‘Dead Scared’ by S. J. Bolton

Published by Minotaur Books,
June, 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-312-60053-2

The brief prologue sets the scene for the reader:  Near midnight; one of the tallest towers in Cambridge, England; D.I. Mark Joesbury, racing up the stairs to its roof; and a young woman perched near the ledge at the top.  And then the reader is brought back eleven days in time to see how they got there, with a 1st person p.o.v. of D.C. Lacey Flint, which alternates with third-person perspectives.  Flint has been “loaned out” from the Southwark Police to the Special Crimes Directorate of the Metropolitan Police which deals with covert ops, typically being sent on “difficult and dangerous situations.”  As we are introduced to them, the slightly flirtatious banter underlying their meetings hints at the least of a possible romantic entanglement between them at some point in the relatively recent past.

Lacey goes undercover as a student at Cambridge University after the latest in a number of suicides, with a suspicion that there is more going on than meets the eye.  The death was only the latest of three suicides during the current academic year.  The only one outside of her police colleagues who knows the truth is Dr. Evi Oliver, head of student counseling.  The belief is that there is “something decidedly sinister” happening.  Lacey’s remit is to “keep a lookout for any unhealthy subculture that might be unduly influencing young people.”

Initially Lacey feels out of her element:  “I knew I’d never get used to it,” in a place where “Wordsworth and Wilberforce weren’t characters from history but alumni.”  But she is there to do a job, and it becomes increasingly urgent.  Within several days, one more death occurs.  And further investigation indicates that there have been a total of nineteen suicides over the past five years, far more than the general statistics on suicide would bear out.  And the manner of death chosen is not what might be expected, including self-immolation by one girl and another who’d decapitated herself.  As the days go on, whatever is going on threatens to ensnare Lacey herself.

This is a book at once not an easy read and yet difficult to put down, much more so on both counts as the book progresses. The fifth novel from Ms. Bolton, this is the first I have read, but it will certainly not be the last.  It is a nail-biter, beautifully written, and highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Gloria Feit

S J Bolton grew up in a cotton-mill town in Lancashire and had an eclectic early career which she is now rather embarrassed about. She gave it all up to become a mother and a writer. Her books have been shortlisted for several international awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger, the Theakston's Old Peculier prize for crime novel of the year, the International Thriller Writers' Best First Novel award and (four years running) the Mary Higgins Clark award for best thriller which was won by Awakening. Her latest book is Dead Scared, published in April 2012. Sharon lives with her family of four, one of whom is a food-stealing, rabbit-chasing  lurcher, in the Chiltern Hills, not far from Oxford.

Ted and Gloria Feit live in Long Beach, NY, a few miles outside New York City.  For 26 years, Gloria was the manager of a medium-sized litigation firm in lower Manhattan. Her husband, Ted, is an attorney and former stock analyst, publicist and writer/editor for, over the years, several daily, weekly and monthly publications.  Having always been avid mystery readers, and since they're now retired, they're able to indulge that passion.  Their reviews appear online as well as in three print publications in the UK and US.  On a more personal note: both having been widowed, Gloria and Ted have five children and nine grandchildren between them.