Living on a farm in Shetland has given Tora the opportunity to keep her three horses close to her. The eldest, a bay named Jamie has died, and, as she had done many times on her parents’ farm, she had gotten hold of a back hoe and was preparing to dig him a proper grave. The soil, rich with peat , made the job yeoman’s work, but Tora was totally unprepared for the discovery of the body she unearthed during her travail.

In her work as an obstetrician Tora was not used to dealing with dead bodies, but the corpse of the young woman she had unwittingly unearthed seemed to have skin the color of peat. She hoped the body had been there for  a century at least, but initial inspection revealed a small young woman with carefully manicured nails and the clothes she was wearing were contemporary and still in reasonable condition, though her heart had been surgically removed.

With the arrival of the local constabulary, things become more and more confusing. Tora was not actually involved in the purchase of their home. Her husband, Duncan, a native of Unst, had made the arrangements while she wrapped up her work in London. He was a ship broker and had been offered a lucrative job near his boyhood home. Since Duncan is traveling, he is not available for questioning, and Tora becomes quite upset as the interrogation becomes more probing.

The young victim not only had had her heart removed but seemed to have given birth not long before her death. These facts strike Tora as unbearably sad. As an obstetrician she is used to giving life not taking it and she herself would love to become a mother. Of the two investigating officers, Detective Sergeant Dana Tulloch seems the most responsive to Tora’s interest and concern.  Dana and Tora form a somewhat unlikely alliance in the quest for the identity of the victim and in a larger sense what her death might represent.

Sacrifice is a first novel by author S. J Bolton. It is a carefully researched novel written with attention to detail, logic and imaginative description. Bolton is a master of setting the mood and placing the reader right in the middle of the action. As Tora digs the grave for her beloved horse and the digger strikes the solid object that is the body of a young woman the reader’s horror mirrors that of the protagonist. Tora finds clues as she deepens her search that are not at all contrived. She finds a wedding ring on the stair of her house. At first baffled as to how it got there she realizes it must have stuck to the bottom of her boot as she dug the hole for her horse and remained until the mud dried enough to release it.

The tales and legends of the Shetland Islands play a major role in the story. Symbols not unlike Runes have been found in ancient sites on the Islands. Efforts have been made to translate these symbols. Like Chinese characters these symbols can be interpreted in several different ways. This form of written communication is another intriguing element in the plot.

Despite the impulse to race through this book in order to discover the mystery, the descriptive passages are so good that the author commands the use of all the reader's senses. The reader sees, hears, smells and can feel through his mind exactly what is happening in the story. I’m almost surprised there was not a grain of sea salt included it the book to capture that fifth sense. The setting itself is a presence in the book. The reader should have no trouble remembering where he is as the action takes place. The story could never have taken place anywhere else except the Shetland Islands . Bolton gives a detailed travelogue relating various means of travel from island to island and the difficulty of travel in places where the terrain is treacherous. Sailing is obviously a way of life in the Shetlands so tidbits of sailing knowledge and lore are dispensed at intervals.

Sacrifice is a book that has a little of everything in addition to a great imaginative plot. Most readers will find something if not a lot to entertain them in this well written  novel that defies being pigeonholed into just one mystery subgenre.

--Andy Plonka