolton manipulates these plot lines and characters (and readers) until finally . . . finally, she returns to present time for the explosive epic scene that weaves it all together in the end.

The Split is a smartly written, highly atmospheric story that kept me slightly off-balance throughout as my brain worked overtime trying to solve the mystery. I figured out one important element by midway, but that in no way decreased the intense, compelling need I had to finish this book. The tone is dark, edgy, high in creep value and often driven by the deadly setting that steals your breath in more ways than one. Bolton's ability to create unique, dark, secretive characters toting a load of baggage has never been more evident. I'm purposely not mentioning specifics about these characters because their introduction and purpose in the story need to be discovered by readers who go into this story blind. Twisted, cunning, unsettling, The Split is intense suspense at its best! Fans of mystery, suspense, and psychological thrillers are going to love this one! Highly Recommended.

A fast-paced story of a woman who faces two major issues - the state of her psyche and the possibility that someone is trying to killer her.  Is the threat on her life part of her mental breakdown?  Or is she just imagining things?  Those are the two questions I asked myself for a good part of this story.

This story is told in four parts.
Part One
This focuses on Felicity Lloyd, an expert glaciologist who is currently in South Georgia in the Antarctic Circle, studying glaciers and their rapid changes.  I was fascinated by this part of the story, which highlights Felicity's expertise in her field.  But it also highlights the impending danger she faced, trapped in a location with no escape.  As the reader, all we know if that a man named Freddy is coming for her.  What we don't know is why.

Part Two  
The story then switches gears, rewinding to the past with Felicity in Cambridge, England.  This exposed a very different side of Felicity.  One more vulnerable and on the edge.  After a series of incidents where Felicity ends up hurt with no memory of what happened, she meets a therapist, Joe Grant, to uncover what might be wrong.  

The purpose of her visits with him connects to Part One, as they need to make sure she is well enough to take the assignment in Antarctica.  From my view as a reader, I would say she 100% shouldn't have been allowed to go.  But she was a bit clever in finding a way around Joe.

It was so clear to me early on what Felicity's issues were.  I don't know if the author intended that, or I'm just really extra smart, lol.  I think it is the former, but with that said, I don't know why it took so long for Joe to figure things out.  Certainly had me questioning his abilities as a therapist.

Part Three
This was a strange part of the book, that initially felt out of place, but now I understand why it was included.  Taking place shortly after Felicity's departure for Antarctica, this focuses on Joe and his mother, Delilah, who happens to work with the police.  A series of discoveries are made that link to Felicity and possible crimes she may have committed during her memory lapses.

By this part of the story, I had sorted out Felicity's condition and was sympathetic to her, so the idea that she may have committed these crimes was very disheartening for me.

And that brings us to the final part . . .
Part Four
We are back in the Antarctic Circle where everyone is chasing Felicity.  Is it to harm her or save her?  That's what we ultimately learn.  I won't get into the specifics, but the author manages to tie up everything with a bow.  Pacing wise, it was definitely the most intense and entertaining part of the book.  I'm not sure if any of this could have taken place in real life, but I suspended questioning the inevitability for the entertainment factor.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read.  While Felicity's condition wasn't any major twist, how several incidents connected together was a surprise and I liked how the author wove the story-lines together.  If you like a good mystery/thriller, this is worth checking out.

