I'll admit I was a bit concerned when SJ Bolton seemed to be turning to more straightforward detective fiction with her last book Now You See Me, as I'd enjoyed her previous horror/psychological thrillers so much. I had a similar doubts when Kate Atkinson introduced her Jackson Brodie character, but now I absolutely love him and I'm starting to feel the same way about Bolton's enigmatic creation, DC Lacey Flint.
This is the second outing for Flint and her boss/love interest, DI Mark Joesbury. In Now You See Me, Lacey was portrayed as a sociopathic loner and it was only at the very end of the book that we got any insight into who she really was and why she lived her life in such a reckless and dangerous way. In Dead Scared (possibly because of what she went through last time round?) she's a much more open, accessible character and the Unresolved Sexual Tension between her and Joesbury is ratcheted up several notches as they investigate a spate of suicides amongst the bright young things in a Cambridge college.
The deaths don't fit any recognised pattern; the students are female and are killing themselves in increasingly violent and and creative ways, including self-immolation and decapitation. Lacey goes undercover to inveigle her way into college life and gain the trust of those who knew the victims, her only confidant being college psychiatrist, Evi Oliver who was close to several of the women on a professional basis and is just as keen to find out why they're ending their seemingly fulfilling and promising lives.
SJB fans might recognise Evi Oliver as the psychiatrist who wandered into a web of dark and cultish goings-on in a remote Lancashire village in Bolton's third novel, Blood Harvest, and a couple more characters from that book also put in brief appearances. However, it's absolutely 100% not necessary to have read any of her previous work in order to enjoy this book for what it is - an exciting and intelligent thriller with a breakneck pace, particularly towards the end as Lacey and Evi's investigations unearth some shocking secrets and the tension is cranked up even further. For my money there isn't any unnecessary padding or scene-setting, and the nail-biting ending is very satisfying but also fairly open - leaving a lot of unfinished business between Lacey and Joesbury and at least two other characters, which I look forward to reading more of in the next instalment. (And on a lighter note, there's a lovely dog called Sniffy who I'd love to see making a reappearance too!)
So that's five out of five crackers from SJ Bolton now; she can't put a foot wrong as far as I'm concerned.
