Awakening

( 6 )

Overview

Clara Benning, a veterinary surgeon, is young and intelligent, but reclusive. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she prefers animals to people. When a man dies following a supposed snakebite, Clara’s expertise is needed. She’s chilled to learn that the victim’s postmortem shows a higher concentration of venom than could ever be found in one snake: The killer was human. Assisted by a neighbor and an eccentric reptile expert, Clara uncovers links to an ancient ritual, an abandoned house, and a fifty-year-old ...

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Awakening

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More About This Book

Overview

Clara Benning, a veterinary surgeon, is young and intelligent, but reclusive. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she prefers animals to people. When a man dies following a supposed snakebite, Clara’s expertise is needed. She’s chilled to learn that the victim’s postmortem shows a higher concentration of venom than could ever be found in one snake: The killer was human. Assisted by a neighbor and an eccentric reptile expert, Clara uncovers links to an ancient ritual, an abandoned house, and a fifty-year-old tragedy. But for someone the truth must remain buried in the past—even if they have to kill to keep it there.

Awakening is a disturbing tale of dark secrets that will have readers unable to stop for a breath until they reach the stunning climax of this extraordinary read from acclaimed author S. J. Bolton.

Winner of the 2010 Mary Higgins Clark Award

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Awakening
“Awakening is a delicious Gothic thriller.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR, on Awakening
“Page-turning suspense.”
—Booklist (A Top Ten Crime Novel of the Year)
“I was totally riveted by S. J. Bolton’s second thriller, Awakening. . . . Perfect reading for a long plane trip.”
—Nancy Pearl on Awakening
“The page-turner of the summer . . . It’s been a long time since we’ve devoured a book this length at one sitting. . . . We were just grateful to find ourselves in the hands of as extraordinary a storyteller as S. J. Bolton.”
—The Denver Post on Sacrifice

 

Marilyn Stasio
For all the Gothic elements that Bolton has wrapped around her story to create suspense, there's more satisfaction in listening to Clara talk about snakes and watching her handle them…carefully.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly

Clara Benning, a reclusive vet who's the narrator of Bolton's solid second thriller (after Sacrifice), spends her days treating badgers, boars and other wildlife at the Little Order of St. Francis in an isolated Dorset, England, village. When a distraught mother calls on Clara to remove a venomous snake from her baby's crib and another family's home is overrun with snakes, including a deadly Australian taipan, Clara realizes there must be a human agency behind the snake attacks, at least two of which will prove fatal. With the help of Assistant Chief Constable Matt Hoare and eccentric herpetologist and TV star Sean North, Clara begins to unravel a tangle of long-kept village secrets stretching back generations. Bolton milks the myriad snakes, even the harmless ones, for all they're worth, but falters with Clara, whose fraught family history (she bears disfiguring facial scars from a rarely discussed childhood accident) tends to undercut the suspense. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Library Journal

In Bolton's sophomore effort (after Sacrifice), solitary wildlife vet Clara Benning is called to investigate when snakes appear to be overrunning her small Dorset village. Then a man dies from what is believed to be a snakebite, but his body is full of too much venom to have been naturally caused by a single snake. At the same time, Clara's mother dies, bringing up painful childhood memories revolving around Clara's facial scar. Bolton has written a dark, eerie tale worthy of Edgar Allan Poe but in the modern style of Barbara Vine and Simon Beckett.


—Jo Ann Vicarel
Kirkus Reviews
There is love, murder and snakes in the grass in a picturesque English village. Clara Benning is a young veterinary surgeon whose patients these days run to animals considerably less exotic than cobras. But she's logged a good bit of time in the herpetology precincts of world-class zoos. Clara knows which snakes are placid, which are poisonous and which are found in Dorsetshire only in the company of person or persons unknown. Consider the Australian taipan, aka "the Devil from Down Under." It's big, powerful, easily annoyed and routinely lethal. Clara can't explain how a taipan came to Dorset. Nor can hunky Assistant Chief Constable Matt Hoare, who's confronted with a community in rising panic. What's clear, however, is that someone pretty smart about snakes is employing them as deadly weapons. Evil is slithering through Dorset, and plucky Clara won't rest until she scotches it. Bolton (Sacrifice, 2008) overplots on occasion, but her heroine, so troubled and so valiant, is irresistible.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780312381875
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press
  • Publication date: 5/25/2010
  • Edition description: First Edition
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 400
  • Sales rank: 257,688
  • Product dimensions: 8.30 (w) x 5.66 (h) x 1.04 (d)

Meet the Author

S. J. Bolton, an International Thriller Writers and Mary Higgins Clark Award finalist, grew up in Lancashire, England, and now lives near Oxford with her family. Her novels are inspired by her fascination with British folklore.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 5
( 6 )
Rating Distribution

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(5)

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Sort by: Showing all of 6 Customer Reviews

  • Posted December 7, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Thrilling

    The story line is so original in this book! Could not put it down between the snakes and the mystery of the fire in 1958 I had qoose bumps throughout. Clara is such a strong character backed by a great cast. I couldnt find anything wrong with this book if I tried.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted April 8, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    The story line is exciting

    In an isolated part of Dorset, England veterinarian Clara Benning treats injured wildlife at the Little Order of St. Francis. The remote locale is a perfect fit for the withdrawn Clara who emotionally never recovered from facial scars she received from a childhood accident. ---------------

    Her panic stricken mother demands Clara come home immediately to remove a venomous snake from her baby's crib. Soon after handling that dangerous situation, the house of a neighbor is turned into a deadly snake haven to include the extremely poisonous Australian Taipan. An autopsy of one human death from snake bite proves the victim had way too much venom than a single snake could have secreted; Assistant Chief Constable Matt Hoare assumes a homicide occured. He is in charge of the official inquiry into the snake manifestation that has already claimed a second person, but he knows he is out of his element. With Clara and eccentric TV star herpetologist Sean North, Matt investigates who is behind the snake attack and why; nobody understand the connection to a five decade old tragedy.-----------------------

    The story line is at its exciting best when snakes in the village star; when the subplot involves Clara's past and somewhat that of her family, AWAKENING loses some of its poisonous bite as that feels unnecessarily intruding. Still this is a terrific tale mindful of Snakes on a Plane and Arachnophobia as the zillion different types even the non-poisonous will have readers checking inside cabinets, mail boxes, dryers and water heater corners before reaching out with a hand in a look before you touch scenario.--------------------

    Harriet Klausner

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 12, 2013

    Very interesting and enjoyed reading

    Got 5 stars

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 31, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 30, 2010

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 3, 2009

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