Sharon Bolton newest book, The Split , is being released at the end of April. The previous sentence could stand alone as the only review needed for another Bolton five star. I mean really, does her fan base need to know any more than Sharon Bolton has a new book being released? New book, five stars. Fini.
However, I think NetGalley, Goodreads, and new readers might expect a bit more from a reviewer. So go read the Goodread reviewers who have already posted their reviews. They are wonderful reviews. Okay, Okay, that won’t do either. Promises to NetGalley.
First off it’s hard to pick which element of Bolton’s books is most compelling. The setting? Holy cow, just travel with her books; the Falklands ten years after the war, the haunting and haunted Pendle Hill, the secret little canals leading in to the Thames, unknown even to long time Londoners, or the historical and arrogant worlds of Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
In The Split Bolton takes her readers to the inhospitable island of South Georgia between the Falklands and Antarctica, a former whaling colony. I won’t even mention the horror show of whaling Bolton writes about. Bolton has already broken hearts once writing about whales in the not-to-be-missed Little Black Lies
Then there are Bolton’s characters. Dr. Felicity Lloyd is a glaciologist who fought hard for her position doing research with a small team on the island. A glaciologist, just about says it all about the geology and climate of the island; and the stark beauty.
But Felicity hasn’t fought back from an attack desperate to get the two year assignment in one of the most isolated places on earth just to do research. She is hiding out from a killer. One more cruise ship stop-over and she will be free of her fear for several months; her very real fear of a recently released killer finally tracking her down. Just one more cruise ship, and Felicity can be at peace for several months.
Dr Joe Grant enters the story in the two middle sections of The Split , one going back 9 months the other 7 months. Grant is a therapist assigned to Felicity after she was found beaten and unconscious on a street in Cambridge. Dr Grant is asked to evaluate Felicity because she can not remember the attack.
Dr. Grant practices in Cambridge. Besides his private practice he tries to help the homeless, some who have been disappearing. Grant also has some serious mommy issues he is dealing with in his own life. His mom provides a few moments of lightness in a sad and dark story, but she is dead serious in her work.
The story ends in one of the most extraordinary chases I have read. I was going to advise the reader to make sure they have a comfy throw and hot chocolate available when they read The Split . During the chase double up and add some schnapps or have a hot toddy handy. You will need it, even if reading poolside.
I’ve described some of the characters, but there are a lot more, so try to keep up with them in all three time lines. Most are slightly or seriously damaged, just trying to make their way back to some sort of normalcy. Either to get on with the work they love or to achieve forgiveness.
Bolton teaches, but never preaches. Her clear explanation of the affect icebergs have on climate change should be read by everyone. Especially our Cheeto-hea.…well never mind.
Bolton delves into the life of rough sleepers with compassion as she has in some of her other books. She explains so many of their problems; safety issues, weather, and mental health. It’s a wonder they even survive. Eye-opening when one man says they never sleep deeply. They sleep, but with an awareness of what is going on around them. This is the kind of detail that makes Sharon Bolton such a powerful writer.
Bolton does honest twisty turny better than any other author. I reread The Split just before writing this review. I was still caught by surprise several times and the intensity never lessened.
Cambridge is the second English University town that Bolton has put on my bucket list for its beauty and history. I think I will leave South Georgia Island to my extreme bucket list, along with the Falklands. Speaking of which, it was lovely to see Skye again.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Sharon Bolton is fairly popular with our thriller readers, so we will get this for our collection. As far as my personal rating, this wasn't my favorite.

This book was great. I really loved that it was so vivid and twisty! Sharon Bolton really knows how to level up the creepy factor. It was well written and exciting !!

Complex, vivid, and twisty!

The Split is a sharp, chilling thriller set in both Cambridge, England and the isolated, glacial wilderness of the South Georgia Island that takes you into the life of Felicity Lloyd, a young woman tormented by a relentless stalker, a resourceful night visitor, and a mind riddled with distorted memories and inexplainable gaps in time.

The prose is taut and intense. The characters are complex, unstable, and secretive. And the plot using flashbacks and told from multiple perspectives unravels briskly into a story filled with suspicious personalities, unreliable characters, unexpected twists, mayhem, fixation, instability, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Split is an unpredictable, tortuous, mindblowing tale by Bolton that keeps you guessing from the very first page and leaves you unsettled, mystified, and highly entertained.

Sharon Bolton created a very atmospheric thriller with The Split. The Antarctic setting did a ton of the work to create a sense of danger, and the limited number of people and space available made parts of this feel almost like a closed room mystery. The sections set in England were less effective for me, and I think the hand was shown a little early in terms of the likely "twist", but overall this was an immersive story.

This one will stick with me for awhile. Until part two I wasn't sure what was going to happen or where things were going. Felicity is one of the most complex characters I have ever read. Joe ended up being much more than I thought. There is mystery, suspense, and tension galore. Just when I thought I had it all figured out the author throws a twist I never imagined. The answers to the mysteries are perfectly paced. I was engaged in the story and characters from the beginning. This is definitely one fans don't want to miss.