The Pact – Sharon Bolton – What Do I Read Now?

My great thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of this blog tour for The Pact by Sharon Bolton, published by Orion on 27th May 2021.

A golden summer, and six talented friends are looking forward to the brightest of futures – until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, and a woman and two children are killed.

18-year-old Megan takes the blame, leaving the others free to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a ‘favour’, payable on her release from prison.

Twenty years later Megan is free.
Let the games begin . . .

Richard & Judy bestseller Sharon Bolton is back, with her twistiest thriller yet.

Our Author – Sharon Bolton

Sharon (formerly SJ) 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 first novel, Sacrifice, was voted Best New Read by Amazon.uk, whilst her second, Awakening, won the 2010 Mary Higgins Clark award. In 2014, Lost, (UK title, Like This, For Ever) was named RT Magazine’s Best Contemporary Thriller in the US, and in France, Now You See Me won the Plume de Bronze. That same year, Sharon was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library, for her entire body of work.

Now the author os 16 novels, the 17th is on its way.

My Review – The Pact

Wow, what a ride that was – fast paced, compelling and skilfully twisty – or should that be twisted? The characters are all very driven and steam the pace and story along at a rate of knots, they all have a lot to lose and none of them are prepared, or willing to even consider whats being asked of them, so what should they do to resolve this situation?

We first meet the six friends whilst they are at school, just finished their GCSE’s, on the verge of collectintheir results and heading off to their collective university choices to embark upon the world – its currently their oyster, they are all young, clever and gifted.

Amber, Felix, Daniel, Talitha, Megan and Xavier – friends since childhood, now all 17, nearly 18 – technically adults in the eyes of the world. They find themselves facing a moral and life changing dilemma, after a night of drinking, a silly risky dare goes terribly wrong and a woman and her children all perish, at the friends hands. They were all there, all involved, all to blame, all as responsible as the other. But the driver isn’t willing or able to take control of the situation and one of them steps up to take the blame for all of them. But at what cost.

Promises are made, The Pact signed, sealed and hidden. All of them as guilty as the other. Police and parents, solicitors and the remaining 5 fear what will happen, the ‘guilty’ one that takes the blame and takes responsibility faces jail. The parents tell the children to separate, to not be seen together, to carry on with their Uni plans and let the guilty take the blame, do their time in jail and it will all be fine. So, they do…… but 20 years on, time served, the guilty one is back and wants what was promised, whats theirs to claim.

The very nature of the requests, it seems is nothing is too much to ask. But some are simple, a job, some financial help, but would you, after 20 years, knowing that you made this pact as an individual, they now have lives, families, jobs. Between them they must chose, what is possible and how they can help, none of them are willing to give anything being asked of them, so what now?

I loved the characters, appearance is everything to them now, but underneath so devious and unrelenting. With so much to lose, will any of them keep to The Pact they made? The pace of the book raced along and kept the story going. I live near Oxford so know lots of these areas and street names and this always adds to a book for me, when the areas are real and you can identify with them, it really brings it to life for me and adds such a sense of place. I really enjoyed The Pact, and I know you will too.

Please follow the rest of the blog tour for this amazing book