As the local wildlife expert, Clara is summoned by the police who have found a man dead as a result of what appears to be a snake bite. Clara is skeptical as poisonous snakes are rare in the region, but post mortem test reveal a concentration of adder venom… only much higher than that would normally be inflicted by a single adder bite. While she acknowledges that snakes sometimes strike repeatedly it is rare and indicates that more investigation would be prudent.

Not much later Clara is called to a private home where a young mother is in a panic. She has found a snake in her baby daughter’s crib with the child as she sleeps. More snakes are discovered essentially infesting the home of a local family. Clara is asked to assist the police to live catch the snakes in order that they might be released in the wild. As Detective Matt Hoare attempts to aid Clara in this task, he comes within a hair’s breadth of picking up a taipan, one of the world’s most deadly snakes. Obviously there is something sinister going on in this little backwater village and Clara, who had spent a year in Australia studying reptiles, will be an important element in the investigation.

Awakening is a creepy, sit on the edge of your chair novel expertly crafted by S.J. Bolton. She has used several methods to achieve a high level of excitement and suspense. She reveals details sparingly, just enough to get her audience hungry to discover more. Clara’s obvious distaste for social interaction is gradually linked to some disfigurement of her face… but how did this disfigurement occur? Was it a birth defect? Was it an accident? We learn initially that Clara is estranged from her family yet only little by little are the details of that estrangement revealed.

Author Bolton uses the exact combination of words to command you attention. Witness her description of a corpse whose autopsy Clara is requested to attend. “The last five days of John Allington’s life had not been easy…. because his body had begun to die before his heart stopped beating.” She uses the first person in an effective manner which allows readers to follow along with her heroine. She invites her audience to use all their senses to feel the cold, clammy atmosphere, to smell a distinctive smell, to see (or not because it is so dark), to touch the crumbling walls of a building, or to hear an arresting, heart stopping sound. The reader is thrown into a frightening place even as he sits in a comfortable chair with all the lights on. Also with Clara doing the narrating she can ask the questions the audience wants to ask.

The clues to the mystery are planted carefully in the novel. Clara is called out to rescue a swan caught in a net. While she is there she notices something unusual which doesn’t really catch her attention at the moment. Much later in the novel this piece of information allows her to figure out a puzzling occurrence. There is minimal reliance on serendipity.

British folklore, architecture, and lesser known religious practices all play a part in the novel. The author has obviously done extensive research and offers insights in each of these areas. Even gargoyles are worthy of a mention. (They actually can function as rainspouts.)

Probably the most exceptional feature of this novel is the outstanding characters and how they are meticulously developed. We don’t get to see all sides of an individual from the beginning. Rather they are revealed through their actions in a variety of situations. Questions that occur (i. e. why did Clara say or do that) are resolved as the story unfolds which adds another dimension to the book as a whole. Emotions are discussed as if they were animate objects giving due to their power over a character.

I highly recommend Awakening. It is one of the best I have read in a very long time.

--Andy Plonka